the dying light

An elderly patron called me the other day with an initial question of looking up a play by Jean Cocteau that she had seen on tv the night before. She had the title wrong but I kept pushing on through Amazon and finally came up with the correct title. Then she began. She was irate that Sophia Loren wasn't speaking classic Italian - "but some Neapolitan dialect" and she only got bits and pieces of it! I was about to quietly ask if the subtitles didn't help when she barreled on - "and I wouldn't dream of using the subtitles. I know Italian!" And her anger grew from there. She once knew some of the dialects from her time in Italy, but what was wrong with Sophia Loren??? Did I know she wasn't formally educated. Shocking, isn't it.

And on and on. I learned of her youth visiting Italy and how she loved it. When I finally told her the play wasn't in our collection, but I saw a used copy on Amazon for $7.49 she said, "Now how would I do that?" I asked as gently as possible if she knew someone who had a computer who could do it and she agreed she would lean on one of her friends.

"This computer business I know nothing about and it makes me sick. I'm old."

And there you have it. Lash out at Sophia Loren's shoddy education. Be angry with technology." Rage, rage against the dying light."

I comforted, consoled, agreed about electronic frustrations and at the end she said, "Well this is the nicest chat I've had in some time."

I could have wept.