- 22.3.09 09:27
- 'The ancient Greeks and Romans have given us many of the tools with which we still understand the world, from democracy to dictatorship, philosophy to pornography. There is much we can learn from them, even now. But one of the very worst ideas we have inherited from the classical world is the idea of the "good death", in which the man (and, in these stories, it usually is a man) remains in charge of his destiny right until the very end - joking with his friends, planning his exit strategy, and never once losing control, or his distinctive, individual character.'