(From Six Days of Dying. Mary Catherine Bateson. essay describing Gregory Bateson’s death) read entire essay here
Paternal honesty
On the morning of July 2, Gregory asked his son to kill him. The asking was not a fully conscious request for practical steps – he suggested getting a stick and hitting him over the head with it, as if by brutal overstatement to achieve the opposite of euphemism – but it was a demanding paternal honesty.
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