Carpe diem will someday die. It is medieval Latin, dating to 1287. Related but distinct is the expression "memento mori" (remember that you are mortal) which carries some of the same connotation as . For Horace, mindfulness of our own mortality is key in making us realize the importance of the moment. "Remember that you are mortal, so seize the day." Over time the phrase also came to be associated with penitence, as suggested in many vanitas paintings. Today many listeners will take the two phrases as representing almost opposite approaches, with urging us to savour life and urging us to resist
Toward the End of Time published in "Consider the Lobster"), novelist David Foster Wallace wrote a scathing critique of "Toward the End of Time." Wallace wrote: Wallace quotes literary readers he knows who characterize Updike "just a penis with a thesaurus." Aside from its protagonist, who, Wallace argues, is fundamentally unlikable, the novel's prose is so "turgid" that it distracts "us with worries about whether Mr. Updike might be injured or ill." Wallace concludes: In contrast, Margaret Atwood wrote a very positive review of "Toward the End of Time" for the "New York Times", "Memento Mori--But First, Carpe Diem." She praises Updike's "brilliant metaphors" and