There’s this argument that fantasy should be timeless, that to anchor a story in the now is to somehow give fiction a use-by date, that it’s the writer’s aim, to produce timeless prose, and that you should avoid pop-cultural references because they immediately date a novel.
Well, listen up, all fiction has a use-by date (usually six to twelve weeks after publication*).
When I write Urban Fantasy I’m writing about the now: my characters’ now. Which in the Death Works series is pretty much 2010. If you’re writing about people in their mid-late twenties early thirties who actually engage in the world as opposed to being separate from their culture. Well, they’re going to be listening to contemporary music. They’re going to be using some sort of social media – and probably bitching about it. And they’re going to have a pretty sophisticated knowledge of how media works and interacts with their lives.
Which means, dependent on the group, they’re going to watch read, listen to, and eat things of their time. Which means Pop Culture. And if you do it well, it really shouldn’t date your fiction.
What dates fiction isn’t the mise-en-scene, it’s the social mores and assumptions within. It’s the writer themselves. Timeless fiction, is at once deeply of its time and universal (easy, right). You’ve got no control over that, but one thing that won’t create timeless prose is a series of arbitrary rules – including this one.
Our society, our time, gives us taste, colour, vocabulary. Be careful that if you’re aiming for timeless prose what you’re not really aiming for is bland. That’s simple enough without trying.
Leave Time to sort out the timeless, and just write the best you can.
What fiction do you think is truly timeless?
*OK, I work in a bookstore, where my main job is to do returns (that is send back the books that don’t sell), and I have run the returns department at several bookstores. My view on the lifecycle of a book is a bit different to most readers and writers.
Good points, Trent.
It has to be written in the now, or you have to invent music and slang and then explain them all.
Totally – though some people can do it brilliantly. That’s part of the appeal of fantasy and sf, all those nouns and verbs and made up societies. And, of course, you can argue from the other perspective as well – maybe I should do that next week
I love the way that really good YA fiction in particular can capture a fleeting moment in time. If it’s good enough, we’ll still want to read it in twenty years time!
Crime does it well, too.
It’s rarer in urban fantasy, but I really do love it when a writer does it well.
Also, did you HAVE to cite the 6-12 week statistic? Not freaking out here at all…
Tansy, no need to freak out. Series tend to buck the trend – and we all know your books are going to be classics, they have to be there’s nothing else like them!
I know, but stiiiiiill, 12 weeks is not very long. And you say the sweetest things.
NOT NERVOUS AT ALL OVER HERE.
Feeling very nervous, too, Tansy. My editor emailed me to say they have copies of book one of KRK on their desk.
Suddenly, it is real and my baby is toddling out there on its own!
But it’s a fabulous baby, Rowena. With a great cover!
Well, I’m excited!