How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Silenus's true age might be anywhere from ninety to a hundred and fifty standard years. If he were close to the latter age, the Consul knew, the odds were that the poet was quite mad. (1.27)
Even if he isn't 150, Silenus has been mad a long, long time. But we're wondering—does age still lead to dementia in the future? Is a person who reaches 150 years old destined to be crazy?
Quote #2
Ah, Edouard, boys together, classmates together […] now old men together. (1.187)
The only person Father Duré thinks of while living amongst the Bikura is his friend, Edouard, both of whom have grown old together. Like fine wine, friendship gets better with age: the best is yet to be.
Quote #3
I peer at my face in the pool near the waterfall and see only the same long, aging countenance that I have learned to dislike in recent years. (1.589)
We're not sure why the Consul hasn't had Poulsen treatments if he's so unhappy with growing old. A man with his own private spacecraft and Steinway piano has to be loaded, right? Or is there some other reason that he dislikes his face?
Quote #4
Balthazar all but glowed blue-white from those crude, early Poulsen treatments (3.52)
Glowing blue seems to be the Awful Plastic Surgery of the 28th century. Anti-aging treatments aren't as effective if everyone can tell that you've had them.
Quote #5
Neither [Sol nor Sarai] had considered Poulsen treatments because neither of them could afford it, but even without such care they looked forward to another fifty years of health. (4.139)
Even in the 28th century, not everyone resorts to artificial treatments to stay young. Some people prefer to age gracefully—and it sounds like, treatments or not, that's a lot easier in the 28th century.
Quote #6
I just keep getting younger and smaller and less capable until I just disappear someday? (4.356)
Replace "younger" with "older" and Rachel's concerns would still be just as valid.
Quote #7
Rachel's hair, always her one vanity, grew shorter and thinner. Her face lost its familiar structure. [...] Her coordination failed by degrees. (4.688)
Rachel's regression into babyhood eerily mirrors the body's deterioration as it gets older. There's a reason they call old age a "second childhood."
Quote #8
I kissed her graying hair and the lines etched in the once smooth cheeks. I kissed her tears. (6.166)
Siri could be crying because she's much older than Merin now, or because he still shows love for her regardless of her age. Or both. (Maybe he should have just made her into a vampire.)
Quote #9
I was all too aware of her short hair, the loosening neck muscles, and the cords appearing on the backs of those once beloved hands. (6.195)
Seeing Siri grow old is all the more startling for Merin because he's hardly aged at all. Imagine if you woke up one day and your wife—or husband, brother, or sister—was suddenly fifty years older than you.
Quote #10
Siri's voice had grown even more beautiful with age. There is a fullness and calmness there which can come only from knowing pain. (6.436)
This is one of the few benefits of growing old that the novel illustrates, even if it is coupled with the fact that with old age comes pain and suffering. At least that's not all. There's also "fullness" and "calmness." Uh, we're pretty sure we'd still take youth.