Stranger Than Fiction A Great Flick, And A Philosophical Debate Waiting To Happen

[Seil]

So I just re watched Stranger Than Fiction - which is pretty much all I'm going to talk about here, so here's your spoiler warning if you haven't seen it - and it's pretty neat.

The main point of the plot is that Will Ferrel, as Harold Crick, is hearing the voice of authoress Karen Eiffel narrating his life. He enlists the help of Professor Jules Hilbert, and the two try to figure out what's going on before Harold's "imminent death." In the climax of the film, Harold introduces himself to Eiffel, emphasizes his existence and asks her not to kill him.

Eiffel then looks at her career, and realizes that she's killed - in what the audience can only assume is narrating their lives into a death that she creates for them, thinking that they're purely fictional - eight people. As such, she feels remorseful for this and stops writing her latest novel, the story of Harold Crick.

She has, however, given the quasi-complete version of the book to Harold and Hilbert, who both read it and understand that Harold has to die. As Hilbert says:

Harold, you will die. You will absolutely die - heart failure at the bank, choke on a mint, some long, drawn out disease you contracted on vacation... Even if you escape this death, another will find you; and I promise you, it won't be nearly as meaningful or poetic as what she's written for you.

So here's a weird situation - Harold, who is sort of the everyman, in this fantastical situation, has the option of knowingly going to his death. As a regular guy, he has no idea what's after death, but he's got the knowledge and pretty much time of his death, and the power to stop it by appealing to the woman "killing" him - and he goes to it.

Eiffel ends up leaving Harold alive, her conscience not allowing her to actually kill Harold;

Because it's a book about a man who doesn't know he's about to die. And then dies. But if a man does know he's about to die and dies anyway. Dies- dies willingly, knowing that he could stop it, then- I mean, isn't that the type of man who you want to keep alive?

But the fact remains that this sort of hapless everyman chose to willingly face his death. But the idea remains that if he knew that he was going to die in some way that wasn't as favorable, would he still go to his death? If he didn't know how he'd die, would he still do it?

What are the ramifications of knowing the exact circumstances related to your death before you die?