Robert Desjarlais’s Subject to Death is like stepping onto a train already in motion. Its momentum isn’t fierce but there’s no time to ease in––from its first pages, as readers we find ourselves in the midst of death and life and loss as they take and are given form. At the risk of overusing the term, there is great care in this book, and the five commentaries that follow are reflections of this care, not owing to an expected attitude or comportment towards life and death, but attending to what is required by the invitation Desjarlais makes to readers, made between author and subject and reader, as we are brought into a conversation rather than relegated only to eavesdrop. It is a great honor to present this forum on Robert Desjarlais’s Subject to Death.
Anand Pandian
Johns Hopkins University
Sarah Pinto
Tufts University
Summar Saad
Wayne State University
Marsha Hurst
Columbia University
Robert Desjarlais
Sarah Lawrence College
Download the PDF:
Subject to Death Book Forum
[view academic citations]
[hide academic citations]
AMA citation:
Meyers T. Book Forum––Robert Desjarlais’ Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World. Somatosphere. 2016. Available at: http://somatosphere.net/2016/book-forum-robert-desjarlais-subject-to-death.html/. Accessed March 27, 2023.
APA citation:
Meyers, Todd. (2016). Book Forum––Robert Desjarlais’ Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from Somatosphere Web site: http://somatosphere.net/2016/book-forum-robert-desjarlais-subject-to-death.html/
Chicago citation:
Meyers, Todd. 2016. Book Forum––Robert Desjarlais’ Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World. Somatosphere. http://somatosphere.net/2016/book-forum-robert-desjarlais-subject-to-death.html/ (accessed March 27, 2023).
Harvard citation:
Meyers, T 2016, Book Forum––Robert Desjarlais’ Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World, Somatosphere. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from <http://somatosphere.net/2016/book-forum-robert-desjarlais-subject-to-death.html/>
MLA citation:
Meyers, Todd. "Book Forum––Robert Desjarlais’ Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World." 9 Sep. 2016. Somatosphere. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023. <http://somatosphere.net/2016/book-forum-robert-desjarlais-subject-to-death.html/>