Consumed by matters of life and death
IN 1974, Ernest Becker won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Denial of Death. The American cultural anthropologist was given the award, ironically, two months after he died from cancer. Today his ideas still inspire and challenge those who continue to read his work.
Becker viewed both human civilisation, and mankind’s obsession for achievement in life, as a desperate attempt to transcend mortality.
