Willem Jan Otten (born 4 October 1951) is a Dutch prose writer,
playwright and poet, who in 2014 won the P. C. Hooft Award for
lifetime literary achievement.Otten was born in Amsterdam as the son
of the musicians Marijke Ferguson and Kees Otten. He spent his youth
in the Rivierenbuurt in Amsterdam and in Laren.He grew up in an
atmosphere of moral libertinism. His nonfiction is in part a
reflection upon that atmosphere and a polemic with the philosophy
behind that atmosphere. He published his first book of poetry in 1973.
He has published essays and fiction about euthanasia and played a role
in the euthanasia debate in the Netherlands by criticizing the
arguments in favour of euthanasia and the freedom of choice in matters
of one's own life and death.In 1999 he published an essay Het wonder
van de losse olifanten, een rede tot de ontwikkelden onder de
verachters van de christelijke religie ("The miracle of the solitary
elephants. Lecture addressed to the cultivated among the despisers of
the Christian religion") in which he examined the arguments pro and
contra Christian belief. This lecture followed upon his conversion to
Roman Catholicism.
playwright and poet, who in 2014 won the P. C. Hooft Award for
lifetime literary achievement.Otten was born in Amsterdam as the son
of the musicians Marijke Ferguson and Kees Otten. He spent his youth
in the Rivierenbuurt in Amsterdam and in Laren.He grew up in an
atmosphere of moral libertinism. His nonfiction is in part a
reflection upon that atmosphere and a polemic with the philosophy
behind that atmosphere. He published his first book of poetry in 1973.
He has published essays and fiction about euthanasia and played a role
in the euthanasia debate in the Netherlands by criticizing the
arguments in favour of euthanasia and the freedom of choice in matters
of one's own life and death.In 1999 he published an essay Het wonder
van de losse olifanten, een rede tot de ontwikkelden onder de
verachters van de christelijke religie ("The miracle of the solitary
elephants. Lecture addressed to the cultivated among the despisers of
the Christian religion") in which he examined the arguments pro and
contra Christian belief. This lecture followed upon his conversion to
Roman Catholicism.
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