Project Gutenberg 2016-02-06 Public domain in the USA. 107 Tadlock, Max Johns Cause of Death Produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1955 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Cause of Death" by Max Tadlock is a science fiction novella written in the mid-20th century. The story explores the themes of mortality and the human desire to understand life and death. The narrative centers around a protagonist who, driven by curiosity and the desire to alleviate the fear of death, conducts an experiment to experience death firsthand and return to share his discoveries. The novella follows the protagonist’s obsession with death, beginning with the notion of pigs being able to choose to die at will. This idea leads him to attempt to die deliberately for three days, believing he can return to life with insights about the afterlife. As the experiment unfolds, he confronts reality in the form of fear and the physical sensations of dying, ultimately finding himself unable to come back from the brink of death as he had hoped. On realizing his true condition, the story culminates in a profound contemplation about the nature of existence and the finality of death, ending with a stark acknowledgment that he has left life behind completely. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 84.3 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Death -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Novels 39679 2025-06-20T13:58:22.585165 text/html 15810 2024-10-22T23:50:30 text/html 175309 2025-06-20T13:58:24.387187 application/epub+zip 174142 2025-06-20T13:58:22.981192 application/epub+zip 79864 2025-06-20T13:58:22.759191 application/epub+zip 206822 2025-06-20T13:58:25.652195 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 200233 2025-06-20T13:58:24.171192 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 106228 2022-09-23T09:20:56.163977 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 33041 2023-09-22T08:15:47.518378 text/plain 13324 2024-10-22T23:50:30 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 15973 2025-06-20T13:58:25.796158 application/rdf+xml 22273 2025-06-20T13:58:22.835164 image/jpeg 4080 2025-06-20T13:58:22.797173 image/jpeg 158985 2025-06-20T13:58:22.595178 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog