the death of ivan ilyich
ilyich is ordinary, but so am i, and so are you, and so is anyone reading this. we all perform the drama of mattering, until we're forced to see how little we actually do. it's not pessimistic, just clarifying.
i mean this as consolation, not despair. tolstoy's genius is how he makes the process of dying both monstrous and almost comforting. if we are all so easily erased, then maybe the erasure isn't failure but inevitably.




















