Time after time

[blamebrampton]

Before I embark on today's chatter, anyone who has an interest in next-generation HP fic should go and read Cal's post here. It's a brilliant new plan that should be supported! And I'm not telling you about it, go and read!

Now onto a little thinky bit. It's not a rant, more a tip. I've been going back over some of the AS/S fest stories I missed, slowly slowly. And something that's occurred to me is that pretty much all of my  favourite stories  had a real sense of time to them. 

The Epilogue to DH is set in 2017. That's eight years in the future. Eight years does not sound like a ong time, but it is. Think about what life was like in 2000: I bet most of you had never heard of Osama bin Laden, the iPod was still on the drawing board, Windows 2000 was cutting-edge and Hillary Clinton was having a year of political successes. Eight years from now, things will have changed just as much.

Now it can be hard to play speculation, believe me that I know this to be true! So I understand why some people choose not to go there. But for stories set in classic HP era, or even Marauders era, why do some people not think back 10 or 20 years to what life was like, what people wore, and how people spoke?

Note that it's some. There are people out there who do an amazing job of researching or remembering their eras. For the rest, the internet is your friend. Vintage television series are easily come by (takes a brief mental pause for visions of a wave of Professionals-inspired H/D, decides that would be quite funny, moves on), and everyone has novels from the 1990s, '80s and '70s on their bookshelves.  Embrace them.

And, there's no gentle way to say this, try and research what was happening in Britain at the time. It's not what was happening in America. Well, except for the fact that Reagan and Thatcher were both making us all very nervous indeed.

Comments

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with the gist of this post. BUT: I don't know if Reagan and Thatcher play into HP at all. HP seems to be set in an alternate universe, with an anonymous male Prime Minister governing Britain. No real-world historical figures or events are mentioned, which gives the series a timeless aspect.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm not suggesting they do or should, just that this was the main overlapping experience of the 80s for Americans and Brits. Both nations were genuinely afraid of impending nuclear disaster. But aside from that, I 'get' about 40% of American cultural references from that period, and that was 'my' period.

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

Are you saying that some writers put too many American cultural references into their fics?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It's not even cultural references -- in fact most of those who use American cultural references are doing so with full awareness and are often doing interesting things with them. It's more that they write in a language that is anachronistic and is more obviously so because it's also based on a non-British lingo. In some ways it's like watching The Tudors ...

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

Ah yes... I think I see what you mean. They talk about iPods instead of Walkmen: that sort of thing?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

YES! That's it exactly. And everyone owns a computer, which apparently (according to my wholly unreliable geek friends) was the case in America in 1985, but certainly wasn't the case in England. That sort of thing ...

[norton-gale.livejournal.com]

Not everyone in the US owned a computer in 1985. I was one of the few that did as I came from a computer-geek family (as did my husband, who ran a BBS as a teenager). And in law school in the early 1990's, I was one of the very few taking notes on a computer.

But yes: I've definitely read fics like that, and I know what you're saying. I tend to suspect they're by younger writers.

Dashing out now......

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Have a good dash! (I KNEW the geeks were lying to me!)