Abstract
The book cover shows an accident waiting to happen. An elderly gentleman, sans spectacles, is holding a book inches from his nose so that he can read its type with his failing eyes. Simultaneously he holds two other unopened books. He is standing precariously atop a tall library ladder. Far safer is to read Blasted with Antiquity by David Ellis seated in a comfortable chair with, if required, a good pair of reading glasses. Ellis has gathered together references and observations on old age from across the Western literary canon. There are familiar characters and references to or quotes from English writers Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth, Donne, Eliot and many others, with further references taken from Classical and European sources. They range across such topics as nostalgia, retirement, legacy, taking stock, the medical profession and dying.
Inevitably, writers have been unflattering when describing old people and the disadvantages of age. ‘Is not your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part of you blasted with antiquity?,’ to quote one of several Shakespearean descriptions of the condition, one from which the title of the book is taken. But the Bard’s words are kind compared with the reaction of Larkin to visiting a hospital ward for the elderly. He inveighs against them for allowing themselves to be kept in a deplorable state, ‘forgetful, drooling from an open mouth, pissing themselves without screaming in protest’ (p. 128).
One purpose behind the book is to help cope with the depressing image – and often the reality – of old age and a fading body and mind. By mining literature for support, it is outsourcing the anxiety. Ellis borrows a modern quote: ‘through bibliotherapy we can learn to accept growing older’ (p. 149). Old age does not always justify the stereotypes – selfish, miserable, tight-fisted and out of touch – says Ellis, and he turns to Eliot seeking some grounds for positivity: ‘Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity, and the wisdom of age.’ We live in an era when surviving to a ripe old age is far more common than it was in the past. With the lengthening of the expected lifespan comes a new social perspective. Far from being repositories of wisdom, old people are becoming an economic problem.
The book inevitably leads towards the topic of death, including some celebrated last words. Do the dying leave behind profound insights? Shakespeare puts these words in John of Gaunt’s mouth: ‘Where words are scare, they are seldom spent in vain, for they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.’ Oscar Wilde, however, reputedly observed, as he lay dying in a badly decorated Paris hotel room, that either the wallpaper or he would have to go.
Much has been written over time about the final years of life. Theologians, medics, psychiatrists and social historians have all had their say. David Ellis’s approach is refreshing in consulting the annals of literature for uncommon insights into what will, if we survive our natural lifespan, be a common experience for us all.