I’m wrapping Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi right now and there are tons of pop culture references that won’t hold up a decade from now. “Plex server” and “Discord” are a couple that have stood out to me but there are others, especially regarding COVID and the “upcoming epic election.”
Personally, I like it a lot. But I wish books would warn you about this up front so you can prioritize them to read sooner rather than later.
by QIp_yu
22 Comments
Yeah I hate when all the books I read from the 1940’s talk about World War II, like who even cares about that anymore? Or all the books published in the early 2000’s just could not let that 9/11 thing go. Forget about it, already.
No different to when books from decades and centuries ago reference items of technology, clothing or food, or political issues of the time.
This is nothing new and I somewhat feel a manufactured problem as it’s the little references to things of the time that place a work in its context.
Knowing what technology people in the 2020s used from seeing it mentioned in a book feels little different to reading about something in a book from the 1910s and going on a journey to know what it is, similarly talk of a notable election in the 2020s is really no different to a writer centuries back referring to some political dispute of the time as a point of comparison.
I stopped reading the Dark Tower series at the words, golden snitch. I really don’t like pop culture being used as a literary device in a fantasy world.
Not everything has to hold up for decades.
>But I wish books would warn you about this up front so you can prioritize them to read sooner rather than later.
If this is that big of a sticking point for you, just prioritize new books
I read books written in all eras and I love those little pieces of context that have essentially turned into trivia.
It doesn’t bother me at all. I read a wide variety of books, rarely new releases and I find it nostalgic to read a book written when I was young and they refer to something that no longer exists.
I suppose it could feel like a bit if a time capsule. But it can also stick out like a sore thumb.
No. All of this will hold up a decade from now because the book is set in 2020. It will still be set in 2020 a decade from now. See there’s this book called Ready Player One…
I dunno, I love rereading animorphs even if some of the cultural references are dated now – makes for fun trivia to look up later!
It becomes “dated” in 5-10 years but becomes “historical” in like 50 years.
I mean, I read old books all the time and reference random stuff I have no idea about. I usually Google it (one of the beautiful things about reading on the Kindle app, I can just highlight the term and see the Wikipedia or choose to Google it) and learn something new that I find interesting.
I don’t think it’s just a modern occurrence. Authors have been referencing time-specific events/items/concepts for time immemorial.
I don’t think Scalzi in general will stand up over time, so I doubt there will be many people getting hung up on the mention of a “Discord server” to begin with.
I don’t mind cultural references at all. When I read references in older books that I don’t understand, I’ve realized my mind just kind of skims over them and it doesn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the book at all. But if it’s a reference I know about, I get this little thrill for knowing something. And if it’s something I don’t understand but interests me, I find myself researching it and learning something new.
Just imagine how in a few decades they will publish an annotated edition of today’s literature where they explain all these references in footnotes.
>, especially regarding COVID
Covid, and the events around it is about as far from “pop culture reference” as you can get.
I stoped reading scalzi when all of a sudden halfway through a series it turned into a young adult novel…
This is just part of reading imho. Like if I’m reading a book about a culture I’m not familiar with I’ll search up an article of clothing it describes a character as wearing, or if it’s an older book I’ll look up a phrase that’s weird to me.
I never understood this kind of thing. Unless you have a problem with made up names too (ie; invented tech in books) then why would not recognizing the “brand” or usage matter? Most of these kinds of books rely on you inferring from hints and context, and that would still work with things like Discord and Plex after they’re long dead. Seems like more of you problem than a problem at large that needs fixing or avoiding.
And yet we can all remember the Walkman or the mega drive. Fortran is still a relatively reference, in the worst of cases only a few finger taps away.
The Animorphs books were originally published in the 90s, but in the 10s they did reprints of the first few where they decided to update the text. Their goal was to make it timeless so they would t have to do it again in another 20 years, so if a character made a reference to, say, a CD player, the text changed it to “music player” or something similarly generic. It all feels kind of uncanny valley to me. In my opinion, they’re set in the 90s and they should talk like kids in the 90s! It feels a lot more real and lived-in to me. (Though I do regret that they didn’t get far enough to see how on earth they would have tackled the book whose central plot revolves around a conspiracy at AOL)
Only nerds think modern pop culture references date fiction.
>How do you feel about recent cultural references in books that won’t stand up over time?
never bothered me unless it’s a glaring *anachronism*.
the point of almost all fiction is that it’s a place and a point in time. could be anywhere, anywhen and the characters in it could have their focus on any thing.
I’m not a great fan of anything that goes more than about 100 years back in time, but that’s a me preference. it never occurred to me to expect that every work of fiction I read has to be 100% set in my world and time, and everything in it must be up to date.