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Work #992 · Late

A Very Easy Death

Simone de Beauvoir
1964 (Gallimard) · French
Memoir · Twentieth-century French existentialist memoir

A daughter's unsparing account of her mother's six-week dying — and an indictment of the medicalised lies that surrounded it

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute A Very Easy Death (Late)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

A Very Easy Death

Six weeks of dying Oct-Dec 1963; lifetime of mother-daughter relation.

Space

A Very Easy Death

Paris hospital room; family apartments.

Matter

A Very Easy Death

Dying body of the mother; institutional matter of hospital.

Observer

A Very Easy Death

Beauvoir and her sister as daughter-observers.

Energy

A Very Easy Death

Diminishing biological energies; emotional-relational energies.

Information

A Very Easy Death

Medical information filtered; felt-relational information recorded.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

A Very Easy Death

Book's status as both intimate memoir and political-philosophical critique variously assessed; influence on the hospice movement and philosophy-of-dying tradition continuous.