Slog - Comments on A Ghost Story http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61 I do not dislike the old, and I definitely want to die like them--old. But, admittedly, I do hold an idea about old people, about their place in the human world, their role in the family, that they may not appreciate. This idea is best expressed in a Japanese ghost story collected and preserved by Lafcadio Hearn, a 19th century writer who was born in Europe, lived in America, and spent the last 14 years of his life turning Japanese--he moved to Japan in 1890 and found its society to be the best fit for his personality. The world remembers... Copyright 2007 Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:59:14 -0800 Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:16:32 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Ivan Cockrum I do not dislike the old

No, you don't dislike the old... you merely dislike their cadaverous presence, which apparently robs you of your youthful vitality by its mere existence.

]]> Ivan Cockrum http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450677 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450677 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:18:42 -0800 Comment by Mark Mitchell And you are just digging the hole deeper with this literary shovel.

]]> Mark Mitchell http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450686 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450686 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:27:26 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle I hate these movies, they are way too scary. Seriously, they keep you from sleeping.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450693 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450693 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:32:09 -0800 Comment by anti-climacus mudede has the sickness

]]> anti-climacus http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450704 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450704 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:40:18 -0800 Comment by Pox I hate when that happens.

]]> Pox http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450708 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450708 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:43:14 -0800 Comment by snacky how to I explain to Grammy why I don't hug her anymore?

]]> snacky http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450721 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450721 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 13:56:36 -0800 Comment by erostratus I, for one, understand and sympathize with Mudede's feelings. (At least I sympathize with what I believe are his feelings. He has a knack for being "poetic and dreamy" without deploying that last measure of clarity - "rhetoric.")

I believe that Mudede thinks of old people as longing for youth; that he thinks that old people recognize in themselves a distortion of the body, a misalignment of the soul. They know they are not what they were when they were young, and they know that youth is a more perfect condition than age.

When the old woman in Mudede's ghost story asks to see the cherry blossoms, she is already plotting to latch herself to the young woman's breasts. The blossoms are an excuse to get close to the breasts. The old woman wants to become youth, to bond herself to youth, and failing that - perhaps - to destroy youth.

And the young woman? She can't get the old woman off her breasts - those universal symbols of fertility and bounty. Notice that the family members cut the hands off at the wrists, but do not cut off the breasts. We incorporate the actions of the old, and we cannot separate them from ourselves without loosing our ability to provide and nurture.

The old are with us, constantly. We will be old. We will dread our age and lust after youth. And then we will make ourselves a part of our youth in our passing.

]]> erostratus http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450727 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450727 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:05:07 -0800 Comment by Charles Reading...
And the young woman? She can't get the old woman off her breasts - those universal symbols of fertility and bounty.
unless the old woman and the young girl are the same person, and the old hands that cannot be removed is youth's rejection of their own mortality.

so really mudede isn't anti old people, he just likes to revel in the fact that they drip mortality in such a way that the young can't ignore it as easily

but that revelry could just be a nice way of putting that anxeity in a nice little poetic box, defanging it with language and turning it from something authentically terrifying into something linguistically terrifying. like a story.

but who i am i say

]]> Charles http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450752 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450752 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:35:56 -0800 Comment by SeMe Basically: Old people are a constant reminder of our doom.

I'm down with that.

]]> SeMe http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450824 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450824 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:10:47 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Doom Doom Doom.

We now return you from the Bush Channel ...

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450858 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450858 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 16:46:24 -0800 Comment by riz my mom called me yeasterday to regale me with the story of my recently institutionalized grandmother - 90 years and counting. before her very first spongebath by a younger and complete stranger, grandma rosie told the nurse ' get you bull dagger hands offa me. i know you just came in here to play with my pussy !'
to which i add 'who is scared of who ?'

]]> riz http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450943 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c450943 Life Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:34:10 -0800 Comment by Sean I agree with Charles. Old people are always groping people's tits.

]]> Sean http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c451051 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c451051 Life Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:09:14 -0800 Comment by Queequeg I want to die in peace, asleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming in fear and agony like his passengers.

]]> Queequeg http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c451100 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/08/post_61#c451100 Life Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:16:32 -0800