Lapham's Quarterly

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

NEW: "Faces of Death," our mortal enemy has revealed itself in a variety of disguises, from the grim reaper to the angel of death.

Faces of Death

laphamsquarterly.org

Three and a half minutes into Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film, The Seventh Seal, a pale-faced figure clad in a billowing, hooded black robe appears on the screen. His macabre appearance is so iconographic that the audience anticipates his answer