Life and death in consort …

… Heirs of history – or its orphans? Michael Krasny in conversation with Robert Harrison | The Book Haven.

Robert recalled leafing through his father’s school yearbook – the teenagers were “fully grown adults – youngish, but fully grown adults. I hardly see that in my undergraduates today.” Similarly, the faces of boys in developing countries who look like “weathered, fully formed adults. Dignfiied, majestic, senile traits – in the First World, we hardly ever acquire them.” Senile, that is, in the classic OED sense – “characteristic or caused by old age” opposed to puerile, “like a boy.” Our older people crave youth, and our youth are born into a vacuum. Are we the heirs of history – or its orphans?

It is perhaps worth recalling that the Black Prince was 16 when he led the English to victory at Crécy and Poitiers.