You are young, you are young, you are young, therefore you are young

The expression You are young, you are young, you are young, therefore you are young is introduced as the philosophy of Eizo, a Shiatsu practitioner whose treatment leaves Andy Warhol feeling wonderful. Its repetition makes youth sound less like a measured fact than an affirmation to be practiced, a quality sustained by saying it again.

The phrase in the treatment room

Recommended by Richard Weisman, Eizo works on Warhol for an hour and a half. He gives Warhol practical advice about how to cross his legs, explaining that one side is weaker than the other. Warhol replies that he never crosses his legs, then catches himself sitting with them crossed. The small contradiction brings the body into the scene as something both observed and imperfectly acknowledged.

Eizo’s maxim is recorded as “You are young you are young you are young, therefore you are young.” Warhol makes a standing appointment for every Wednesday at 7:30, so the encounter becomes a recurring treatment rather than a one-time consultation. He also lies about his age, telling Eizo that he is forty-four; when Eizo says, “Oh that’s my age, too!” Warhol guesses that the practitioner knows he is lying. He nevertheless feels wonderful afterward, leaving the repeated assurance of youth beside the treatment’s physical attention and the joke about age.