Getting old...

[gveranon]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

Gveranon is quite right. The protagonists of Fritz Leiber's stories seemed to grow older right along with their author. Durrenmatt, even in his early works, seemed to prefer older protagonists (the cancer-stricken Commissioner Barlach, the play "The Old Ladies' Visit"). Borges' narrators were often reflections of an aging Borges. I think Lovecraft would have gone down that route as well with some interesting insights on the psychology of aging. Forgive this sweeping and, no doubt, incorrect generalization: young people are pretty much the same everywhere while old folk can be full of surprises. For Gveranon: I really like John Lee's later works. Amazing stuff. Too raw and primitive to call sophisticated, too sophisticated to call primitive. Just pure brilliance.

Yes, Borges! He adapted to blindness and old age as if it had been his preferred destination all along.

In the book Beckett's Eighteenth Century, by Frederik N. Smith, there is a chapter called "Beckett's Literary Gerontophilia," which discusses, among other things, Samuel Beckett's fascination with Swift as he was in mad old age. Smith points out that "the grotesque image of the perpetually dying Struldbruggs" in Gulliver's Travels was the model for many of Beckett's characters. I fell hard for Beckett's works when I was still in my twenties. Hmm... I wasn't very good at being young even when I was young.

At the same time, I agree with B&I. I can't help but feel the truth of his words viscerally in my own body and mind, and in my experience of the changing world. I actually think I might finally come into my own, in some ways, in retirement and senescence, but it's unlikely that this could matter to anyone but me, and the future of it will be short indeed.

Quote Originally Posted by BleakИ132844

Quote Originally Posted by gveranon Goal: Look like Iggy Pop, ancient but ripped. I too have long been an admirer of the Iggy aesthetic, but I suspect we both lack one necessary element: copious amounts of drugs.

Yeah, I'm sure I couldn't handle Iggy's regimens, whatever they are.

[Bleak&Icy]

When I was a boy I felt old beyond my time, certainly older than my classmates, and I took it for granted that eventually I would "come into my own" as I matured. By at no stage of my life have I felt reconciled to my present state, and at no stage have I actually "lived life"-- preferring, or rather compelled by temperament, to lock myself away in my own nutshell. Now I am constantly beset by a feeling of panicky horror and of hopeless loss. And as gveranon accurately puts it, the feeling is visceral. I literally feel the loss and horror in my organs. My face is starting to collapse, I cannot keep pace with the changing times, and my faithful old distractions, those Pascalian diversions with which I squandered so much of my time, have turned their back on me.

[Acutely decayed]

Quote Originally Posted by Bleak&Icy

Now I'm going back to my girly bookends.

I make no comment on the aesthetics of your bookends however I will take this opportunity to say I believe your literary recommendations have always displayed superlative taste.

Jessica Hamilton (KG)- Elizabeth

http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/elizabeth-by-jessica-hamilton-1976.html

and Hawke's - Virginie, Her two lives - spring to mind, among others.


Back to the topic of the thread - I have daily Creatine, fish oil, resveratrol and exercise but I am reminded of the Ultraviolet mini-series where the hunter mentioned the vamps made all their recruits post 30 - when people realised no matter how hard you hit the gym it was never going to be enough - perhaps Thiel can get that parabiosis fine tuned

I prefer the company of the old and odd. I tend to have far more in common with them than I do people my own age. Much like Barnabas Collins, I have resigned to being a man out of my own time. Nobody my age reads, and few think outside the boundaries of materialism, industrialism and capitalism. The three true deaths of the soul of man, rather than political correctness and there being too many Muslims.

I have tried socialising more with my peers, but I just find it a dreary affair. I am going to retreat further into my safe space of mysticism and ghost stories while talking primarily to middle aged men on my computer. President Trump represents what might be a finality of my engagement with the modern world's culture. It's just too awful.

[Kevin]

Quote Originally Posted by James

I prefer the company of the old and odd. I tend to have far more in common with them than I do people my own age. Much like Barnabas Collins, I have resigned to being a man out of my own time. Nobody my age reads, and few think outside the boundaries of materialism, industrialism and capitalism. The three true deaths of the soul of man, rather than political correctness and there being too many Muslims.

I've always hung out with people about 10 years older than me, and these days also about 20 years younger. I don't know if this really needs an explanation, except that these maturitiy levels might accurately reflect back aspects of my own personality. I do agree that socializing with people my own age tends to be dreary.

[Frater_Tsalal]

Remember that scene (I believe it occurs in both the book and the film) in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice where, early on, Aschenbach spots an elderly man trying to fit in with a bunch of young boys (by trying somewhat pitifully to make himself look younger), and is disgusted by the spectacle? I fear that will be my same fate, ha ha.

Having said that, I much prefer hanging out with younger people than people my own age (or older). In 2013 I befriended a young man (I was 33 then, he was 19) who was very into Lovecraft, Weird Fiction, philosophy, French writers of the 19th century, and so on. He was one of the most well-read people I've ever known, and we had a great deal in common: I turned him on to Ligotti's fiction while he got me to explore the work of Carson McCullers. Sadly this friendship lasted only around a year or so before it came to a somewhat dismal ending (well, dismal on my end at least).

My fate when (if) I get old.

[Druidic]

Yes, gveranon, Borges--and Leiber too! -- almost make old age seem like an adventure. And maybe for a lucky few, it is.

It all depends on temperament, degree of remaining health and the roll of dem bones...

[Bleak&Icy]

Fascinating lecture (on art and moving with the times) by a man who has aged profoundly well (although I doubt any of us will ever be able to pull off the shirtless dinner jacket):

YouTube

[Caliban]

This thread has made me a bit sad.

I feel a bit like an old man sometimes. I have a few heart problems so I won't get to old age probably. I was very fond of my Granadad who lived a bit like a poor version of miss haversham from Great Expectations and he was a really hard man. Tough as nails, he never asked for help even though he needed it. His old age was spent on his own languishing so I don't think I want it.

I'm 21 and at uni. Strangely enough I'm a bit like a chameleon. At school I realised I was the weird kid so I adapted and now I go out to nightclubs and drink with the best of them, so much so that sometimes I wonder if I've become the mask I've been wearing all these years.

The only time I'm my real self, how I used to be is in my room on my own. Literally hidden under my bed are my weird Fiction anthologies, Sci Fi horror classics and posh editions of Shakespeare and Dickens. I indulge in these stories, ideas and concepts when I'm on my own.

I fear that the mask is stuck to me now and I'll never meet anyone who likes me for the real me.

Sorry for boring you all. Reading some of your stories has been really interesting.