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[Kim Seng-kon]From 'little old men' to great old men

In Greek, “gerontion” means “little old man.” The famous poet T. S. Eliot published a poem titled “Gerontion” in 1920, in which a disillusioned elderly man reflects on Europe after World War I. In the poem, an old man’s voice laments the barren landscape of modern civilization with the intellectual frivolity and spiritual barrenness of postwar Europe. Later, T. S. Eliot called this bleak world "The Waste Land." Just as Eliot’s little old man did in the early 20th century, today’s “little old men