Death and the Comedian single work   criticism   biography  
Issue Details: First known date: 1993... 1993 Death and the Comedian
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Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription Noel Henricksen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273)
'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract).
Metaphysician: Trying to Read Peter Goldsworthy's Prescription Noel Henricksen , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Commonwealth Literature , June vol. 46 no. 2 2011; (p. 257-273)
'As a medical practitioner, Peter Goldsworthy has been confronted, all too frequently, with human suffering, morbidity and mortality: he wrestles with their existential meaning in his poetry, essays and stories. Death, in Goldsworthy's works, is ubiquitous: it becomes an engine for tension between belief and scepticism, for contention between the legacy of his childhood Methodism and his professional grounding in scientific method. Goldsworthy describes incidents and presents arguments which explore the feasibility that we are not ephemeral but potentially eternal: séances and hoped-for hauntings; near-death experiences ... explained physiologically; cloned Tasmanian tigers, and a doctor's self-insemination with the DNA of Jesus; God-centred science fiction, and a convincing postulate for resurrection expressed in the language of mathematics and quantum mechanics. Detached and irreverent, Goldsworthy dissects and analyses, but avoids circumscription or dogmatism. He desires, at best, some proof that there is a dimension beyond the physical; he feels some sadness that a scientific mind is deprived of a certainty of the metaphysical; and he expresses hope that "perhaps, just perhaps ..."' (Author's abstract).
113-125 Death and the Comediansmall AustLit logo
101-113 Death and the Comediansmall AustLit logo
10A Spectrum Death and the Comediansmall AustLit logo The Sydney Morning Herald
31 Death and the Comediansmall AustLit logo The Adelaide Review
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