Death is unfortunate, isn’t it? Just when we are about to accomplish goals in life in order to be successful and remembered by society, our time is up. Lucky for us, Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of “Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar,” published their newest novel. In “Heidegger And A Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates,” the authors weave philosophy, theology, psychology and humor together in the fight against and for mortality. Why is Martin Heidegger so important? Heidegger is perhaps one of philosophy’s most celebrated and most confusing Western writers on the topic of death. Case in point: This is the same philosopher who said that “To think Being itself explicitly requires disregarding Being to the extent that it is only grounded and interpreted in terms of beings and for beings as their ground, as in all metaphysics.” Now if you understand “being,” as Heidegger explains above, congratulations. But for the rest of us, we can be glad Cathcart and Klein decided to make sense of death in this book. Among Heidegger are many other classic philosophers. There are even contemporary figures such as Woody Allen and Lily Tomlin that serve as the comedic relief. As Allen states, “It is impossible to experience one’s own death objectively and still carry a tune.” Certainly not every philosopher has come to an agreement on the subject of death, mainly because they are split between the idea of the afterlife and nothingness. What Cathcart and Klein suggest is that the philosophies of death are confusing and the only way to understand death is to make it entertaining. In chapter two, “Let Your Angst Be Your Umbrella,” the authors discuss life’s worries: “What should I do with my life? Do I dare eat a Mars bar … a magic mushroom?” They get to the importance of those questions — mainly that while we worry about this or that thing, the clock is still ticking to our unfortunate demise. When we grow up, our goals in life may focus on becoming a doctor, a firefighter or even the best burlesque model the world has ever seen. But, while a rubber ducky serves a predestined purpose of being a bath time companion, we don’t. There lies one of our problems in terms of philosophy: We aim to be a thing, rather than seeking transcendence, even before death. The whole point of understanding death is to accept that every one of us will die. This is not fatalistic, but factual. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” The visuals and timely jokes throughout the book function as a way to get readers thinking about death and beyond. There are always going to be differing views about death, but the final joke in the book suggests that maybe some things are better left unsaid. Just ask Heidegger.
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