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I'm reading the last novel in this Nora Roberts collection. (I'm stubborn.) It's not as bad as the first one, at least. Anyway, though, my reactions remind me somewhat of my reactions to Heathers, oddly enough.
It's written in I think 1984, and set in the same time period. So I was technically alive, but not aware of anything at the time. And, like Heathers, I can see that there are social cues that I'm missing because I don't know what they mean. In Heathers, the clothes were totally over-the-top, but I didn't know enough about eighties fashion as an adult to be able to tell whether they were supposed to be normal, high-fashion, or ridiculous. I'm having the same kind of trouble here - she's mentioning specific hotels and clothes and such, and I can't tell what the implication is supposed to be. Among other things, her heroine is at her favorite, classy bar at which she's a regular, and when asked for an order, says "White wine". I don't think I'd ever tell a bartender just "White wine". I'd ask them what whites they had by the glass. Or if this really was my favorite bar where they knew my name, I'd know. I'd at least order by varietal - "a Riesling", if not a specific winery. 'Cause if the bartender knows my first name, I'm probably there enough to know what my favorite wine they carried was. And this woman is supposed to be a blue-blood, Ivy League grad from Westport - they keep making a big deal of how sophisticated she is, so she really should be a bit of a wine snob. Thing is, I also know that American wine culture has significantly grown in the last couple decades.
So is it that the character doesn't know any better? The author doesn't know the character should know better? The character is trying not to be too big of a snob? The bar only has two kinds of wine - "red" and "white", and will look at you funny if you try to ask for something more specific? The character could order something more specific, but is trying not to look like a snob? The author wants her to look like a snob for ordering wine at all instead of beer? If this were set right now, I'd feel more comfortable trying to draw a conclusion about what the author is trying to reveal about this character based off her drink choice. But I honestly can't decide whether she's supposed to come off here as sophisticated, snobbish, sensitive, or clueless.
It's kind of amazing, when you think about it, how fast these kind of subtle indicators change. (Seriously, the difference between a character eating sushi in the 80s or now is enormous.) Makes you wonder how many of the chick lit books will even be understandable in twenty years, when people can't quite remember which brand of shoes it was that was desirable at the time. And it makes me wonder how much I'm missing in, say, Jane Austen. Because surely there are subtleties in which books people are reading or what color dress they're wearing that are just slipping right by me.
It's written in I think 1984, and set in the same time period. So I was technically alive, but not aware of anything at the time. And, like Heathers, I can see that there are social cues that I'm missing because I don't know what they mean. In Heathers, the clothes were totally over-the-top, but I didn't know enough about eighties fashion as an adult to be able to tell whether they were supposed to be normal, high-fashion, or ridiculous. I'm having the same kind of trouble here - she's mentioning specific hotels and clothes and such, and I can't tell what the implication is supposed to be. Among other things, her heroine is at her favorite, classy bar at which she's a regular, and when asked for an order, says "White wine". I don't think I'd ever tell a bartender just "White wine". I'd ask them what whites they had by the glass. Or if this really was my favorite bar where they knew my name, I'd know. I'd at least order by varietal - "a Riesling", if not a specific winery. 'Cause if the bartender knows my first name, I'm probably there enough to know what my favorite wine they carried was. And this woman is supposed to be a blue-blood, Ivy League grad from Westport - they keep making a big deal of how sophisticated she is, so she really should be a bit of a wine snob. Thing is, I also know that American wine culture has significantly grown in the last couple decades.
So is it that the character doesn't know any better? The author doesn't know the character should know better? The character is trying not to be too big of a snob? The bar only has two kinds of wine - "red" and "white", and will look at you funny if you try to ask for something more specific? The character could order something more specific, but is trying not to look like a snob? The author wants her to look like a snob for ordering wine at all instead of beer? If this were set right now, I'd feel more comfortable trying to draw a conclusion about what the author is trying to reveal about this character based off her drink choice. But I honestly can't decide whether she's supposed to come off here as sophisticated, snobbish, sensitive, or clueless.
It's kind of amazing, when you think about it, how fast these kind of subtle indicators change. (Seriously, the difference between a character eating sushi in the 80s or now is enormous.) Makes you wonder how many of the chick lit books will even be understandable in twenty years, when people can't quite remember which brand of shoes it was that was desirable at the time. And it makes me wonder how much I'm missing in, say, Jane Austen. Because surely there are subtleties in which books people are reading or what color dress they're wearing that are just slipping right by me.
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Couple things...
Date: 2010-06-18 06:24 pm (UTC)From:2) My mom tells this hilarious story:
She was in 11th grade English class when the teacher (Mrs. Rosenbaum, her husband was a Reform Rabbi at a local temple -- in her younger days, she dated a very young Jonas Salk!) starts criticizing a paper handed in by saying it was a plagiarized version of a Harlequin romance novel with a few details changed.
The student in question asked: "how can you know that?" and she answered:" Because I WROTE IT!!"
apparently, she worked for Harlequin back in the day when she was living in NYC and she proceeded to tell them all mesmerized what it was like, back then, doing that! There was a formula they all had (there was a group of 6-7 writers busy churning these out) to follow, the plot line was all pretty similar, the cover artists told the writers what color hair etc... the characters would have and then they just let go! They were paid by the page of output!
at the end of all this, my mom asked: "You mean, these stories are NOT REAL??" with like tears in her eye's!! (you have to know my mom to appreciate this)
and Mrs. Rosenbaum just said: "No dear, they're just the figment of MY imagination, but they "could" have been quite real! -- real life is much more complex and messy, and sometimes the good deserving girl does not get the right perfect guy."
heh, my mom was crushed, she stopped reading and buying those romance novels, and went for her Masters in Library Science...