Life will be wonderful when men no longer fear dying. When the last superstitions are thrown out and we meet death with the same equanimity as life. No longer will children's minds be twisted by evil gods whose fantastic origin is in those barbaric tribes who feared death and lightning, who feared life. That's it: life is the villain to to those who preach reward in death, through grace and eternal bliss, or through dark revenge.
Interpretation
Life can be beautiful when fear of death is eliminated and superstitions are discarded.
Gore Vidal's quote reflects the idea that many of humanity's fears and superstitions, particularly around death, have distorted our understanding of life. By removing these fears and approaching death with calmness, we can liberate ourselves from outdated beliefs that hinder our appreciation of life and its experiences. The insistence of various doctrines on fearing death only serves to twist human perception, showing that life can become a 'villain' when it is viewed through the lens of these beliefs about death and divine punishment or reward.
In practice
In a discussion about overcoming fears, you might use this quote to illustrate the point that fear of death can lead to a distorted view of life.
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His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
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We believe we can also show that words do not have exactly the same psychic "weight" depending on whether they belong to the language of reverie or to the language of daylight life-to rested language or language under surveillance-to the language of natural poetry or to the language hammered out by authoritarian prosodies.
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