Hubs and I were watching last night’s episode of Being Human (the American version on SyFy). Part of the episode is that vampire Aidan (played by the yummy Sam Witwer, who is possibly one of the most underrated actors on television these days) runs into a former lover whom he’d refused to turn 40 years ago. She’d begged him at the time, and he refused. Now she’s in her 60s and dying of cancer, having led a full life, had a family, a daughter. It’s a nice counter point to the relationship that Bishop (head vamp in Boston) was talked out of/gave up in the 50s, where he wanted to turn her, but she didn’t want to be turned.
So hubs asked me, “Would you do it? If you were totally in love with a vampire, would you take the deal, the immortality?”
For me that would really depend on the reality of vampirism. There are so many VERSIONS of it out there. To be confined to the night, constantly thirsting for blood, unable to control it. No, that’s not appealing. To sparkle in sunlight? I don’t think so. But if it were a case like J.R. Ward’s vampires…where they feed on each other in a sort of symbiotic sense. I could maybe do that. I think the biggest appeal to me of immortality is not the notion of staying forever young or not having to die. The biggest appeal is the idea of finally having TIME for stuff.
I spend SO MUCH time and effort running around like a crazy person, trying to cram everything in because I don’t have TIME for everything I want to do. Time for all the books I want to read, books I want to write, the travel I want to do, the things I want to learn. To know that I wouldn’t have to pick and choose between things because whatever I don’t do today, I can do tomorrow…that’s a heady proposition indeed.
So what about you? Would you take immortality? Inquiring minds want to know.
20 thoughts on “Would You Take Immortality?”
No! My wife died 10 years ago and my life has been basically empty ever since. I can not conceive of any possible benefits that could compensate for the sense of isolation or the pain of repeatedly losing loved ones.
Immortality as such, yes. But as you said, also depends on the side effects. The having time factor is one, but I’m also extremely curious about where the world is going and I’m dying to know what the future brings and see all the evolution
I think vampires are a bit bad example for true immortals though. When you think about vampire stories they’re usually no more than few hundred years old (of course there’s exceptions) and they die either by vampire hunters or die because “they’ve lived too long and can’t bare the weight of the world anymore”.
So what kind of an immortal would I like to be then? Not sure… If just a human who wouldn’t age and couldn’t die (or be chopped to pieces, since living chopped up wouldn’t be that nice), how much would it affect my humanity anyway? How would I change? Gaiman had a man who just lived on in the Sandman series. Think it was he just wanted to die in the end, tired of seeing everyone else die. With human emotions immortality would be a huge burden for sure.
But still, think I’d take it. I’m human after all and stupid as such.
The only problem with having enough Time is that I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to choose what to do next. Sometimes having a limit means I get creative! I pick and choose, I’m more discerning. Yes, sometimes I run myself ragged, but other times I just take time out to relax and watch the world.
I’d probably be able to do a lot more of that world-watching if I was immortal – that’s VERY attractive…
But no, I don’t think I’d want to be immortal. Having to say goodbye to all the people I love when their lives come to a close and they cross over? I’d be heart broken.
I’ve just finished Afterlife and while it’s probably the “right” ending, I’m sad thinking about the future Bianca and Lucas have.
*spoiler coming up*
He’s going to die some day; she never will.
Mind you, I have a problem with the whole “wraith” aspect of the story. Perhaps it’s because of my cultural background, but wraiths do not fit into a paranormal for me. They are just not in the same category as werewolves, vampires, fairies and whatever else is being written about nowadays.
Dying is scary, so you want to be immortal because you are scared. You may tell yourself that you have deeper reasons to want immortally, but the true behind remains: you are scared of death. You don’t want to give up on life, it is a natural instinct.
So you have to put everything on a scale. It all depends on the conditions of the vampire world (as you said) and how much you are willing to give up just for the sake of not dying.
However it goes it is not an easy decision, and I hate when characters (Bella for exemple) go for it as if it was a free trip to Disney.
No, not even Aiden could convince me to turn. 🙂 I would never want to outlive my kids.
I’m sad about/excited for the season finale next week. This is definitely our favorite new show! (Must watch BBC version over the summer.)
A part of me wants to say yes and the other no…Others around you die and you are left living. Nobody will stay with you…It might be so amazing at first but then you just exist, on the other half living forever you don’t age…I guess it all depends…Am I alone? Is someone with me?
I would take immortality, but not the vampirism. As you suggest, it would depend greatly on the restrictions immortality brings with it.
And, like the first poster, I’ve had to face the idea – though not the reality yet – of a life without my partner (a cancer survivor). For me to accept immortality, it would have to come with an escape clause. None of this not being able to kill yourself or actually be killed garbage.
I guess, rather than immortality, what I’d really like would be an escape from age and limited time. But then, isn’t that what everyone wants?
Like Savannah said, for me it would definitely depend on who I had to share it with. I’m a very social person – I think constantly losing loved ones would force you to cut away all your emotions, which would render you less human. I don’t think I’d want to live like that. If I had someone to share it with, then maybe. But I’d have to be very sure that the relationship was going to last forever. Literally.
I admit, the idea of having unlimited time to do stuff is appealing! 😀
But I think the very serious point that has been made in this thread is a good one: you would eventually lose everyone you loved, unless they took the same path you took.
The British TV series “Doctor Who” addresses this problem well, I think. For those who don’t know, the central character, the Doctor, is of an alien race called the Time Lords, who (usually) regenerate into a new body whenever they’re close to death. But the Doctor is now the only one of his people left – he’s lost everyone. And of course, he’ll outlive all his human friends as well.
The Doctor himself once put it like this: “If you live long enough, the only certainty is that you’ll end up alone”.
So no, despite the temptation, I don’t think I’d choose that.
Only if my husband and kids were immortal too. I’m not afraid of dying, just being alone.
I don’t think I would take mortality if I had to do the blood sucking thing. But just mortality without the strings attached? I think I would. The biggest reason would be because I want to see all the stuff that happens. All the new technology, medical breakthroughs, etc. But there could be a downside. Horrible pollution, more earthquakes, radiation poisoning…. Okay, I think I’ve changed my mind now.
I’m with you on needing time! So much to do and so little time in the day to do it, LOL. I prefer the BBC version of Being Human 🙂
Only if I could lose weight before or after turning. I wouldn’t want to look as I do now, which is sad but true.
The idea of reinventing one’s self, of having time to live as many lives as one wants in every place one wants in any way that one wants, appeals to me instinctively. I thirst for knowledge at every moment, and it is so frustrating to not have time to learn all of the skills I want to know.
Choose Immortality, no… I feel the same as many people do, being able to live forever would be great if you could take a loved one along for the journey… However as we have no guarantees now even being immortal does not mean that person would not eventually leave for whatever reason and being left lonely and alone after all the rest of my friends, family and acquaintances pass on is not my idea of a fun life…
First off, I freaking love the Syfy version of Being Human way more than the British original. *prepares for the torches and pitchforks* But in answer to your question, it totally does depend on the condition of being immortal. Oddly, one of the appeals of living forever (for me anyway) is the chance to watch history unfold. Most people get a century, tops. I think it’d be crazy to watch how the world changes over the course of a couple hundred years.
No! Why have immortality if we won’t use it and live a full life? Better live a short but full life than be immortal and live a half empty life.
I think I would find it hard to say no. Despite pain and loss and maybe eventually growing tired… Nah, I think I would still go for it. As you said, there’s so much to see and do and learn and experience and read and write and…
I love Being Human! It’s the only show that I watch regularly. Ahhh…to be a thin sexy immortal vampire. Thanks to Anne Rice, I’ve dreamed about that for a couple of decades. The biggest lure would be having the time to explore all of my interests, but I’m not sure that I could do it if it meant taking the lives of others. It would be a selfish trade off.
Maybe not immortality but just a longer life span that we would age more slowly. That way you would maybe have time to enjoy being a kid longer, more time to earn your money so that you could retire financially secure and be able to travel and see all the places you would like to see and of course to see the changes going on in the world. I agree with many of the commenters that it would be much better as long as you had others to go along for the ride with you.
I plan on living forever. My faith says that we will all have eternal life, and that this life is just a short phase to help us learn some things that will help us handle eternity. My marriage isn’t “until death do you part.” My wife is going to by my companion for time and eternity, and I hope to have my children and the rest of my family with me as well. And all of that is without having to suck a single drop of blood!