The Carpe Diem of Death

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There's a custom in some cultures often Eastern European that if an individual has a terminal disease, they don't tell the patient that. I'm not going to take on something that's beyond my can. It would be horribly inappropriate. You never know as he go through life whether or not that crocodile is around the next bend in the river. So you might as well live as good a life as you can and enjoy the hell out of life before you get to that crocodile.

The stereotypical obituary is a formulaic recitation of facts — dry, boring, and without craft. But Margalit Fox has shown the genre can produce some of the most memorable and moving stories in journalism. Exploiting its “pure narrative arc,” Fox has penned over 1,200 obituaries, covering well-known and obscure subjects with equal aplomb.

In her conversation with Tyler Cowen, Fox reveals not only the process for writing an obituary, but her thoughts on life, death, storytelling, puzzle-solving, her favorite cellist, and how it came to be that an economist sang opera 86 times at the Met.

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