Erik Olin Wright, one of the most important sociologists of his time, takes us along on his intimate & brave journey toward death, & asks the big questions about human mortality.Human life is a wild, extraordinary phenomenon: elements are brewed in the cen-ter of stars & exploding supernova, spewed across the universe; they eventually clumped into a minor planet around a modest star; then after some billions of years this“Stardust”became complex molecules with self-replicating capacities that we call life. More billions of years pass & these self-replicating molecules join together into more complex forms, evolve into organisms which gain awareness & then consciousness, & finally, eventually, consciousness of their consciousness.Stardustturned into conscious living matter aware of its own existence. And with that comesconsciousness of mortality. . . . That I, as a conscious being will cease to exist pales in significance to the fact that I exist at all. I don 't find that this robs my existence of meaning; it's what makes infusing life with meaning possible.°°°Erik Olin Wright (1947–2019)was a Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of many books, includingClasses,Interrogating Inequality,Class Counts,Deepening Democracy(with Archon Fung), &Envisioning Real Utopias.For more information on Envisioning Real Utopias & the Real Utopias project, & to access book content, please visitrealutopias.org