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Well, apparently a big part of the age-related problems people face, beginning with the infamous midlife crisis, is basicly the fact that you're no longer in touch with the younger generation, you don't know what's going on, what's cool and what they're talking about, and really, chances is that you really don't care. It's like if the world once was engineered for your needs and for your fun, and now it's no longer like that, like a suit that doesn't fit you nymore. And you get isolated and grumpy, and you age and then you die.
Which is why I think certain old people are more than fortunate to, all of a sudden, become again part of the young culture, some of them reaching iconic status in the process. The first example I can think of is, of course, Stan Lee, who is not only old, but if I'm not mistaken, from those Kevin Smith movies and some comments I've read on this board, is highly thought-of, beinf referred more often than not as *cool*. All the characters he created are being brought to the mediatic forefront, there are Salon articles about the dysfunctional family that is the Fantastic Four, and so on. Pops are pop again.
And then Christopher Lee, rehabilitated from his former status as a folkloric character in the more obscure side of Hollywood history - acting in all those monster movies from the fifties that only a savage age like ours could redeem as "cult classics" - to the point of being called "an actor of shakespearian stature" (whatever it is that it means) by some over-excited cinema critic. Straight in the lap of all young Lord Of The Ring fans. And don't forget he also appears in Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones. All of a sudden, a whole bunch of kids start talking about him again. Well, not "kids" kids, but you know what I mean.
Yoda. A fictional character, yes, but I heard tales of how the crowds roared as they watched that old green arse spinning around with a lightsaber, fighting... Christopher Lee.
Ian Mckellen is another one. He is Magneto, for Claremont's sake. And he is Gandalf.
Which reminds me that Tolkkien is gonna be subject of many embarrassing flamewars for at least the next five years to come.
So, anyone think this might mean something, a new pattern being developed under the media all-seeing eye, or is it just a coincidence? Is it important in some sense to the way our society relates to elderly people, or it's a small quirk that will vanish as soon as the commercial drive socketed in each of the pop products mentioned above fades away?
...Or you could just give me your list of old people that are making it back to the pop forefront. |
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