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| "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (1991) by Damien Hirst |
Consider what the Midnight Library protects Nora from and what it gives her time to do.
To what extent does this novel (and other novels?) create the same opportunity for readers?
The Midnight Library is protecting Nora from herself. It's giving her a chance to fully realize the weight of her situation without the pressure of her own life clouding her judgement. It allows her to experience other lives, and to gain a new perspective on her own life.
ReplyDelete-Byron
I agree with this. After she continues to experience each life and how she would have turned out if she had taken a different route, Nora begins to realize that her choices were the better ones. This is the library's way of helping her to escape what she thinks about herself and give her the opportunity to not give up on her life. Novels often help readers to do the same thing. I know that there are days when I want to escape my life and dive into another reality. Books are the best way to do that. -Carolanne Eddy
DeleteThe library is trying to tell Nora to go find herself and the life she wants to live. It is giving her the chance to fully find herself and fixed what she needs to fix without giving up.
ReplyDeleteThe library is there to protect Nora from passing on with regrets. It gives her time to see how her life would have played out had she chosen a different path. It helps her become content with the life she had chosen, or live a new and better life.
ReplyDelete^ John Gladders
DeleteThe Midnight Library protects Nora from death. It gives her an opportunity to learn more about herself and what she could be if she only took the opportunity. It shows her that she’s not stuck with the life she previously had and can change what happens to her. She believes she is stuck in a life of misery, but it doesn’t have to be that way if she changes her mindset and works for something new. This novel gives us this same opportunity by showing that we have an endless number of opportunities at our fingertips we just have to look in the right places. Every decision we make could lead to a new one.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about how she isn't just stuck in that life and if she changes her mindset and works for it she can create a new life for herself. I agree with it all.
DeleteThe Midnight Library is protecting Nora ultimately from death which is something she brought on herself. It gives her time to process every decision she made and realize she can make something of her life if she chooses to. It gives her time to become grateful for the life she has been given. It offered her an escape from reality to jump into other "stories" or lives essentially which I believe books do for readers as well. This book also helps readers realize the weight of our choices and how drastically they can affect our lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the library gives her time to become grateful for what she has. The library lets Nora see things from a different perspective, whereas before, she could only see her life from one perspective. She may not have realized just how much she had, how important she was to others, or the influence she had on others as well.
DeleteThe Midnight Library is protecting Nora from making a mistake that she cannot undo. It is giving her a chance to see that all her regrets and mistakes are not worth dwelling on because her life could always be different and possibly more worse than the one she lived in. It shows how one simple change in decision can change our lives forever and make it better or worse. This novel and other novels create the same opportunity for readers because, in a sense, it gives readers the lives they will never get to live.
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library is protecting Nora from the choice she made. It’s giving her a second chance. It gives her time to see how she could’ve done life differently and to learn what she can do to make her life better. This book does the same thing for us readers. It allows us to look at our lives and see what we need in our lives in order to fully live.
ReplyDeleteHello Alyssa, I agree with you that even though she made a choice she can not come back from, the library is giving her a second chance. Rather than dying with her regrets, the library is showing her that she does not want to live the life of her regrets as they led to a less desirable future. Regardless of these regrets, she would still be disappointed with her life in some aspects. I also agree that the book shows us readers that it is okay to have regrets as long as we do not dwell on them.
DeleteThe Midnight Library gives Nora time and perspective. The Library protects her from herself and her current depression. It gives her time to realize her own life is worth living. This novel and others like it could do the same for readers as they think about their own regrets and realize even a life where they did not make the same mistakes, is not perfect.
ReplyDeleteEvery day that a person lives, a thousand different choices change the outcome of the given day; choices to do things, choices not to do certain things. A depressed person lives in the delusion that there is no point. There is no choices to make today. There is no choices WORTH making. Except for one... The midnight library gives Nora time beyond life to learn the concept that "you don't go to death, death comes to you." You shouldn't search for death, which is a concept beyond the human understanding, as a result of the oppression you feel in the moment in time you are in. Because it just might be that outside of the destructive state of inactivity and depression, there are things you could have done that made life worth living.
ReplyDeleteThis book and others like it give the reader an opportunity to step out of their immediate compulsions and think about why their life might actually be the correct one. Maybe they are just not living it in a way that would make it worth living.
you ever just read a book and fall into the world of that person. well this library lets Nora do that. it lets her see from fresh eyes, even if those eyes are still her own. it gives her time to rethink her decision to die. this book puts her in the one place she always felt at home, with someone who always treated her kindly. the Library itself having rows and rows of different worlds where Nora made different decisions, which allow her to experience the different paths she could have walked like if she never left Dan at the Altar, or went with Issy to Australia, or pursued being a Glaciologist. it also lets her learn what she could never change as it was not something she could ever control, like the death of her cat for instance.
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library gives Nora a chance to realize that she still has a chance to turn things around despite her choices. The Midnight Library is a bridge between life and death. It shows her that there are still many paths that she can follow if she chooses not to pursue her idea that death is the only way out. She only thinks of all the things she failed to do, "I haven't become an olympic swimmer, I haven't become a glacieologist, I haven't become Dan's wife, etc." Mrs. Elm tries to console Nora by stating that so long as the Midnight Library stands she will be preserved from death and will be able to live out the life she wants. This novel and others like it provide this same idea as the Midnight Library by allowing them to read about the lives of others. They can help to pull the reader out of a bad spot or bring them into a good time by painting a good picture of the outcome of the actions said reader may choose.
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library is protecting Nora from death while she decides whether she wants to live or not. Time does not go forward because if it did Nora would probably die before she got to think about her life. - Matt Pittman
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library is protecting Nora from a mistake she could never undo and showing her that very sentiment. All her past “mistakes” were simply decisions she made that altered part of her life, but these regrets never took her away from herself or from future possibilities. It is showing her that her past regrets do not have to define how she perceives her life because these “regrets” were not as favorable in actuality. I think that the book gives us the same mentality as well. When I first started reading the chapter with the Midnight Library, I thought to myself, “Wow that would be great!” As I kept reading, however, my assumed enjoyment of this opportunity slowly dwindled alongside Nora’s. With each story within the library, I began to think about all possibilities of what would occur if I went back in time to remedy my misdoings, and the more I read, the more I critically thought about it. I realized that perhaps this would not be a great opportunity because there would be no guarantee of an outcome I would desire from fixing all my past regrets.
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library protects Nora from making a permanent decision that she could never come back from. Once you die, that is it, there is no back button. I think the library gives her time to contemplate her life and what life is with a new perspective. The library gives her a break from reality allowing her to step away from the lens that she has always viewed life through and see the bigger picture. I think that novels are great ways for people to take a break from their reality and experience a new take on life. New perspectives allow people to open their minds to new ideas and get new lenses to view life through.
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library serves as a liminal space between life and death, somewhere we as readers are lead to believe is what comes after her completed suicide attempt; However, there are allusions throughout the book implying that Nora is not actually dead in the traditional sense. There is even a scene where library-Mrs. Elm mentions that Nora’s root life is dying, or rather, her body is dying. Rather than being a stage before death, the Library truly is the median between death and Nora’s life, where her “root” body is in stasis while she makes a decision on which way to go.
ReplyDelete-Bailey Howe
DeleteThe library protects Nora from her death, and it gives her time to experience other lives she could have lived and to contemplate on how bad her original life was. I think that The Midnight Library gives us the same opportunity because it shows us that regardless of what we wish we could go back and do differently, we can never know the consequences of our actions and how it would make our lives unfold. Changing the choices that we think would make us happy may lead us on a far worse path then before.
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library protects Nora from her death. It allows her to experience different lives that could have been lived. Most novels give the reader a sense of escape, adventure, something new and different that they may never experience or have even thought of doing. It is almost as we the reader are experiencing a different life without being there. Now I can also argue that novels and books in general can be a way for people to escape death as well. Having a safe space to go to when life gets hard and you want to escape reality around you is some peoples happy place. -Cody Miller
ReplyDeleteThe Midnight Library is like a suspension fluid. It holds Nora in a place that is not the ground (life) and not the air (death). It is a place that allows her to feel both whilst being in neither. When she is living her other lives, she is experiencing life without having to stay there. When she returns to the library she is reminded of her impending doom. This allows her to navigate between both and come to an understanding of the forces being imposed on her.
ReplyDeleteWhenever we read a novel, we are in a similar suspension fluid. We are living another completely separate life (that of the novel). While firmly aware of our current state of existence.
-CWR
It protects her from consequences. It saves her from the choices she made and it holds her in place preventing her from rushing to make the wrong choice a second time. It shows her everything that she stands to lose, the kind of things she never knew she could have, and how easily they could be gotten if she didn’t give up. It gives her time, time to process. Time to heal mentally and see the light in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe novel though less so, functions in the same way the library does for us. Sure it might not be about our life, but it is about a life and the lessons learned through it can be felt by us as well, allowing us to improve our lives using them. That is why books are so powerful.