Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
I disagree with this statement. When I was in high school we were reading at one point books from a particular time and one thing that the teacher told us was that the main character was always rich because that was the only way for them to be able to be really free. A job was viewed as a constraint, so the necessity for a job would also be a constraint.
In the case of the current supernatural frenzy the constant elements seem to be a long life and better health along side with all the good guys being (or becoming throughout the story) very accepting of those that are different from them.
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Quite true. In fact, fiction is often a better reflection of the time in which it was written (assuming it's set in that time, not in the future/past/alternative world), as it draws on culturally recognisable themes, like the use of policeman or whatever as a sort of shorthand, as someone else said above.
In fact, I read an article some time back that said high-school students tend to dislike books set in the 'near past' because certain descriptions (of technology in particular) jar with them. At the time, I sort of rolled my eyes and muttered to myself, but a few months later, I was reading a book in which the crime hinged on the fact that the body was moved during the period in which the finder (a state trooper) took to go away and raise the alarm. And yes, it did jar - my first thought was why didn't she use her mobile phone? It just didn't seem to fit with the book's time. When I looked at the copyright page, I found it was printed in the early 90s (1993, I think), and that sort of reset the book's calendar for me. It does show how much faster technology has changed relative to other societal signposts. It's only 20 years, after all. Same with films - nothing dates them more than the beige computer with the green type scrolling down the screen!