HouseAuthors! I know you must all be feeling a bit down knowing that you only have two more weeks here, and I’m afraid the Ideal this week won’t due much to lighten your spirits. Mr. Baudelaire excluded, most likely…

The Enlightenment. The glorious, intelligent Enlightenment. Such a time of intellectual prosperity! The happiness of shared knowledge! And then death!

Yes, you heard me correctly! Death! Your Enlightenment Ideal for Week Five is Death. In the works of all five of you, there’s a focus on death in at least one form or another. In a time where science, social policy, and economic standings are in flux, you authors seem hung up on death! The majority of our departed HouseAuthors also wrote on the subject, and while we could have easily started off this game with Death as the first Ideal, I’m very happy with the way the remaining five of you all keep death in the spotlight when you wrote.

I’d like to say that we’ve eradicated Death in our Realm, but a recent glitch has forced us to enact some… questionable methods to keep the Realm on the path of Enlightened Normality. Regardless, I’m curious to see how you five question, accept, reason with, or even deny Death!