The last lecture By Randy Pausch
…We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
When Socrates emphatically said ‘death may be the greatest of all human blessings’ as he faced certain death in his famous speech of Apology, he could have been rationalizing to reduce his dissonance. He could have been raising himself to martyrdom…or perhaps he could have had an epiphany of sorts in the wake of his near death. In either case, his catharsis became one of the greatest works of literature through Plato’s pen. And thus, it seems, that certainty of death creates a certain visceral backdrop on its perceivers that can amaze them, render them hopeless or fill them with an energy that can seem supernatural.
Randy Pausch, through his work ‘the last lecture’, has been able to do all of these three. Though his focus was on opportunities, philosophies of life and specific goals like realization of childhood dreams, the fact that he is terminally ill looms over the entire work. Everything he says, through this looking glass of death is magnified and impactful. This is not to say that his ‘lessons in learning’ are lackluster without this looking glass, but only that they are more poignant on account of it. Neutrally critiquing such a work is a daunting task similar to isolating an artist from his art- ultimately futile. The work is inspired from life. All of author’s opinions, secrets, and love affairs are bits of his memories that are an attempt to conclude his life. Although, author himself seems to be aware of the fact that concluding one’s life is an impossible feat, he, like the romantic he claims to be, makes a sincere effort to do so and in his own way says to the reader-'May life keep inspiring you'.The structure of the work renders it an easy read syntactically. The content and titles of the chapters are apt- ‘efficient’, so to speak, as the author himself is.
I would recommend this work to all those who want to observe how a man succeeds, at least in my opinion, in concluding his own life- and in this process inspires others to live theirs fully.
When Socrates emphatically said ‘death may be the greatest of all human blessings’ as he faced certain death in his famous speech of Apology, he could have been rationalizing to reduce his dissonance. He could have been raising himself to martyrdom…or perhaps he could have had an epiphany of sorts in the wake of his near death. In either case, his catharsis became one of the greatest works of literature through Plato’s pen. And thus, it seems, that certainty of death creates a certain visceral backdrop on its perceivers that can amaze them, render them hopeless or fill them with an energy that can seem supernatural.
Randy Pausch, through his work ‘the last lecture’, has been able to do all of these three. Though his focus was on opportunities, philosophies of life and specific goals like realization of childhood dreams, the fact that he is terminally ill looms over the entire work. Everything he says, through this looking glass of death is magnified and impactful. This is not to say that his ‘lessons in learning’ are lackluster without this looking glass, but only that they are more poignant on account of it. Neutrally critiquing such a work is a daunting task similar to isolating an artist from his art- ultimately futile. The work is inspired from life. All of author’s opinions, secrets, and love affairs are bits of his memories that are an attempt to conclude his life. Although, author himself seems to be aware of the fact that concluding one’s life is an impossible feat, he, like the romantic he claims to be, makes a sincere effort to do so and in his own way says to the reader-'May life keep inspiring you'.The structure of the work renders it an easy read syntactically. The content and titles of the chapters are apt- ‘efficient’, so to speak, as the author himself is.
I would recommend this work to all those who want to observe how a man succeeds, at least in my opinion, in concluding his own life- and in this process inspires others to live theirs fully.
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