ABSTRACT
It is not only old people who may be boring to others. A schoolboy, who has no other conversation except monosyllabic answers to questions, is just as boring as a garrulous old man recounting trivial episodes from his past, or a dedicated moneymaker who thinks, talks and dreams of nothing but money. There may be several reasons why we tend perhaps to object more to an elderly bore than to a younger one. A boring school-child is mercifully at school for a large part of the day. A boring businessman is at his office all day, and very likely brings some of his work home. We therefore do not have to put up with these bores for much of the day. But an elderly person who happens to be boring may be living with us and is at home all the time — there may be little relief. On top of that, we may have an ambivalent view of elderly people. In one sense we rather expect that anyone who has had a long life should have developed some interests and acquired varied experience. We therefore resent it when they do not seem to have done so. In another sense we may dismiss older people as relics of the past, who have nothing to contribute to the present, and who have nothing worthwhile to say about it. Both notions brutally oversimplify the situation.
