Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life
Joshua Prager: Die Weisheiten bedeutender Schriftsteller über jedes Lebensjahr
Joshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is going to be a very good year,
dass 44 ein gutes Jahr wird --
und Verwirklichung.
particular in store for me,
etwas Besonderes bevorsteht,
einem Buch von Norman Mailer
eine massive Verkörperung
and sentiment to be a man,
und dem Gefühl, ein Mann zu sein,
wasn't writing about me.
nicht über mich schrieb.
the subject of his book,
und die Hauptperson seines Buches
along the same great sequence:
gleichen Abschnitten:
and confinements of childhood;
Einschränkungen der Kindheit;
and frustrations of adolescence;
Frustrationen der Jugend;
and millstones of adulthood;
des Erwachsenenlebens;
and resignations of old age.
und Resignation des Alters.
"It will happen to me as to them."
"Es wird mich und auch sie treffen."
und lassen sie zu Erzählungen werden,
where they become narratives
wiedererkennen können.
if it passes into anything."
wenn es überhaupt in etwas einfließt."
a thought leapt to mind:
there were, somewhere,
über jedes Alter geben.
assemble them into a narrative.
in einer Erzählung zusammenführen.
zusammenführen,
unter uns durchkommen.
schrieb William Trevor.
wrote William Trevor.
über Zeit und Alter.
and later an injury to me
sowie eine Verletzung bei mir
could not be assumed.
nicht voraussetzen könne, alt zu werden.
only postponed the inevitable,
nur das Unvermeidliche:
what circumstance did not.
was durch den Umstand nicht gelang.
year by vulnerable year
Jahr um wehrloses Jahr,
what was fleeting,
zu erden, was dahineilt,
a glimpse into the future,
Blick in die Zukunft vermitteln,
I was quickly obsessed,
war ich schnell besessen davon,
for ages and ages.
durch unsere ersten 100 Jahre.
through our first hundred years.
of sudden revelations,"
überraschender Offenbarungen",
that such insights were relative.
dass solche Einsichten relativ waren.
and so age more slowly.
und altern daher langsamer.
the phrase "the yellow leaf"
die Redewendung "das gelbe Blatt",
used it to describe himself at 36.
sich selbst so mit 36 beschrieben hatte.
wild und unvorhersehbar umschwenken kann,
can swing wildly and unpredictably
the same age differently.
unterschiedlich erfahren können.
deutlich wie eine Reflexion im Spiegel,
as the reflection in the mirror,
das ich gelebt hatte:
and less sure of who one is;"
unsicherer wird, wer man ist",
of preparation into active life;"
für das aktive Leben" aufzutauchen,
the doors to rooms
zu schließen zu Räumen,
der großartige Grafikdesigner,
visualizations you see here,
Sie hier sehen,
and an apotheosis," wrote Nabokov --
Vergötterung", schrieb Nabokov --
wie Kunst und Farbe, uns hilft,
was wir erlebt haben.
what we've experienced.
the list with my grandfather,
als niemals zu sterben."
we are sure we will not die,
sicher sind, nicht zu sterben,
Edwin Shneidman Recht hatte,
named Edwin Shneidman was right
dass man stirbt.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Prager - JournalistJoshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own.
Why you should listen
Joshua Prager writes for publications including Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior writer for eight years. George Will has described his work as "exemplary journalistic sleuthing."
His new book, 100 Years, is a list of literary quotations on every age from birth to one hundred. Designed by Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer who created the I ♥ NY logo, the book moves year by year through the words of our most beloved authors, revealing the great sequence of life.
His first book, The Echoing Green, was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. The New York Times Book Review called it “a revelation and a page turner, a group character study unequaled in baseball writing since Roger Kahn’s Boys of Summer some three decades ago.”
His second book, Half-Life, describes his recovery from a bus crash that broke his neck. Dr. Jerome Groopman, staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, called it “an extraordinary memoir, told with nuance and brimming with wisdom.
Joshua was a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2011 and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Hebrew University in 2012. He was born in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, grew up in New Jersey, and lives in New York. He is writing a book about Roe v. Wade.
Joshua Prager | Speaker | TED.com