 | 5 Nov 08 |
[This is not a political blog. I promise.]
The summer I was twelve, I watched Richard Nixon resign from office. That’s a strange thing for a twelve-year-old girl to do during a summer. I’m not sure I particularly knew who Richard Nixon was before those long hot months, but there I was, planted in front of a big wooden box encasing a color TV (we got three channels, though the NBC affiliate was kinda fuzzy reception-wise). And there was this thing called “Watergate” which, I am ashamed to say, I thought was some sort of lake for the longest time, until I realized it was a hotel, and then I couldn’t quite fathom why it was such a big deal that people from one group were at the hotel of people from another group. Didn’t people go visit each other in hotels?
(Yes, I was a naive kid.)
We’d just moved into the brand new house my mom and dad had worked so hard to buy and it had everything spanky and shiny and perfect… and carpet… thick, comfortable carpet, all in front of a color TV. And it was out in the country. Way out. Miles out. Light years away from the known universe. I had a grand total of one sibling, a younger brother whose sole purpose in life was to drive me batshit by drumming on my head, so I pretty much exhiled him from my presence. There were no girls anywhere near my age anywhere close by and my parents worked long hours. They were also fond of this thing called “gardening” which, in translation into teenager language meant “dirty grubby work so I could eat vegetables, yeah, right, like that was gonna happen.” I, on the other hand, was fond of this thing called “air conditioning” and at the wise age of twelve, had perfected the snail’s pace that any teenager would be proud to copy today. You could set a glacial clock by my movements. I spent a lot of time in that living room.
I remember the moment when I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, just a few feet in front of the screen and realized, oh. This is bad. I mean, I had known there was a lot of fuss over something and, having not really paid attention in the beginning of the summer as to why, was trying to make sense of the long, protracted discussions. I didn’t understand the soap operas, either, but this, I grasped, was real and historic and I knew, bone deep, that it was important. And then I caught on: people broke in to eavesdrop or spy on other people. And the President might’ve known and authorized it. The President.
I can’t adequately explain to you what that meant to me; it was like finding out that ice cream might be bad for you (yeah, that was a depressing discovery), or that boys might lie and say they loved you when they didn’t (or didn’t love you when they did, which was, let’s just have this for the record, entirely fucked up and confusing, thank you ninth grade), or that someone could look you straight in the eye and still steal your money, except all rolled into one.
That was the summer that shaped me. That twelve-year-old naive girl became a cynic. I also read a lot, and in the worlds I read about, there were often happy endings; it’s probably the only thing that kept me from being a complete nihilist and gave me hope. And here I am today, a hopeful cynic, one whose hope has been mangled enough times over the years to now look a lot more like something that should be in the recycle scrap heap. Still, the hope endures that somewhere, some time, the good guys will win.
Watershed moments. Watergate was that for me. I went on to do a senior thesis about it and I became disenfranchised and certain my vote meant nothing. It would take another decade after that before I’d set foot in the polls.
There are a lot of watershed moments in our recent history, if by recent, we go on the dawn-of-mankind scale. Just the last fifty years has seen such radical changes–far faster and far more than the previous fifty. The last five years, if you include technology, probably doubled or tripled the watershed moments from the decade before it. Just think about where the internet, for example, was five years ago, vs. now. Personal computers. Politics.
This is the problem facing writers of contemporary fiction. The ‘now’ we’re setting our stories in? Will change by the time the book is published. It will change radically, in some cases. I remember reading a favorite author’s backlist and there was a moment when the FBI agent had to go find a pay phone to call into HQ and it was almost as if the writer had started speaking Martian. Then I (having definitely been around before the advent of the cell phone) (I know, ancient, shut up)… remembered all of those times I got into trouble because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be and had not tried to find a pay phone to call my parents. (First one of you who asks, “What’s a pay phone?” gets smacked.) That book was definitely set in the “then.” It was no longer contemporary, and I had to mentally cut it some slack, because it’s not like the author–any author, any of us–can write a non-sf/f type of book set in the ‘now’ and make it so generic that it won’t ever be dated.
But we don’t want to never reference anything cultural or current, because then we’re too bland. Unmemorable.
Characters have to be born in a certain time-frame. Give or take a few years, and if it’s a series character, we might need to anticipate that the “now” of the character will be progressing over the years, maybe faster than the character is actually aging, and keep the cultural references very general (in a national sense) or so personal as to be rendered a watershed moment for that person, but not something that will “date” it in the natural progression of culture.
Tuesday night changed history. No matter who you voted for, history was going to be changed.
There are moments in our characters lives which affected them. Created who they were. They are of a certain culture, because we are of a culture, and if you’re writing contemporary, do you reflect it? Or do you write more progressively than what’s actually happening around you?
[For example, long before there was a black American President, there have been fictional black American Presidents on TV and in film--possibly books, but I can't remember any specifically.]
It’s a conundrum. Do you risk tossing people out of the story because you’re writing about something that hasn’t yet happened as if it has (as in my above example), hoping that culture will follow someday and you’ll seem timely? Do you mention specific technology (cell phone, computer), knowing that you’ll be dated in five years? Do you notice these things when you read? If it’s dated, does it bother you? Matter at all?
What do you think?
Toni McGee Causey lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She and her husband, Carl, are licensed general contractors and, in order to support her writing addition, they run their own company, specializing in civil construction.
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Good question, Toni
I deal with technology all the time in my books, and I know they’ll be dated, probably before they hit the shelves. I’ve got one heroine referring to a ‘floppy’ (which I love for the double entendre) but although it was the typical data transfer system when I wrote the book, it’s way out of date.
I try to be as vague as I can while being realistic, if that makes sense, and normally I don’t let things bother me in stories set in the author’s present. I’m willing to accept that it’s fiction.
I’d probably be pulled out of a story if there was a genuine feeling of “wrongness” — such as getting on a commercial airline flight without going through security or showing ID. But we suspend disbelief all the time — how many tv shows show characters driving for blocks to find a parking space?
by Terry Odell November 6th, 2008 at 5:56 amWow! Awesome post, Toni. I’ll hold ‘em down for you.
I know this isn’t a political blog but I do have to say I’m sooo happy.
Robert Crais & Sue Grafton both have series that started before the cell phone. I think readers can handle reading books that can’t possibly keep up w/ changing technology.
by HollyD November 6th, 2008 at 5:59 amToni I was just thinking about a book I wrote a long time ago and there was a reference about the Berlin wall coming down! I always knew I’d rewrite the story, (the characters and premise are just too juicy not to) and plan to in the very near future, sans the reference to the Berlin wall, and pagers, and bulky cellphones!
by Karin Tabke November 6th, 2008 at 9:30 amMy ‘moment’ came with the moon landing. Looking back I realize I was only 6 years old, but I remember every second of watching Neil Armstrong step down that ladder and land softly on the moon surface. All in grainy black and white. I sat inches from our box tv, glued to the picture. I was in awe that anything was possible in this world. My guy didn’t win the election but I still felt that electric feeling of the possiblility of anything when the people spoke and we had a new President.
by Amanda November 6th, 2008 at 10:16 amGreat post, Toni – agree on the watershedness
of what has just happened in our country. As far as the references in the books, it’s *really* hard to avoid them where technology is concerned — and cell phones, GPS, etc. have really changed the face of romantic suspense in the past five – ten years. I have really had to mess around with plots if I want a scene where a character *doesn’t* have a cell phone.
I had one book (chick lit-ish) with a ton of technology references (all emails) and the funny thing is, four years later, none of that is outdated. What’s outdated in the book are references to Brad Pitt and his movies (I thought I was being so forward thinking in talking about TROY, because he was only *making* it when I wrote that). Also I referenced a TV show that just seems sooooo outdated now.
by Roxanne St. Claire November 6th, 2008 at 10:43 amI think most readers understand that books have a shelf-life. Great books, even when they reference old technology, are still great books. Without references to cell phones or computers or wireless modems, we lose so much in the telling of THIS STORY. I suppose if I was writing something epic I’d want it to be timeless, but I’m writing commercial fiction and know that the bulk of my readers will be reading the book within a year or two of publication.
But cultural references don’t bother me if I know the book is set in a specific time (i.e. 1985.) Stephen King writes with a LOT of cultural references (take THE STAND, which he also updated when it was reissued as uncut, and it’s still “outdated” though I think it’s timeless and a slice of history.)
I was a huge fan of Trixie Belden, which were written years before I was born, but there were new books coming out as well. I remember that Brian’s car was a “jalopy.” I happened to have known what it was, but only because I was well read even at 8! (I may have also asked my mom.) I still loved the books. My daughters? Not so much.
Judy Blume as well wrote for girls like me in the 70s and 80s, but even one of her books–I think ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET was outdated when I read it. The heroine started her period and had a belt for the pad. I had NO idea what that was, and my mom had to explain it to me (though I did understand from the context of the story, I just thought it was weird.) But the story itself was still relevant.
by allison brennan November 6th, 2008 at 11:15 amTerry – yeah, I was thinking about a script I wrote pre-9/11 and due to the radical changes in procedures for bringing goods into a port, that whole story would have to be reworked to have any believability. It’s almost like having written something pre-electricity.
by toni mcgee causey November 6th, 2008 at 11:43 amHolly, thanks.
And actually I was thinking of both of those writers–particularly Sue Grafton–when I was wrapping up this blog. Sue had mentioned once in an interview that the time frame for her characters was progressing much slower than the time it took to write / get the books published. I don’t think it hindered her much in the beginning, but when a lot of technology blossomed, she started having to figure out ways to keep the books true to their original time-line without seeming dated at the same time. I’ll have to be careful in the same way with the Bobbie Faye series, unless I jump forward, time-wise. Right now, the time-span of all three books is about a six month period, but they will have been published in three consecutive years.
by toni mcgee causey November 6th, 2008 at 11:47 amKarin, LOL on those bulky cellphones. Wow, I remember having one of those and thinking it was soooo sleek because it wasn’t a CB radio in the car. And yeah, that Berlin wall is a great example–such a huge change for the world that heralding a completely new world-view, and I think we all felt like it would take generations to wrap our minds around the implications. Then everything afterward moved so quickly, and for the next generation coming up, it was like, “what wall?”
by toni mcgee causey November 6th, 2008 at 11:50 amAmanda, I was seven, and thank you for that reminder–that was phenomenal, wasn’t it? A world of possibilities.
And yeah, this election is truly amazing on several fronts, but mostly I keep looking over at other foreign countries where people can’t go to the polls without worry about being bombed or shot [if they even have elections] and yet, we can change our entire government by going to the polls, and no bloodshed. It may not always be harmonious leading up to it, and sometimes afterward, but for the most part, we agree to respect the democratic principles that founded this country, and we do it by freely going to the polls and freely casting a vote. That’s pretty impressive, that.
by toni mcgee causey November 6th, 2008 at 11:55 amOh, Rocki, that’s funny! Yeah, I don’t mind the technology issues as much (and really, meant to focus more on the cultural ones but the computer crashed after I’d written the blog but before I saved it–so had to rewrite! eeek! talk about your cultural references… one day I hope that one will be obsolete
I made a cultural reference in the current novel about a current “star” but that reference has been bothering me for the exact same reason you’re mentioning the TROY one. I doubt even a year from now when the book is out that it’ll be relevant, so I’ll go change it. I’m glad you mentioned that.
by toni mcgee causey November 6th, 2008 at 11:58 amWow, Allison, I had forgotten those Judy Blume ones–LOL. Thanks.
And you know, I think you’re pointing out a very important distinction that I hadn’t really thought of, and maybe that’s because I had a lot of my writing years sort of co-opted by the very southern literary leanings of the MFA… where if you even thought about writing something “commercial” you were pretty much ignored. And I knew that and did it anyway… but I don’t think I realized until you’d made that distinction just how much the concerns over timelessness vs. immediate commercial impact that they had on my process of thinking. (Of course, taking philosophy was probably the worst thing I could have done on top of that. Hours and hours of discussing the “thingness of the thing” and I am not kidding.)
by toni mcgee causey November 6th, 2008 at 12:02 pmInteresting topic, Toni! Outdated technology doesn’t bother me, and some of my stuff in my mystery series is already a tad outdated. I love futurist gadgets done right like in the JD Robb books too.
Reading is fun–sometimes I’m reading something historical and thinking how would I survive without indoor plumbing (or maybe cell phones if it’s more recent). Sometimes I’m reading futuristic and wondering if they’ll cure the common cold in the future.
I’m sure my comment is just as braindead as I am. I’m desperately trying to save, uh I mean, finish the first draft of me book.
by Jen Apodaca November 6th, 2008 at 1:16 pmI remember pay phones and Watergate, too, Toni.
Great blog, even though it reminded me how damn old I am….
by Natalie November 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm