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Post by oldgal75 on Dec 22, 2013 10:22:28 GMT -5
I'm 75 and simply want to thank Julian Barnes more sincerely that any words can say, for 'nothing to be frightened of' which is laugh-out-loud funny in many places, useful to those of us for whom the end is in sight and enlightening in the sense that some of the things that happen as one ages are, if not universal, certainly not uncommon and it's handy to know that what is happening to me is happening to plenty of others.
I've always thought, anyway, that there was nothing to be frightened of in dying but to put it as Woody Allen once did, I'd rather not be there when it happens! It's the possible forms of the ending that can be alarming to think of, not the end itself.
Julian Barnes has performed an amazing service for his fellow men and women. All people who care about - or who care for - old people should read 'nothing to be frightened of' - and learn. We need understanding not interference, and get not enough of the former and far too much of the latter.
Thank you, Julian, thank you and may you too, when the time comes, be planting cabbages.
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Post by oldgal75 on Mar 5, 2014 12:30:31 GMT -5
Well, I guess that [didn't!] put me firmly in my place as an ignorant old woman with nothing useful to say. I don't experience mood swings (did eveparas think none of us would know what cyclothymia is?) nor do I behave like either a teenager or a baby - what an incredibly insulting thing to imply given that I had already said I am 75!
Should I list all the royalty, peers, ambassadors, and international businessmen I've met, dined with, had as house guests or otherwise entertained just to prove I too have moved in rarefied circles in my time? Are we supposed to be impressed that eveparas consorts with pop culture icons?
It is unsurprising that someone who is obviously a Christian would deliberately demean another human being without real cause - it's one of the things they do eminently well. I happen to be a life-long atheist which is why I don't worry about dying - I know there is no hereafter to fear.
evaparas writes: "the book “ Nothing to be frightened of” does not apply to all old people, it simply applies to people who have fears. But neither my son nor my father in law will be reading it.."
I can understand how a mother might decide for a young son what he will or will not be allowed to read; how grotesque to suggest anyone has that kind of control over the books an intelligent, elderly man might choose. How unfortunate to be so rigidly controlled in old age: he has my utmost sympathy as this is exactly the kind of thing I meant when I suggested we need more understanding and a lot less interference.
I shan't bother visiting this site again. One unpleasant and at least partly ad hominem attack is more than enough to send me quietly away.
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Post by sophie on Mar 5, 2014 16:57:25 GMT -5
No,you should stay racist oldgal75
Sorry WE ARE CHRISTIANS. STAY AND TALK ABOUT THE PEERS AND THE AMBASSADORS
YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!!!!!! Racism has no age or race or religion...
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Post by terefere on Mar 5, 2014 17:36:23 GMT -5
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Post by terefere on Mar 5, 2014 17:46:24 GMT -5
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manosd
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by manosd on Mar 6, 2014 4:15:28 GMT -5
We could tell you oldgal75 that our God is arguably one of the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. But he is damn more interesting than some old cockolded authors and that's why we follow him....
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manosd
Junior Member
Posts: 91
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Post by manosd on Apr 15, 2014 2:18:25 GMT -5
What are my fears? I fear of SOLITARY VAIN people, like Julian Barnes, who live in mansions, looking like museums,surrounded by employees who tell them what they want to listen and hang out only with legendary people and phenomenal artists…. But when we all die, we have the same chances for having no one visiting our grave! Of course, Julian Barnes could leave sme money to an employee and clean his grave now and then,even bring him flowers… So what? No wife,no kids. He had cocked up and for him it’s too late now, but not for me yet….  I am afraid of appearing SOPPY and MISERABLE like Julian Barnes does. I’d rather try and make mistakes. One day I might get it right!?  “We should not let our fears choose our destiny.” I can go with this ;so I’ll visit on Good Friday with my father the cemetery where the rest family is,like you do, and maybe that will help me understand or come closer with my future, my very very long-term fuuuutuuuureeee.... The strange thing is that when I said it to my father he sounded jolly happy ,like he’ll go to see a new house....
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Post by UNIVERSAL DIRECTOR on May 12, 2014 2:50:13 GMT -5
Hello! You have been thinking about me lately,so I decided to finally get in touch with YOU!!! Just to let you know that your time has come:to continue your debate about immortality WITH US....  I guess you have enough time to finish your last short NOVEL...  OK,and a couple of SHORT STORIES  and your FINAL GOODBYE to your FANS???!!  Don't FORGET!!  You have the opportunity to meet your LOCAL DIRECTOR , next SUNDAY,18th of MAY 2014,who will answer ALL YOUR QUESTIONS and SHOW YOU around... This will be combined with refreshments,an Argentinian-style BBQ and a FINAL SPIN,by sitting down,in a JAGUAR LIMOUSINE!!! Your next spin would be lying DOWN in the limousine!!!!! Soothing music would set the tone of the preparation!! ENJOY YOURSELF!!! WE will contact YOU,a couple of days before your FINAL DEPARTURE..Please feel FREE to contact US for any additional information ( lord@eternallife.go.go)
TAKE CARE!!  |
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Post by ADAM EVANS on Jul 31, 2014 3:36:07 GMT -5
1) “Books will have to become more desirable: not luxury goods, but well-designed, attractive, making us want to pick them up, buy them, give them as presents, keep them, think about rereading them, and remember in later years that this was the edition in which we first encountered what lay inside.”
Julian Barnes Is ‘NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF’ such a book, Random House?2) Now,is he an attention seeker or a bossy manipulating father (writing a letter about God’s existence to a 10 year old)? He is definitely an open-minded scientist*,so open- minded that his brain has dropped out.
That’s a fact!!
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/30/richard-dawkins-what-on-earth-happened-to-you*NOTE: Scientist, not philosopher or theologian. |
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Post by Émilie du Châtelet on Aug 13, 2014 2:35:05 GMT -5
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Post by Creative Writer on Nov 12, 2014 2:55:36 GMT -5
I don’t believe in frogs, but I miss them. That’s what I say when the question is put. I asked my brother, who has waxed philosophical whilst drunk in pubs in Wollongong and Newcastle, what he thought of such a statement, without revealing that it was my own. He replied with a few words: “What a load of Wank.”
The person to begin the second chapter of my illustrious memoir with is my maternal grandmother, Grandma Cindy, although neither her first nor last name is Cindy, that was her dog’s name. She was a secretary in Edinburgh until she married my grandfather, Arthur James. He may have had a snazzy nickname like Arty, King or Jimmy Jim Jim Jaroo but as he died when my mother was fourteen I never met him so can’t really comment. He was an architect with a certain Scottish dash to him: a man without a tartan, which my grandmother often lorded over him, but born and raised there no less. By the time I knew them, my grandfather was ashes under a rose bush and my grandmother was living in Wollongong an hour away from her nearest child. Grandma was an avid church goer; she was in the choir, on the board and working in the op shop. She was petite, outwardly very opinionated, and had the paper thin skin of old age that made me live in constant fear that she might burst open at any given moment. Her wardrobe was full of kilts, not necessarily in her tartan, and beige petticoats of every length. She had regular appointments with God and being Godly and had bern advised she was a top notch sheila. Mainly by me, I thought she was the cat’s pajamas. My brother remembers that once, when he was very small, he went into Grandpa’s garden and pulled up all the flowers. Grandma yelled at him until he howled, then turned uncharacteristically white, confessed everything to our mother, and swore she would never again yell at the children. Actually, my brother doesn’t remember any of this — neither the flowers nor the yelling. He was just told the story repeatedly by our mother. And indeed, were he to remember it, he might well be wary. As a soccer player who has suffered from severe concussion, he believes that memories are often false, “so much so that, on the Cartesian principle of the rotten apple, none is to be trusted unless it has some external support.” I am more trusting, or self-deluding, so shall continue as if all my memories are true. Yet also acknowledge that my siblings’ memories are probably nothing more than rotten apples. Our mother was christened Anne Margaret although my father often spelt it Anne Magarat. She hated the Rat, and complained about it to anybody who would listen, whose explanation were genereall that Dad was a bit of a turd at times. She has followed in her mother’s footsteps and goes to church and tries to run as much as possible. In my childhood, the three unmentionable subjects were the traditional ones: periods, politics, and sex. When I got my first period I thought I was dying of cancer, my father still refuses to mention who he votes for and sex I worked out. I’ve got three kids to prove it. As for religion, this was discussed at length my father would tell me if I didn’t follow his church exactly I’d not only go to hell but get a belting and my mother would yell us how much better and cooler her church was and put equal amounts of pressure, through guilt rather than fear, to tow the line. Consequently I developed huge social anxieties around going out for public rituals like picnics, dinners and dances. As my parents are still very much alive I think I’ll leave the “appropriation” there and start thinking of the third chapter of my highly anticipated memoir: 'NOTHING TO BE LAUGHED AT...'  
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OK,and a couple of SHORT STORIES 
and your FINAL GOODBYE to your FANS???!! 
You have the opportunity to meet your LOCAL DIRECTOR ,next SUNDAY,18th of MAY 2014,who will answer ALL YOUR QUESTIONS and SHOW YOU around... 
