disposition, who has decided to commit suicide by jumping off a building. These included their hope that the note be read and measures taken accordingly, the high productivity and profundity of their imagination and observations, and the fantasy and hallucinations inspired by looking over the edge. I found it fascinating that the famous and much-loved Sinatra song ‘My Way’, which is also commonly used at funerals, has by association developed a highly dubious reputation as a soundtrack to self-murder. Victims’ preferences for it perhaps derive from the understandable desire to, with their final act, assert that they have ‘lived a life that’s full [and] travelled each and every highway’, despite what they are about to do; this may assuage internal anxieties concerning the value of their experience of life thus far and what they made of the opportunities they received. It could also provide comfort and reassurance to grieving family and friends who could question the conviction with which the individual committed suicide. The song’s emphasis on having lived ‘my way’, i.e. in a fashion decided only by the individual, could attract the victim due to their own beliefs that their life, including the suicide, was lived in an admirably autonomous way; they sympathise with the sentiment that their life was lived independently. The song’s largely optimistic tone may also reflect the belief, delusional or not, that suicide is the best possible option for the individual – preferable, perhaps, to living in disappointment or pain. Overall, the piece may be seen to be an experiment with literary form; it addresses the reader,involving themwith the protagonist’s ordeal. Under the guise of a short story, it attempts to capture the first-hand experience of one in so dire and extreme a situation. The final epiphany is there to shock as well as enlighten the reader, leaving them absolutely certain of the narrator’s ultimate fate.
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