Response: Lesage is in her 70s!?!

Okay, so maybe that’s not an actual picture of Julia Lesage. Throw in a laptop spinning off some Flashforward on Hulu and a Tivo and it might as well be. Did anyone else go, “Say what!?!” when she said, “…I am intrigued that the series is training me in proper cult fan behavior, a new trick for me at age 70.” Age seventy? Excuse me! That completely shattered my expectations of who you is, girl! I was picturing you as a platinum blonde with curly hair, thirty-five and a bit too sexy considering your technological know-how, criss-crossing your legs over my desk. But 70? Let’s talk about your viewing habits for a second. You’re using Tivo on a regular basis, whereas I’ve never owned one, operated one–Have I seen one?– not that I wouldn’t be able to figure it out right off the bat. I think that’s the difference Julia is underlining–that those supposed younger norms do not come naturally to her, whereas they come easily to us millenials. What’s interesting is that it’s not only the millenials. Our parents and grandparents have also adapted. They’ve changed their viewing habits, some better than others, and those who do perhaps have a competitive media advantage. Call it modern something darwinism or survival of the most willing to sit at his computer, or what you will, but this isn’t just a younger generational thing anymore. It may start with the younger generations, but it’s truly pervading through all of society.

3 thoughts on “Response: Lesage is in her 70s!?!

  1. Brendan Mahoney

    I couldn’t comment on the Quidditch post, so I’ll comment here. The amount of press that the Quidditch World Cup has gotten is pretty incredible, but then again, it has all of the elements of a good story. It also comes as no surprise that there was negative coverage of the event, especially on blogs, where snark prevails. I am a frequent reader and onetime contributor to Filmdrunk, and I was very dismayed by their coverage. I thought they missed the point of the event. Middlebury students came off as either arrogant, entitled jocks or hopeless nerds, which is so far from the truth. It was a little strange seeing two areas of my life converge in this one blog post, but it does speak to how we compartmentalize our lives. My film fandom and my school spirit are rarely joined, and seeing them at odds with each other made me question both.

  2. Jamal Davis

    Haha, I’m kind of with you guys on this one. 70?! Yeah, wow, however I wasn’t picturing some “BABE” as my friends are claiming to dream about when they hear, Lesage. I do think that our generation does have it easier in a lot of different ways, seriously we don’t have to do half the things that it took for our parents to find out what the color’s of South Africa’s flag is. I mean C’mon son, we have lot of things at our finger tips. I’m not saying this means we don’t have to learn other things that makes up for what we gain in simplicity but I don’t think that we don’t “work as hard” in many of the same avenues that granny had to before. Obviously, this isn’t something we should feel bad about but something that we should feel great about because other’s have worked hard to find ways to make it easier for us to shorten the amount of time it takes to change the television channel or make a fanvid.

  3. Rajwinder Kaur

    My friend was telling me about her trip to her grandma’s friends house. There, those oldies but goodies were talking about how our generation doesn’t work as hard as they did and that we have it easy. So my friend and I dissected this a bit. It’s not that we don’t work as hard, it’s just that we do a different kind of work. I think about all the times oldies but goodies come into the HelpDesk for solutions to problems that are so intuitive, not as a “techie” but as someone who grew up around computers. Then I feel like a miracle worker until I realized that… man… it’s just a different sort of knowledge, a different literacy that I’ve acquired. Not learned, acquired. So I think it’s pretty dope that Lesage got that TiVo down. Also, you’re not alone in the idealizing of Lesage (objectifying?)…I pictured her similarly to Francesca Coppa… BABE.

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