Ageing

Last updated: 2024, June 22

BOOKS

I REMAIN IN DARKNESS

Author: Annie Ernaux

It’s a sobering experience caring for aged parents, especially as they remind us of our own mortality. Guilt, fear, and hatred seep through as we bear witness to their gradual decline, forgotten memories emerge uninvited, now experienced again as if as a different person. One is confronted with the horror and inhumanity of growing old and losing one’s faculties, but also the inevitability of it all. As Annie Ernaux observes of her mother, “She had become a child again, one who would never grow up.”

HAPPY DAYS OF THE GRUMP

Author: Tuomas Kyrö

The “boomer” generation is the subject of much ridicule but dig a little deeper and perhaps there is something frustratingly endearing about the seniors among us. After all, there really is a grump in all of us who becomes more insufferably with age. All we need is a little patience from those who bear the brunt of staying by our side.

BREAKFAST WITH THE CENTENARIANS: THE ART OF AGEING WELL

Author: Daniela Mari

“For some, ageing does not start when we see our first wrinkles; it’s when we give up on our dreams, when we swap true love for something safer, more suitable, and when we lose interest in others and in everything new.”

THE BOOK ABOUT GETTING OLDER

Author: Dr Lucy Pollock

One needs to be ready for difficult conversations before reading this – not just with other people, but with oneself. Above all, it requires the recognition that some things are just not the same in old age. There’s no reason to expect things to stay the same, and it is not always for the worse. Some things get better with age too.

FILMS

PLAN 75

Director: Chie Hayakawa

In a dystopic Japan, “Plan 75” is a voluntary euthanasia programme for the elderly, available once they reach the age of 75. It is publicised as a self-sacrificial move to alleviate society’s burden of caring for an ageing population. The film questions the efficacy of this plan and by extension, all simplistic solutions to the unavoidably complex issue of ageing.