: Re: Death as person - A funny part of the story? Or serious stuff? Death as a person is commonly known to any reader of the "Discworld" series from Terry Pratchett. Also death appears in the

@Sarah872

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The personification of various forces of nature and existence is quite ancient—it arguably is the first way that people conceptualized of many of what we more often now think of as abstract concepts—and is often treated quite seriously. Many polytheistic religions have an actual god of death, such as Hades for the Greeks. Death is also personified in the Bible's Book of Revelations as a ominous figure riding a pale horse.

What makes modern readers disinclined to take an anthropomorphic depiction of Death seriously is not that there is anything intrinsically amusing about it, but the fact that it's anachronistic—it doesn't match modern sensibilities. But humorous parody, as per Pratchett, is only one of the possible options. You could also use it to invoke a mythical past, or to critique modernity (or any of a range of other authorial choices).

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