Hannah Arendt's death
anecdote · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 5 talks
Someone who knew Hannah Arendt personally described how she died: receiving guests in her apartment, debating, falling asleep, waking and debating more, then falling asleep a third time and not waking, Žižek says he would sell his mother into slavery to die like that.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 5
“i would sell my mother into slavery to die like this”
“she was sleeping for twenty minutes she reawakened debated again fell asleep again reawakened fell asleep and didn't reawaken”
“she said, i will just fall asleep a little bit... and the third time she fell asleep and didn't awaken. my god, i would like to.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 1 jobsuses
fear dying vs. fear death
×2
Its cast and sources
populated by
Schmidt/Schultz2Richard Bernstein2Ash Sarkar1Somali pirates1the Houthis1Peter Verzilov1Vladimir Nabokov1Nikolai Gogol1
alongside works
Every retelling 5
1:32:04 Slavoj Zizek, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Paul Holdengraber / Los Angeles, 28 October 20252025-10-28 · 1:42:20
Someone who knew Hannah Arendt personally described how she died: receiving guests in her apartment, debating, falling asleep, waking and debating more, then falling asleep a third time and not waking, Žižek says he would sell his mother into slavery to die like that., illustrating death and finitude
Richard Bernstein recounts Hannah Arendt dying during a debate: she would fall asleep, wake up, debate, fall asleep again, and finally not wake up, representing an ideal, happy death., illustrating fear dying vs. fear death
1:18:32 Slavoj Žižek: Should We Grasp AI Not Only as Substance But Also as Subject? - May 22, 20262026-05-22 · 1:19:04
Richard Bernstein told Žižek that Arendt invited guests, fell asleep twice in her armchair during conversation, and the third time did not wake up. Žižek says this is how he would like to die., illustrating personal reflection on mortality,aging and work
Richard Bernstein recounts how Hannah Arendt died: she fell asleep during a debate, woke up, debated, and died. Žižek uses this to illustrate his view on accepting death if it is instant., illustrating fear dying vs. fear death
At a reception in her apartment Arendt, tired on her fauteuil, kept taking short naps; the fifth time she did not awaken, dying without awareness, which he calls as close to a good death as one can get., illustrating the good death