Life expectancy in Spain increased by more than ten years in the last century, according to the National Statistics Office. In 1975, it was 73.44 years old and now surpasses 84. In developed countries the service life has been noticeably extendedO sea, old people live much longer than before.
But it’s not the aging population that worries writers Marta Sanzová (Madrid, 1967) until “fragility in neoliberal systems turns into vulnerability,” as stated in El Cultural. “Not before care, until the law of the strictest. We are prepared to be productive and we have to be predictable,” he laments.
Sanz’s thesis he published Susana and the old ones (Destino) was Nadal’s finalist in 2006 and comes with a complaint that in 1970 he promoted Simone de Beauvoir en Drive in. More than fifty years have passed since contempt for the elderly has been attributed to the narcissism of capitalist society, an inconvenience to a world that pays homage to youth as if it were eternal.
A great representative of feminism in the twentieth century is one of the great books that have been written in the past. Another essential thing is De senectutede Cicerowritten in 44 BC. C., more than two thousand years ago. Written by the Roman thinker and politician during his last months, it was a source of advice on how to endure the winter of life, free of decrepitude, always in an optimistic mood.
A new book is written on this line Erri de Lucawhich in dialogue with Inès de la Fressangean expert on fashion and modeling of some of the world’s most famous designers, defines senectum as Experimental edad (the title of the book published by Seix Barral) because it evokes, he says, “the extraña feeling of té nadie was alive in front of me”.
“I have much less to talk about death now than I did when I was twenty.
If you see this vital stage “on the way to the mountain forest”. And it’s like I only see what bothers me, but I think so […] if the lights are bright, there is more light“, Leemos.
This is the second hub Rosa Montero (Madrid, 1951), which guarantees us that he writes “with my soul” his beginnings thanks to the fact that he did not lose curiosity, “the fuel of literature, but above all life”. Although she considers herself an existentialist author, “I miss death less now than I did when I was twenty,” she admits.
Tampaco is not afraid of them Alvaro Pombo (Santander, 1939), the last writer to record Cervantes Prizeyou may convince yourself that “it is the liberation of the body.” “Los achaques son peores”, tap the other side of the phone and miss the bedroom.
Luis Mateo Diez (Villablino, León, 1942), accompanied by the same distinction, admits that death “is very interesting in literature and research intensifies it”. However, I would write 83 as “goal and passion”. More precisely, “the flights made it more important for me because I don’t want to do another more important thing”, he assures.
Italian Norberto Bobbioone of the most influential European thinkers of the last century, also took place more than once when he published The Senectute in 1997, bringing back the title of Cicero’s works. Bobbi’s book could be a synthesis between the Roman thinker, more hopeful, and the French philosopher, much more combative.
The lavish reissue of Býka, read in bookstores, reveals its absolute validity –“An octogenarian, with the exception of if he considers them a dilapidated old man, is not worth worrying about.– but above all the admirable commitment of the author when writing in the case of his life. “I tell you that many of the things I have written in recent years are variations on the same theme,” reads the confession of someone eager not to repeat himself.
Invent the ending of your new movie, Love Christmas, Pedro Almodóvar It also conveys a veiled reflection on the self-satisfaction of the dedicated creator facing the day, but we will deal with that in another moment.
En tanto que “the dimension in which the old world lives is the past”As Bobbio says, memory is a major component of what an elderly person needs to cope with life. But keep in mind what a “caprichosa” is, we will advise you what approach to what you see in your work –Los ancianos siderales, Transformations…– arraigan en lo fictional.
“Memory is misused if it is manipulated and entertained. Imagination is most libertarian.”
According to the creator of Cities of Shadow, imagination, also “memory’s dissolving counterpart”, is “more liberal and truer”. “The shadow is the most pleasant; the memory is many times misused, it is manipulated and trastea,” says El Cultural. Y points out that: “Be careful not to fall prey to healing”.
But the rare power of memory remains relevant, whose usefulness the hand of intelligence would only weaken: “Memory and intelligence are one and the same. If you have memory, you have intelligence to interpret the world.”
But since it is true of old age without memories, it is inevitably mixed up – as Rilke says – with the “homeland of childhood”, a theme deeply connected to great recapitulations. En Experimental edadDe Luca appreciates the memory given to her by “places and people who have forgotten.”
At the same time, he complains “which is due to the passing of time and the love of the elders”para muchos “inappropriate, offensive”. But “don’t let the words put you off. I love all kinds of ways.”
Rosa Montero, por su parte, recuerda su perplejidad ante el hecho de que algunos celebraran su novela La carne (2016) por la supuesta valentía de contar la peripecia sexual de una mujer de sesenta años. La escritora, que ya tenía alguno más, tuvo que aclarar que tanto ella como las amigas que le rodeaban seguían “haciendo el amor, teniendo novios… Y eso no se lo preguntan a Mick Jagger, que tiene más de ochenta y sigue saliendo con modelos. En fin, eso es un sexismo”.
A propósito del sexo en la vejez, Marta Sanz señala: “Sería muy deseable dejar de criminalizar o mirar con asco las formas del deseo. Lo que sí resulta extraño es la necesidad, la urgencia incluso, de mantener artificialmente el deseo sexual hasta el instante previo a la muerte”. En la misma línea, “respeto a las personas que quieren parecer eternamente jóvenes, pero yo no quiero, ni siquiera sé si tengo dinero para parecerlo”, dice. El caso de Montero es distinto: “Yo no asumo la vejez en absoluto, soy trastemporal”.
En todo caso, estos posicionamientos pavimentan una reflexión acerca de la mirada que, a lo largo de la historia, la sociedad ha arrojado sobre la vejez, así como las representaciones que ha tenido en la literatura.
El filósofo Aurelio Arteta nos recuerda en sus Cuadernos de la vejez (cuatro volúmenes publicados entre 2015 y 2023) que, mientras que ahora se margina miserablemente a los ancianos por una causa tan mercantilista como la ineficiencia, el mundo clásico fue mucho más considerado, equiparando la senectud con la sabiduría y mostrando un enorme respeto por quienes, hacia el final de sus días, podían ofrecer claves trascendentales acerca de la existencia. Ahí está Néstor, el rey pacífico y hospitalario de La Odisea, que a tantos personajes ilustró con sus consejos.
En las celebérrimas Memorias de Adriano de Marguerite Yourcenar, el emperador romano hace recuento de su periplo vital desde la serenidad que le reportaron sus conocimientos filosóficos.
Nos recuerda a las reflexiones de Umbral en uno de esos artículos que El Cultural dio a conocer en exclusiva antes de la publicación de los volúmenes editados por Renacimiento. “A la juventud le espanta eso de envejecer, que no va con ella, pero con la edad se aprende que el envejecimiento es un confort, una instalación en la vida. […] Let’s learn about the space that we feel is beautifulLet us understand that dying is not a joy, that dying is as much a duty as living and loving as a duty to live.”
And for the first time, he was criticized last week Ignacio Echevarria In these pages, I confessed that I live in peace with my father thanks to authors and those I admire: “Every year that my life is richer, more expert in the complexities of intelligence and courage”.
Not everyone has achieved physical fitness with this qualification. Antonio Gamoneda revealed his understanding of the poem’s deterioration Arden lost (2003) where the coexistence between “agony and equanimity” that life implies is echoed. “You live with me, but I don’t know you,” we say. And the same thing “pain is part of peace”he will not escape the grave of life: “Miro mi naked. Contemplo / la apparition de las heridas blancas”.
“Uncertainty has a multiplier effect on the older body: cold is the coldest”
Luis Antonio de Villenaalso a poet, he still seems more unkind Miserable vizpublished a year ago: “I hate the end of my lifewhich you drive impía achica y merma y cercena y pudre”.
Marta Sanz takes this negative perspective, but raises the issue to a level where the personal and the political converge. “Issues of gender, race and class, their beliefs, are fundamental to solving the issue of bodily transformations and a literary view of life,” he explains.
By the author Claviclefor those who faced menopause – among other conditions -, r Amarilloin his latest poem, where he reflects on the passage of time with the body as a point of departure, he believes that “precarity has a multiplying effect on the older body: the young is the freshest.”
Yes, yes, when it comes to women, the case has worsened. Please note that in this regard, “highly recommended works to enjoy this dream”: Que planche Rosa Luxembourgde Francisco Aguirrey Silencede Tillie Olsen. Here we can note how literary works were depicted in the streets: in Media Edad they were assigned the offer of characters from the drug or bruja, in the Golden Sign they were relegated to roles such as the one from the bed or the street. Adams, la Celestina de Fernando de Rojas is a ruthless manipulator.
“The youth have always been about the same thing, but I don’t think they are any less contemptuous of the old now.”
Following Barroco, the protagonists El Lazarillo de Tormes y el Quixotetwo of our teachers are old. Few believed—and still do—that the ingenious hidalgo was a alter ego de Cervantes. There is no doubt that he was an extraordinarily long-lived writer for his time: he was looking 68 when he wrote that “Puesto ya el pie en el estribo / with the anxiety of death…”.
From the 19th century, life was represented in its rawness. Death of Ivan Ilyichde Tolstoyit symbolizes a paradigm shift. For this reason, novels that deal with the world have a more panoramic focus: the private – the intimate scenes that tell the story of a family drama (such as an illness) – are as important as the public: reflections on the geriatric system or the moral dilemma that caregiving raises.
“Cuidar can be a form of rape and sometimes many people are often vampires due to the needs of a sick or old person. The limit is subtle,” says Sanz.
Pombo writes from now more than half a century ago. He uses pen, machine, typewriter and has been writing his lyrics for many years. Currently to one of the people who take care of it. “It doesn’t seem to me that there is less waste every once in a while,” he states. oh sea “the youth have always dealt with the same thing, but you see it too”he explains. You know that if you stay close to life, it is because of young people. And writing, of course, “is a continuation of life.”
For Luis Mateo, he also says that he is “the best refuerzo”. Y now with his true sorna, que reality is something that is also assumed. “Coquetería as another cualquiera”.
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