How would you interpret ‘at the youthful age of seventy’?
At the youthful age of seventy here is one codger who tips my hat to you. For years I have re-read the favorites because the new authors are not up to snuff. But some weeks ago I ran short and went to my corner bookstore for a suggestion. The fellow handed me two by Harrison W. Shepherd, a name unknown to me. I read both without a pause. Of course I blush at scenes of copulation and revelry. But you show that modern times are no different from the old, and people the same everywhere. I was stationed overseas in the first war and never learned to like it, but it did teach me a thing or two. Thank you for adding spunk to my life. I look forward to your other books.
How would you interpret ‘at the youthful age of seventy’ in the first sentence?
Does it mean the narrator didn’t think himself old, though he was seventy?
Thanks! And it’s a letter written by a reader to a novelist.
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 9
2
Well, I think you can only understand that sentence if you ARE about 70 years old.
We start thinking differently about age as we age!
At the youthful age of 60 I decided to get a tattoo!
At the youthful age of 61 I started flying lessons (as a pilot, not a bird)
Next birthday I'm 62 and I'm wondering what I should do. Bungee jumping?
By the time I get to the youthful age of 70 I shall have done lots of unusual things, and I'll have a lot more to do!
So that old codger of seventy, well, yes, he may be saying it with some humour. Irony, perhaps. But somewhere within him he may be saying a lot more than that. He may be cocking a snoop (making a little bit of a rude gesture, or at least making a point) at conventional ideas that 70 is old.
So from me, at the very youthful age of 62 next birthday, I say to you - there's humour there, but also a lot more. He's letting the novelist know that he is not a young inexperienced man who does not know what he is talking about.
He's letting the novelist know he is a man of great experience of life. A man well qualified, by virtue of age, to comment on the book he has read. And he's letting the novelist know quite a lot about the way he feels and thinks. "I'm not dead yet and I get a real kick out of sexy books like yours! Well done!"!
1
I think I'd like to add... You wouldn't say, "Fred died at the youthful age of 82." That would not make sense. But you would say, "Fred took up windsurfing at the youthful age of 82."
It has humour, yes. But it has a lot more. It's that wonderful contrast between 'windsurfing' and '82.' You want to shout "Well done, Fred!"
0
Ha! I wrote cocking a snoop! I meant cocking a snook!
0
It's a joke. He is just being funny. That's all :)
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