Well, the whole article reads like a hasty generalisation to me, but in an effort to avoid being trite . . . The author's generalisation is that society (i.e. everyone) doesn't respect authors over 70 and characters over 70 (and by extension, people over 70). Yet, he goes on to give examples of celebrated authors over 70 and celebrated stories where the main characters are over 70, leaving his argument where, exactly?

I've no doubt that some "young" people disrespect "old" people simply because they are "old." By the same token, some "old" people disrespect "young" people simply because they are "young." This is nuts. Respect people who are worthy of respect regardless of age (conversely, sadly, many people don't do much worthy of respect, again regardless of age). Back to my original comment: can we just stop with this kind of generational pot shots?