Cause of Death by Max Tadlock
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"Cause of Death" by Max Tadlock is a science fiction novella written in the mid-20th century. The story explores the themes of mortality and the human desire to understand life and death. The narrative centers around a protagonist who, driven by curiosity and the desire to alleviate the fear of death, conducts an experiment to experience death firsthand and return to share his discoveries. The novella follows the protagonist’s obsession with death,
beginning with the notion of pigs being able to choose to die at will. This idea leads him to attempt to die deliberately for three days, believing he can return to life with insights about the afterlife. As the experiment unfolds, he confronts reality in the form of fear and the physical sensations of dying, ultimately finding himself unable to come back from the brink of death as he had hoped. On realizing his true condition, the story culminates in a profound contemplation about the nature of existence and the finality of death, ending with a stark acknowledgment that he has left life behind completely. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Tadlock, Max |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Johns |
| Title | Cause of Death |
| Series Title | Produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1955 |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 84.3 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Death -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 51137 |
| Release Date | Feb 6, 2016 |
| Last Update | Oct 22, 2024 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 297 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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