To be human is to be in the tense condition of a death-foreseeing, con…

John Updike
174 citations
To be human is to be in the tense condition of a death-foreseeing, consciously libidinous animal. No other earthly creature suffers such a capacity for thought, such a complexity of envisioned but frustrated possibilities, such a troubling ability to question the tribal and biological imperatives.
Death Humanity Thought
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Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey. ✨ FaceBook post byJohn Updike from Feb 22, 2013
...hate suits him better than forgiveness. Immersed in hate, he doesn't have to do anything; he can be paralyzed, and the rigidty of hatred makes a kind of shelter for him. ✨ John Updike (2010). Rabb … ▶
The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. ✨ John Updike, James Plath (1994). Conversations with John Updike, p.45, Univ. P … ▶
There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring off, but which the middle-aged man can't. ✨ 1986 In the New York Times, 24 Mar.
You cannot but learn more of the world's heft, as you take it now into your hands. ✨ John Updike (2011). Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism, p.479, Random House

To be human is to be in the tense condition of a death-foreseeing, consciously libidinous animal. No other earthly creature suffers such a capacity for thought, such a complexity of envisioned but frustrated possibilities, such a troubling ability to question the tribal and biological imperatives.

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