The Black Mirror and The Worm at the Core reveal the human obsession with, and denial of, our mortality.(…)
Like rationalists the world over, Tallis wants to believe that discordant impulses can be reconciled through a process of reflection. But the human response to mortality is intrinsically contradictory. We fear the prospect of death and build up elaborate defences against it, yet at the same time yearn for the inconceivable transformation that death will bring.