Begin Afresh, Afresh, Afresh

[poliphilo]

I got that feeling in my bones yesterday- that early springtime feeling- which goes (quoting Larkin) "Begin, afresh, afresh, afresh". It's nice to know it still comes to me- but hard to know what I'm supposed to be doing about it.

Once upon a time I used to go everywhere on foot. Now I'm very sedentary. But I'm trying to push the clock back by walking to the supermarket every couple of days. I don't want to turn into my grandmother- who spent her last decade, though still relatively fit, sitting in her Louis Quinze chair with her Daily Express and her cigarettes. Life is interesting, even with aching joints, and I don't ever want to get to the point where I no longer care.

Certain things have been taken away. I used to write poetry a lot. Now I rarely get the urge. I accept this. It's normal. Poetry is a young person's game. And I don't suppose I'll ever want to write fiction again. The novel is also for the young. Name me a great novel that was written by someone over 60. Bet you can't.  A novelist has to be in tune with the age- and the older person- however hard they try- no longer feels the pulse from the streets.

And that's partly because it's the work of old age to let go.  One builds up a presence in the world, one sits on one's heap, then one starts to divest. There's the art of holy living and there's the art of holy dying. Dying isn't something one only does at the end of one's life; it's something one should always be practising- and practising more assiduously as one ages. We come into the world....

Dee-dee-diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-dee...

Sorry, I had to get up there to answer the phone. It was some chap with an Indian accent assuring me he wasn't going to offer me a loan, but merely wanted to share some information about his company's government sponsored programme.  I cut him off there. But he'd done his job; he'd stopped me from becoming maudlin and sententious.

So where was I? Yes, life goes on. It goes on until it stops.

Comments

[ex-redrain.livejournal.com]

And I always thought some of the best poetry came from those in their 50s and 60s.

As for novels, maybe Vonnegut's Timequake? He was 75.

[purchas.livejournal.com]

I've read a bit of Vonnegut, but not that one. I must put it on my list.

[ex-redrain.livejournal.com]

It took me a second to realize who you are!

[purchas.livejournal.com]

Whoops, yes. I've been tinkering with the Purchas books. I'd forgotten I was signed in over there.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Who was it said no one ever wrote a decent novel before the age of 40? Which strongly implies that people get better and better.

There have in fact been highly acclaimed novelists who didn't publish their first novels until quite late on in life and novelists certainly keep on going. Ah, I've finally remembered the name I was groping for -- Mary Wesley!

[ex-redrain.livejournal.com]

Ahah! That was the quote I remembered but didn't have a source for it. Thank you.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Well, I still can't find a source for the "over 40" quote, but there are many novelists who didn't publish their first books until they were over 50 or even 60, in the case of Daniel Defoe.

In fact writing, unlike many other careers, is one in which you are never too old to be successful because ultimately, it's the novel you're selling, not you and writing a story doesn't involve heavy lifting. :)

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Another writer who achieved her greatest success late in life was Edith Pargeter. She was a prolific writer, but didn't really become well known until she wrote the Brother Cadfael series (using the pen name Ellis Peters), the first of which was published when she was 64 and the final one nearly 20 years later.