I knew Fran's name but I had never spent time with her in any capacity. So watching Pretend It’s a City, her Netflix series by/with Martin Scorsese, was full of discovery for me. You may know I lived in Manhattan for my mid-twenties, so, I could relate to, and find humor in, many of Fran's New York-based observations and complaints.
The thing that struck me the most while watching was learning of Fran's matter-of-fact technology-free way of living. She shares that she doesn't have a cellphone, a computer, an email address… not even a typewriter! She says she has a phone and a mailing address (and a tv), and that's enough.
Upon continued investigation I've found out Fran never learned to type (when she writes it is with a pen, often a Bic) and therefore says she had no need for a typewriter. Then PCs came about and since she saw them as a new form of a typewriter, she saw no need for a computer, either.
This all got my mental gears in motion.
What does that look like in practice?
Ok, Fran lives in NYC, where she's lived a long time, and her friends live there, too, or visit. The technologies I use are tools primarily to aid connection, entertainment, and work. Fran’s connections must be all over the city and easy to maintain face-to-face (B.C. - before covid). So far as entertainment, reading is one of her primary activities. And then work- Fran has been in a decades-long writer’s block, and work for her is speaking around the country- for which I would imagine an agent coordinates on her behalf, and checks in by phone or in-person meeting to confirm details as needed.
I just have so many questions.
What do I do on my phone that would need to change format?
Check npr.org (less compulsively now than before January 20) - ok so she can get news from the television, daily newspapers… does Fran have a radio?
Instagram - photos + text + stories… = magazines, catalogs! does Fran have multiple magazine subscriptions? Does Fran welcome catalogs into her home? Does she actually call and order things?
Texting - worded messages between friends, sometimes with pictures… mail? Does Fran enjoy sending postcards? Does she have her own stationery for letters or quick notes to friends, or editors? Does she mail friends article clippings? Do friends mail her “links” a.k.a articles printed from the Internet? Does she hate going to the post office, or maybe she has a favorite post office worker she goes to for buying stamps?
Phone calls - calls + caller ID + voicemail = landline calls + answering machine messages, most similar so far - with the possible* forgotten live option for phone screening. Does Fran have caller ID? *Does she have an answering machine that plays the message out loud as its being recorded? Has Billy Crystal ever sang on her machine?
Email - again print publications + mail - without the real-time delivery.
Music - so far no mentions of a stereo or record player (or radio), but she must have a way to listen to music… and a proper record collection.
Banking - my bank’s app can do everything but give me dollar bills - Has Fran mastered the ATM or does she go in to actual banks when needed? Is she paying “paper statement” fees left and right, or has she negotiated a way out of some?
Video - video chat, zoom meetings + classes, YouTube clips, I can (but don’t) stream shows/movies but… if Fran has a television, isn’t digital cable the only option for cable? Is DV-R standard for all digital cable now? Does she technically have these technologies in her home, only she chooses not to use them? Does she have a DVD player, or a VCR? A collection of movies? Does she borrow DVDs from the library like I do?
What might Fran’s day look like?
Wake up to an actual alarm clock (only when necessary). Check the news on TV or in a print paper (or that radio she must have). Read from a paper book. Go out for a walk. Bump into a friend and have a chat. Ride the subway (and people watch) to a work meeting, in an office full of technology no one will ask her to use (!). Meet up with a friend for a coffee at a preset time + place that is arranged and the meeting kept (or the friend calls the café to give word they are not able to make it). Come back home, check the mailbox, the [answering] ‘machine’. Flip through the latest New Yorker, more book reading. Pack for tomorrow’s speaking engagement out of town (does she have to talk to people at the airport to get a boarding pass? Does she use kiosks + credit card for these types of things?). Dinner out with friends, again previously arranged. Maybe some writing in there - maybe just on napkins and Post-Its saved for later. More reading. Intermittent phone calls + lots of smoked cigarettes throughout.
What might a day of me living Fran-style look like?
[Could only be a weekend as my entire workday is computer-based.] Wake up to the clock radio (normally kept on, in the kitchen, playing 89.1 FM all day, but would put in my room for the special occasion). Watch a morning show for some news via my flat digital antenna (I only have a Roku otherwise). Maybe go to the co-op for coffee and some socializing; maybe read at the co-op (something I never do… why not?). Go for a walk. Maybe drive somewhere to see friends or family (car radio or CDs only, no Spotify, digital music, or podcasts). Come home. Check the mail. Flip through the latest New Yorker. Maybe write out + mail a birthday card, a letter, a postcard. More reading. Do a crossword puzzle. Mope for a little bit, wishing I had a landline; wonder if I have any good texts, emails, DMs. Cook some dinner, maybe timing it to eat while I can watch Jeopardy. Move through some self-guided yoga (no Zoom). Get in bed. Write in my journals, read more, go to sleep.
My questions feel endless. Since finishing the series I’ve subscribed to four print magazines, mailed off a handful of postcards to beloved friends, and have watched more antenna TV than ever. Full-on Fran living will be a nostalgic dream I will carry in my heart, and perhaps practice from time to time. If I don’t reply to your text, just assume I’m Franning.
QUOTES
"Think before you speak. Read before you think."
"See what we have had in like the last 30 years is too much democracy in the culture, not enough democracy in society." (c. 2010)
RESOURCES
Netflix Series: Pretend Its A City
DVD: Public Speaking
Book: Social Studies
Book: Metropolitan Life
Book: The Fran Lebowitz Reader (Social Studies + Metropolitan Life in one volume)
Podcast Episode: Talk Easy
SNL Clip: Bowen Yang as Fran
SiriusRadio Clip: Fran talks to Andy Cohen about the above SNL skit