Age in Film and Literature - An Essay

Films and literature together form what is probably the most extensive "entertainment medium" of our time and of past centuries. What these two art forms have in common is that they tell stories. Be it historically accurate events from days gone by or freely invented stories that are often perceived as "modern fairy tales".

Another thing they have in common is that in films and books the stories of people or characters are depicted as one might find them in the "real world". The scope ranges from very young figures to really old people. With their age, the characters then also form the character that the writer or filmmaker wants to convey. Pipi Longstocking would be less funny if she were older. The old magician Gandalf from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would hardly be believable if he were a young man.

While literature has little problem with bringing in protagonists of the most diverse age groups, the film industry settles predominantly for actors of younger ages. The actor Michael Douglas recently criticised Hollywood for not offering enough roles for older actors. To what extent such criticism by "screen legends" like Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman or Patrick Stewart is justified is a matter of debate. Such names will certainly never have to complain about unemployment. However, it is also a fact that many films seem to get by with the age group of mid-20s to early 40s for the casting of their protagonists. This is also because Hollywood predominantly eschews literary adaptations and instead creates films that seem more "tailored" to the cast, seeking to embody an image with which viewers of a wide range of ages can identify.

Although novels cannot do without such sympathetic characters either, a book lacks the "visual default", or casting of the role with a particular actor. In this respect, novel characters are not only easier to integrate into a story. At the same time, novels often do without explicit age specifications and the reader creates the character in his or her mind's eye in the age group that is believable to him or her.

The bottom line is that you will encounter disproportionately more potentially old people in modern and classic literature than in the big Hollywood blockbusters produced now and in recent years. This imbalance can also be attributed less to the stories themselves than to the nature of the medium. However, Hollywood will not be able to do without older actors in the future, if only to make more or less lovable comedies, such as the 2015 film "The Intern", in which Robert DeNiro plays a 70-year-old pensioner who throws himself into the hip fashion world as an intern instead of spending his twilight years doing nothing. Likewise, there will probably continue to be sequels or spin-offs of well-known series in which one cannot do without the old guard. Patrick Steward, now 80, still embodies Enterprise Commander Jean Luc Picard in the newly produced science fiction Star Trek sequel series "Picard". Even the last episodes of the well-known "Star Wars Saga" were not without the now aged actors of the first hour.

In literature, the distribution of older protagonists is less conspicuously focused. Although there are also books that specifically tell the story of an older person, literature is not so conspicuously limited to comedies or other lighter fare as is often the case with films. 

In addition to novels whose protagonist or main character is an older person, there are novels across the centuries and genres in which older people whose age does not form the focal theme, but who play an authoritative key role in the story that could not be taken over at all or only poorly by a younger character.

A classic of world literature would be Ernest Hemingway's short novel "The Old Man and the Sea", published in 1951, in which the old and experienced Cuban fisherman Santiago wrestles with a huge marlin, which, however, is eaten by sharks in the end. Santiago thus loses the biggest catch of his life. Besides a possible reference to religious interpretations, Santiago stands for the "good old man" in the face of an overpowering nature that he has nothing to oppose except his experience. A life situation that many older people have certainly faced.

A deeper meaning can also be found in the well-known characters of Tolkien's novel trilogy "Lord of the Rings", which was published in 1954 and is one of the most successful novels of the 20th century. Bilbo Baggins, the old wizard Gandalf and even Frodo Baggins are not juveniles. The great adventure of the protagonists described in the novel begins with their 50th birthday, even though the characters Bilbo and Frodo seem to have remained visually young through their possession of the ominous ring and could thus be more easily portrayed by younger actors in Peter Jackson's film adaptation. What is not youthful, however, are the life lessons that Tolkien imparts to his characters in the novel and which could nevertheless be projected from the fantastic fantasy world of Middle-earth onto existing lives in our world and which presuppose a certain amount of life experience.

Even "children's book authors" like J.K. Rowling cannot do without older people, although the leading protagonists of the magical novel series about Harry Potter are of child or adolescent age, the old teachers of the wizarding school Hogwarts and especially the headmaster Aldus Dumbledore play a weighty role that would be impossible to convey credibly in novels and films by a younger character.

Older people are not the nice guys or sympathetic figures in every novel. In Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, the protagonist, the former law student Raskolnikov, beats the old and greedy pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna to death with a hatchet. Although the old woman becomes the victim of this crime, readers of the novel will feel little sympathy for this greedy old crone and thus also question Dostoyevsky's idea of a "morally permissible murder" intended with the work.

In addition to novels in which older people appear, there are also those that deal with a very familiar topic, provided one has passed a certain age or has also experienced serious events: The personal life balance. Older people will have no problem confirming that we all reach a point in life where we pause and take a more or less critical look at the course of our lives. While such a retrospective hopefully refers in many cases to positive life experiences, just as many people will probably face an honestly critical balance sheet.

A prime example of such a life account would undoubtedly be Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Cellar Hole", in which a very bitter and grumpy former civil servant will leave a not entirely positive impression on the reader. Despite all the bitterness of this protagonist, however, one or the other reader will quite unquestionably be able to recognise himself in this character.

The ageing protagonist in Yasmina Reza's short novel "Anne-Marie the Beauty", in which an ageing actress ponders irretrievable missed opportunities and does not exactly look back happily on her life's work, draws a balance that is not much more positive, but far more endearing. Like Dostoevsky, Reza's work will encourage readers to take a closer look at their own lives and to question them more or less critically. For those who would like to squeeze themselves less literarily into the predetermined life courses of fictional novel characters, but would still like to deal with growing older from a literary point of view, the poems of the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin are highly recommended, who understands how to transport the "autumn of life" in his poems, perhaps somewhat melancholy but also not negatively sad.

Literature tells stories. In an ideal case, readers will be able to discover themselves in the characters of a novel and raise questions or conclusions about their own lives and work. The point is not so much to extract as many applicable life wisdoms from a literary work as to be stimulated to discover one's own wisdoms. Such thought-provoking insights will in many cases help to better master difficult situations in life. Anyone who has read "Notes from the Cellar Hole" and finds the protagonist exhaustingly grumpy and even overly grouchy will probably be urged not to behave that way himself or to let himself go that way. Anyone who has read "Anne-Marie the Beauty" will recognise that past opportunities are irretrievably over, but that they do not have to be synonymous with a completely failed course of life. Yesenin's poems rub our transience almost right in the face, yet also emphasise the romantic beauty of autumn. A good book not only tells a story, but is also able to open the reader's eyes to the course of his or her own life.

Again and again you will meet people who more or less confidently announce that they want to write "a book" about their life. In most cases, fellow human beings will then frown and wonder who would want to read such a book. This is never a fair question. Even though very few of our contemporaries will actually accomplish such great and extraordinary things in their lives that one would want to write books about at first glance. Nevertheless, we are all witnesses of our time with a story all our own that each of us could tell. Anne Frank was in no way aware of the literary scope and significance of her diary when she wrote it. Neither was Lena Muchina, a schoolgirl in Leningrad besieged by the Wehrmacht, who described in her diary the oppressive events in the starving, besieged city and whose notes are now known to every schoolboy in today's St Petersburg. So who is to say whether a diary written today would not become interesting or even significant for future generations?

In addition to such diaries of Anne and Lena, there is of course a multitude of biographies and autobiographies of important people, the reading of which can be instructive or even inspiring. While the biographies of historical figures often read like a historical novel, there are also numerous biographies of people of our generation that convey a completely different message, for example the courtly life of Catherine the Great. Or Professor Dr Sauerbruch's. In the biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs or former Hewlett-Packard boss Carly Fiorina, we may discover far more parallels to our own lives and aspirations than in the life stories of Bonaparte, Franz Liszt or Doctor Sauerbruch.

In any case, biographies are suitable for discovering that even the great historical figures of this world were "only" human beings, and that even the "little man" sometimes succeeds in reaching into the wheels of great history.

Just like Lena from Leningrad or Anne Frank, we are all witnesses of our time with a story all our own. Who can judge which of these stories might become relevant at some point? A good example would be the autobiographical novel by the Schleswig writer Marlies Jensen-Leier, who in her novel "Holm Engholm and Back" describes the events she experienced as a secretary at the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament during the "drawer affair" in 1993. While her life as a "simple secretary" may seem very insignificant, her word as a witness to a state affair with a view behind the scenes becomes incomparably more weighty. If you now look through your own curriculum vitae, you will certainly come across events that you experienced and that were worth talking about. Many of us will not only be able to describe the worries of a global pandemic, but may also recall very personal feelings about global catastrophes such as 11 September 2001 (attack on the World Trade Center) or even 26 April 1986 (Chernobyl). It is now up to the personal decision whether one wants to carry one's own feelings about these events down the generations or not. To make them unforgettable, it is recommended to write them down. The Russian literature and history professor Prof. Dr. Galina Shymkova repeatedly emphasises that the brain and the pillars of our culture are written on paper. Without the countless diaries, letters and records of countless private individuals, she and other Russian historians would never have succeeded in historically processing the events of the Leningrad Blockade in such detail as it is preserved today in the Petersburg "Museum of Blockade and Defence Leningrad". According to Prof. Dr. Shymkova, when evaluating the written documents, it did not matter whether one had the diary of a political functionary or the letters of a kitchen maid in front of one.

Many historical projects work with the questioning of contemporary witnesses in order to capture, understand and, if necessary, reappraise the spirit of the times. Many of these historical projects are dedicated to the great catastrophes of history. Accounts from Holocaust survivors rank high in the value of such historical projects. Other historical associations collect accounts from contemporary witnesses to the air raids on German cities. If neither letters nor diaries from this period have survived, historians are working in a race against the lifetimes of the remaining eyewitnesses, whose ranks are involuntarily thinning out. In just a few years, there will be no one left alive who can tell of deportation or air raids. Unless what they experienced is written down, it will remain unsaid forever. Exactly the same period of time is opening up in all of our lives and generations. The day will come when no one will be alive who lived through the time of the Chernobyl explosion or the demise of the Twin Towers in New York. So anyone who has something to say about this should write it down or have it written down.

Another cautionary note from the historian refers to the recommendation to write such diaries "by hand" on paper instead of hammering them into the apps and clouds of some digital provider. Anyone who experienced the advent of PCs (personal computers) in the 1980s and 1990s will understand this recommendation. Hardly anyone will be able to show a text today that they typed into a computer in the 90s and did not print out. The constant changes of data carriers and entire operating systems destroy the data format of entire generations. Meanwhile, one can still easily consult letters in the national archives that were written hundreds of years ago. On paper. The probability that a descendant will find a diary in the attic in a hundred years is much higher than that in a hundred years someone will remember the access data of a "cloud" or own a device that can read 3.4" floppy disks. The lifespan of a commercially available CD-Rom is about 10 years. So after 15 years, such data carriers are hardly readable any more, even with the right hardware.

While writing this article, we ourselves remembered numerous events in our lives that would be worth writing down. How much more would the readers of this article be able to add and what picture would emerge from the sum of all these personal records of a particular event? An El Dorado for the historians of the future. Hence our tip: Write a diary. By hand on paper! Even if these records never end up on a historian's desk, it is almost certain that one of their descendants will be delighted with such insights. The historian Prof. Dr. Shymkova confirmed that she had never spoken to an owner of such a diary who found the written legacy of one of his ancestors uninteresting or superfluous. Even old postcards and letters are not infrequently lovingly preserved by family members of the future and passed on from generation to generation. Such family treasures are almost never thrown away or disposed of.

What modern readers often do not consider is that each book was written in the spirit of the time in which the author lived. This is precisely what leads to sometimes astonishing assessments in an age of "political correctness" as we experience it today. For example, "Pipi Longstocking" by the Swedish Nobel Prize winner Astrid Lindgren was described as "racist/sexist" and even a novel by Erich Kästner was removed from the bookshelves of a bookstore because the novel was "racist crap", as the bookseller announced on Twitter. One may and should gladly counter such ideologically driven actions with the fact that works by Kästner fell victim to the Nazi book burning as early as 1933.

Equally inappropriate would be the attribution of racism to an Astrid Lindgren, who in her life rendered outstanding services to donations and organisations for the benefit of children. Mark Twain, who always condemned and tried to portray slavery in his novels, also uses the "N-word". According to the - quite researchable and debatable - linguistic usage of his time. But does this place him per se in the circle of "racists"? The significance of Orwell's prediction of a future in which a Ministry of Truth would blacken disagreeable passages from literature is a moot point.

Not to be overlooked is a little-differentiated desire on the part of our current society to measure all literature by today's norms and standards. This attitude is not only difficult, but also hardly possible. Language changes and develops not in years, but in decades, if not centuries. Thus, one cannot expect or assume that centuries-old writings correspond to today's language use or align themselves with its norms.

When reading older books, it is therefore advisable to place the text in the spirit of the time in which it was written. In doing so, one may not only make unpleasant encounters with words that we try to avoid today, but also discover completely different aspects. For example, the highly acclaimed book by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is absolutely not just a children's book. First published in 1943, Saint-Exupéry's book is a politically critical observation of the political protagonists in Europe at the time. Looking at the book in such facets presupposes, of course, that one is somewhat familiar with the Europe of 1943. The books of a Mark Twain would have to be read in the same way, or many of the editions of Russian classics, which not infrequently attack communism so sharply that these titles were banned in Soviet times. However, the authors of that time were also clever enough to wrap their harsh criticism in a literary work which, like The Little Prince, is not immediately recognisable as a political book. Such critiques become exciting as soon as they attack not only the political system of their time, but also social and sociological concepts that may have hardly changed despite a shift in political positions to this day.

The book "Master and Margarita" by the Ukrainian-Russian writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov is considered one of the most important works of Russian literature of the 20th century. Bulgakov not only sharply criticises the political system, but also takes side swipes at Moscow society in an allegorical and satirical manner. When reading the work, it quickly becomes clear that the constructs of the society Bulgakov mocks are hardly any different from those we still live with on a daily basis today. The protagonists of the work could easily be plucked from the novel and placed in a similar position in our world without standing out particularly.

Such timeless works are usually exciting because they prove to the reader that our society may be changing far less rapidly than we might like. This applies not only to sociological concepts, of course, but also to political models. One may and should ask why the hundred-year-old concerned letters of a Rosa Luxemburg read as if they were written only yesterday to criticise our modern politics? If old works seem red-hot, not very much will have changed, socially as well as politically. Whether that is good or bad will have to be determined and judged individually in each case. The fact is that in many of the great classics, from Dostoevsky and Bulgakov to Grass and Fallada, there are examples and passages that can be transferred one-to-one to our time or at least clear parallels can be drawn. Time and again, modern literature also manages to have a fairway in which historical descriptions in the spirit of our modern age trigger a positive thought process in the reader. Since it is impossible to study the publication lists of the various publishers, the literature podcast "Lesart" by Deutschlandfunk-Kultur is recommended here, in which new publications with aspirations are presented again and again. The podcast clearly does not limit itself to pure entertainment literature, but also often throws book introductions into the round that offer readers far more than just an exciting reading experience.

Film and literature will continue to inspire many people and open up new horizons in the future. While the film industry is gaining possibilities through ever new trick techniques, literature continues to be limited to the creativity of writing authors. That these are not only composed of literary academics is shown by the CVs of many well-known and admired writers of the past. Indeed, all castes and estates are represented among them. Not infrequently, people with a comparatively difficult curriculum vitae also stand out positively among them. Be it the somewhat oddball Edgar Allan Poe, the hopeless alcoholic Hans Fallada or the uncomfortably rebellious system critic Mikhail Bulgakov. Not only are these names witnesses of their time, but so are we. Whether we pass on our impressions to posterity in a diary or whether we want to tell a great literary story. The future of literature is literally at our fingertips, and thus the pillars of our world and civilisation will remain proverbially written on paper in the future.

Insofar as one is contemplating becoming a writer oneself, aspiring authors should not be guided at all, or at least not very much, by political correctness, provided that this is not one's own political convictions. The past has shown in several tragic episodes that political censorship of writing and culture never bore edifying fruit. Be it the efforts of the Soviet regime or even those of the National Socialists. Although they were very different systems, both failed to shut down the voice of free writing altogether. The Church demonstrated a similar inability during the Renaissance period, when artists like DaVinci managed to conceal satirical-critical symbolism in his works despite the strict constraints of the Roman Catholic Church. In the same way, writers or other artists today are very likely to succeed in juggling writing and images past so-called or supposedly politically correct constraints. Art and culture never come from above, but always from the middle of the population. That's how it has always been and that's how it will always be. In this respect, art is only ever subject to the personal censorship of the creator himself. He can indeed subordinate himself to the loud voices.... but he will also be able to weave his own way of seeing into his work. Even if it is only apparent at second glance, this modern artist would not be alone in his work. Already in times past, authors and other artists have proceeded in exactly this way to carry their own thoughts beyond the boundaries of a predefined system. In many cases not only successful, but at the same time it is precisely these works that make the names immortal today. Likewise, quite a few of these literary revolutionaries wrote their works under systems that were far more lethal in dealing with subversive elements than the critics of our time. A negative attitude towards a desired position is not yet sanctioned by the official state, at least in this country. A prospect that writers under Hitler or Stalin certainly faced and nevertheless completed their critical work.

Some writers of the past indeed succeeded in writing their satirical and often sharp critiques in such a way that no one was personally offended, but always addressed and delivered a critique of the system as a whole. Bulgakov wrote in a now legendary letter to the government of the USSR under Stalin: "The struggle against censorship, whatever its nature and whatever regime it exists under, is for me a writer's duty, as is the demand for freedom of the press." For those who argue that we do not live in a country where freedom of the press or freedom of speech is restricted, we recommend Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451", which describes a social system in which restriction, sanctioning and social ostracism are not dictated by the state, but are created from within society itself. Similar tendencies can already be observed in our society. This makes it all the more important for current and future writers to adopt an attitude that is as independent of the system as possible. It remains to be hoped that these writers of our generations, just like historical predecessors, will succeed in wrapping their criticism in elegant writings without losing themselves in unobjective diatribes. Ultimately, a writer's work will always have to stand on its own and not shed light on the circumstances under which it was created.

Experience shows that literature rarely follows current fashions. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was considered lousy shortly after its publication and is today one of the most successful novels of the 20th century. In a literary understanding, no single novel has to conform to an existing or past reality. This can happen, but it is fundamentally not an evaluation factor for good or bad literature. Certainly, many authors will orient themselves to their own life reality in order to attach some realism to their work. But how is a reader supposed to evaluate such a reality once the work is only one generation out of mind? Hardly anyone will be able to imagine the daily reality of their grandparents' lives. So how was one to judge a novel that is not only set in the time period of one's grandparents, but is also written by an author who lived in that very time?

It is true that there are authors who know how to depict a past in a highly realistic way, but whose work nevertheless remains pure fiction. Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" gives a fundamentally realistic insight into the construction of our cathedrals in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the novel is fictional from beginning to end. The assessment of possible realism could possibly be made by a historian or history academic; but hardly by a conventional Sunday or holiday reader. The realisation that fiction never has to fulfil a literary claim to truth makes it easier for potential writers. The fact that even very bizarre ghosts make it into the ranks of world literature is proven by the work of Franz Kafka, who in his short novel "The Metamorphosis" knows how to portray very psychologically correct human character traits, but in doing so by no means adheres to a measurable reality. Whether a work reflects a reality or even the writer's world of thought: As long as literature creates an expansion of existence for the reader, the literary work may be considered successful.