When and how did you most recently date yourself?
I suppose it's predictive that the further I move into Act Three, the more I'll be dating myself. I'm grateful my thirty-something daughter and her thirty-something husband are usually kind when my boomer boners don't ring the faintest bell. Even my oldest niece - who turned fifty last November - usually lets me slide when I reference an actor, musician, or author who had their heyday in the 60s or 70s, never to be seen or heard from again. Bless her heart.
I've found I'm usually on safe ground mentioning boomer film or pop music figures who have managed to hang in there past their sell by date, e.g., Al Pacino or Paul McCartney. But those who haven't made it into People magazine for twenty+ years, no matter their previous level of notoriety? Boomer boner territory. With respect to authors closely associated with the peak boomer years, in my experience, that's fuzzier.
When speaking to a Gen X or millennial reader, I might be OK casually dropping an author name here or there, especially when the work of that author had a place in Gen X or millennial school curricula, e.g., Harper Lee or Toni Morrison. And because literature is arguably less ephemeral than film and clearly less so than pop music or TV, boomer boners tend to be less frequent when I speak of authors, Arthur Hailey and James Michener aside.
Still, a word of caution to my fellow boomers. There are many ways aside from references to actors, pop musicians, or authors to find yourself stuck in the boomer boner time warp. Rabbit ears, anyone? Penpals? Eight-tracks? Like it or not - and I don't - it's going to get more difficult as we old farts move deeper into Act Three. I'm already mulling over future conversations with my grandson. How do I explain to him why anyone ever had to give directions to someone else?
As an avid bike rider for years, I liked it when people used to stop me and ask for directions, but that hasn't happened in ages. As for pop culture references, I work hard in my writing to get things right. For example, I'm working on a novel at the moment that is set mostly in 1971. I want the reader to get a sense of the era, but not have him/her constantly looking up obscure public people or events, so it's very tricky. Same with language. I had a character say he didn't know "jack shit," but I looked it up and found out that phrase didn't get rolling until later in the decade. The only way I ultimately know if I've gotten the right balance is when readers tell me afterward. One of the most important things to consider is technology. The internet and cell phones changed everything. The same for DNA with any crime story. As a reader, when an author gets something wrong, it often undercuts the whole work because I find myself thinking this isn't a careful writer, so I don't trust him.
ReplyDeleteJim; Thanks for the comprehensive comment. The focus of your comment - about the attention writers must pay to keep their work free of dated references - was insightful. My post had a more narrow focus so I appreciate the effort you put into elevating the "conversation".
DeletePat-I think this is one of those universal things. It seems like each generation has a wall around their cultural references. Even the young ones. And I could not agree more about the language and slang and how ephemeral it all seems to be!
DeleteRegina; Thanks for the comment. Slang and language are even more ephemeral than many pop culture figures end up becoming as their light begins to dim.
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