November 4, 2019 Issue

Is Arthur Krystal’s opposition to death softening? In his great “Death, It’s What Ails You” (Harper’s Magazine, February, 2001; included in his 2002 essay collection Agitations), he writes, “I am appalled at the prospect of my own extinction, outraged at the impending loss of someone I know so well.” Now, in his absorbing “Old News,” in this week’s issue, he appears to have second thoughts. He says,

Yes, we should live as long as possible, barring illness and infirmity, but, when it comes to the depredations of age, let’s not lose candor along with muscle tone. The goal, you could say, is to live long enough to think: I’ve lived long enough.

Krystal no longer rages against the dying of the light. He accepts the idea that “life is slow dying.” He says, “Why rail against the inevitable—what good will it do? None at all.”

It’s quite a turnaround – the scrapper who has “a bone to pick with death – two hundred and six, to be precise, all of which will soon enough be picked clean by time and the elements" becomes a pacifist (“We should all make peace with aging”). 

I agree with what Krystal says in “Old News.” But I miss the spark of his earlier piece.