Writing about the dead is a lot like writing about the living, except that there are fewer risks. The dead cannot sue you for libel. They cannot sue you for invasion of privacy. They cannot even object to your portrayal of them—not only because they have lost the power of speech, but because they have lost the ability to act. Continue reading
Tag: Walter Benjamin
Writing about living people raises a number of legal, personal, and literary issues. Of the literary issues, the foremost one is how to form a complete and coherent image of our subject. Or to put it more precisely: how can we restore a vibrant, lifelike conception of a human being from the calcified representation we have formed through long familiarity? Continue reading