Saturday, July 6, 2013

Review-Forbidden Conversations



Title: Forbidden Conversations

Author: Eric Dietrich and Tara Fox Hall

Genre: A Fiction Book About Non-Fiction Issues

Publisher: Beau To Beau Books

Formats Available In: All eBook Formats and Print

Blurb: Forbidden Conversations is the record of a series of conversations over eight days between three friends on topics which Americans are actively prevented from discussing, except perhaps in private, behind closed doors. These "forbidden conversations" include suicide, gun control, euthanasia, and abortion, among others, with emphasis about how the prevention of these discussions is destructive both to American society and to the future of our democracy.

The conversations are rendered as dialogues. Dialogues resemble plays and are an ancient technique for exploring controversial or difficult subjects.

Though the topics of the conversations recorded are themselves quite controversial, the fact that they are now in readers' hands is due to something even more controversial: one of the participants of these conversations died in an effort to bring them to the reading public. Whether that death and its accompanying violence were worth it, we will leave to the reader to decide.

Excerpt: Raquel:  At what age is suicide okay?  I don't know.  But you need to be an adult, maybe even an old adult.  And you need to be already dying -- the doctors have to have done as much as they can, and you have to have lived a life that you are proud of, then maybe suicide is okay.

Shannon:  But that is too strict if that is the only condition under which suicide is allowed.  Don't you think living wills should also be honored? If we are giving the right to die to terminally sick older people, we should also give it to those who are healthy, but are anticipating the worst.

Raquel:  No.  Again, only if you are already going to die, then, perhaps you can morally commit suicide.  Actually, I'm not really sure even in this case.

Shannon:  But does it make sense that you have the right to choose death if you’re incapacitated and can't implement your decision, but you don't have that right if you’re even remotely healthy – talk about a catch-22!

Raquel:  No, you're right about that.  I think that imminent painful death in old age is the only reason death can be a choice, but, yes, you have to be able to implement your decision.  Still, I have my doubts.

Shannon:  Then you’re saying death isn’t an allowable choice unless it is painful and immediately around the corner.  That makes it not a choice at all, just a more quickly reached destination.

Raquel:  That’s right. Taking it a step further, I'm worried about who gets to make the decision.  A teenager whose girlfriend or boyfriend has broken up with him might think she or he's facing imminent painful death and then commit suicide.  That is wrong.  Someone with professional expertise has be involved.  Perhaps suicides should only be allowed in hospitals.

Shannon: I thought you wanted smaller government involvement in our lives.  Now you’re arguing for government involvement in our most private and personal decisions.

Raquel: And I thought you wanted larger government involvement in our lives -- to protect us.  Now you are arguing for a hands-off approach to those about to make an irrevocable uninformed decision.

Shannon: Uninformed only according to you Christian people.  But, yeah, I see your point: Our views are not only mutually but seem to be internally contradictory.

At this moment, Sophia shows up, carrying a cup of coffee.

Sophia: Hi, you two.  What are you talking about?

Shannon:  My father has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  We are discussing whether suicide is a good option for him or not.  I say suicide is a good option; Raquel thinks it is an immoral option.

Sophia:  Really. Sounds like an important conversation. But are you two whispering?

Raquel:  Whispering?  No, why would we whisper?

Sophia:  Don’t you watch the news? Two guys in Wyoming were in a bar discussing breaking up the oil companies and were later found murdered.  The local police suspect that their murder might have something to do with their having that conversation.

Raquel:  I don't think anyone is going to murder us for discussing suicide.

Sophia:  Don't be too sure.  These are "interesting" times.  And a conversation involving the plusses of suicide might beforbidden.

Shannon:  Sophia, please join us. I think we’re safe here.  We would certainly value your insight.

Sophia:  I’m honored.  Shannon, I missed your side of the conversation about suicide. What do you think?

Shannon:  I think suicide is my right.  I find Raquel’s view that suicide is usually wrong and therefore not allowed an infringement on my rights.  Raquel, suicide's a freedom we should have just by virtue of being the conscious animals we are. We should all have the freedom to die, just like the other freedoms we enjoy.  In fact, in some sense, suicide is our first freedom.  This is because the individual is sacred.

Sophia:  You sound like the famous philosopher Ayn Rand, who said her philosophy was ". . . the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Shannon:  That evokes a nice sentiment, but I don't agree with it.  I would put it this way: All humans should strive to be heroic, their flourishing is the central purpose of their lives, but no one who is sane and rational can be happy when others around him are suffering, so the flourishing of all of life, our own included, is our noblest activity, and there are no absolutes.

Sophia
:  Very nice, Shannon.

Raquel:   I see now why you are so pro-suicide.  There's nothing in that statement about respecting the dictates of God.

Shannon:  You don't respect the dictates of God, Raquel.  If I give you a gun will you go kill a homosexual for Him, just as He commanded in Leviticus 18:22, and 20:13?  I don't think so. Appeals to God and what God wants are so small-minded.  The Bible contains some very nasty stuff which I find both blatantly immoral and personally offensive.

Sophia:  I think we had better stop for the day.  Tempers are beginning to rise.  Let's adjourn and agree to return to thisforbidden conversation when we meet again.  Say tomorrow, at this location at this same time.

Raquel:  Agreed.

Shannon:  Tomorrow, then.

About Eric Dietrich: Eric Dietrich, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy at Binghamton
University.  Before studying philosophy, he was a concert pianist and mountain climber.  He is the author of numerous papers, most recently focusing on how differently people view moral situations.  He's also worked in paraconsistent logic and true contradictions, metaphysics, and artificial intelligence.  He co-authored Sisyphus's Boulder: Consciousness and the Limits of the Knowable, a book on consciousness's resistance to scientific explanation.  And he is the editor of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence.


About Tara Fox Hall:  Tara Fox Hall's writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, fantasy, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. She is the author of the paranormal fantasy Lash series and the vampire romantic suspense Promise Me series. Tara divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice. 




MY REVIEW:

Let me start by saying I believe in God, am a Christian, and have some views that would cause some people to question my Christianity. That's fine, because I'm not living my life to please other people, I'm living it to please myself and my maker. And I'm so glad we are no longer under Old Testament law, because most of us would be dead or just never see the light of day.
I have to say this was an interesting book to read. There were a few surprises along the way and the conversations challenged my own views, but with anything I always try to keep an open mind and look at everything.
A point that stuck for me were the conversations on suicide. I truly felt for the young lady whose father had Alzheimer's and understood why she wanted her father to commit suicide. It's the very reason why Jack Kevorkian and others in the medical profession assist their patients into a dignified death. No one wants to see their loved ones waste away and no one should have to watch their loved ones waste away. That's why DNR (do not resuscitate) and living wills came about.
Anyway, the book was thought provoking, at times humorous and interesting. It takes a look at "forbidden conversations" and other hot button issues. If you're able to keep emotion aside and read all the views I think the reader will be pleasantly surprised at the way the conversations examine all angles.

2 comments:

Tara Fox Hall said...

Thanks so much for this review! I am also a Christian and feel the same way. At times, it was difficult to write this book, as both Eric and I wanted each issue to be presented with as many POVs as possible, not just our own, which often do not agree. The idea was to be thought provoking and start people conversing on issues that they normally wouldn't :) Thanks again for reading the book! :) Have a wonderful day!

Jenny Twist said...

This was one of the most thought-povoking books I ever read. High time some of these topics were aired. Well done Dietrich and Fox Hall.