Something that has been bugging me...

[aerofish.livejournal.com]

Hello, all. I'm new to this group and this is my first post. I figured I'd introduce myself with this peeve of mine.

I was reading the sample chapters for the next Anita book, and it was mentioned Anita is 27. This made me back up and go WTF(well, more than I already was). I know Anita is supposed to be in her twenties, yet that fact just never seems to stick, and I constantly find myself envisioning her as mid-30s with the mind-set, perhaps, of someone much older, if not the maturity. And giving her the age of 27 in this upcoming book really drove home the point to me, as that is my age.

Anita does not act like any twenty-something I know. For any of you around Anita's age, do you feel the same way? And I know I'm making a sweeping generalization about how a 25-30 year old should act, but shouldn't there be some consistencies with the popular culture for this age group? I have so many examples, but here's two obvious ones:

-Does she dress like someone my age dresses? Maybe if it were the 80's or early 90's, with her silk shell blouses and pantyhose and power jackets. Maybe she's going for a retro-ironic hipster thing, and I'm too dull to see it?

-She speaks with none of the slang commonly used. And while yes, "nifty" is a, well, nifty word...it's not exactly the cornerstone of a young person's vocabulary, right? Doesn't she, in one book referencing her brother's opinion of her line of work, even say something like "he says it's cool, or whatever the kids are saying these days?" Uh. Right.

In general, this is such a minor pet peeve, what with the many many MANY issues with her books I am having these days. But still, shouldn't there be a least a few references here and there anchoring Anita to the age she is supposed to be?

Comments

[russian.livejournal.com]

To be fair, she hasn't mentioned the fanny pack in a while ... but the black jeans has always killed me. I own one pair, and that's because I had to wear black pants for work, and got away with black jeans. But I can't remember the last time I saw anyone under 56 wearing them casually.

[aerofish.livejournal.com]

Hello, she could even just watch Oprah and get a pretty decent handle on how people are dressing these days, you know? Doesn't surprise me a bit she'd say that about current teen trends.

[aerofish.livejournal.com]

I remember when I moved, around '97, the big difference? Flare jeans hadn't yet hit their stride yet in ND. So I went, bought a couple pair, and was pretty much in tune with the people at my college who came from major east coast cities.

My theory? For all of LKH's (and Anita's) yammerings about how they don't really care about fashion, she sure goes on and on and on in loving detail in the books. My theory is that LKH wants to be (and sees Anita as) someone who just throws something together and looks amazing. You know, the entire "What? This old thing?" Fashionable without keeping rack of trends, or even simply noticing them.

[aerofish.livejournal.com]

"People in their twenties are a LOT more sexually open, on average, than I think LKH believes."

AGREED. Once again, I think Jason is a it more normal in his attitudes involving sex that Anita. And why does Anita treat him as such a mental inferior? He's only 5 or 6 years younger. Yeah, that can make a difference. But not usually like LKH would have you believe.

You know, I really like Jason. I am so torn about his upcoming book. And so "Oh shit!" when I read Anita will be playing his GF. I WANT a book about Jason. But I know, just know, LKH will BUTCHER him. Sad face :(

[aerofish.livejournal.com]

Oh, you explained *exactly* what I have been feeling and trying to get at! That's it exactly!!!!!

[aerofish.livejournal.com]

OMG! The black jeans! I had forgotten about those. That, or the trama of reading about them made me blank them away.

I can't even remember the last time I saw black jeans for sale in a store.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

I re-imagine them as those really dark jeans... or I have some friends in posession of punky (admittedly jr's department) black-washed jeans that were trendy for a year or so... I'm pretty sure that's not the way to describe them... but... they're black-ish. But with that aged/beaten-to-hell thing done to them. And some sort of clunky/punk/bejewelled/wonky belt thing.

That's what I pretend Laurell's talking about when she says black jeans. It makes it hurt less, but then I end up imagining Anita as a college freshman trying to be vaguely punk.

[vanity-lost.livejournal.com]

must ask: knee tremble?

The whole non-changing image thing is a book-series thing, I think. Dear gods, when the characters in Stephanie Plum get an update, you'd think Janet Evanovich (the author) had just killed off someone's Auntie Em. Fans get rabid.

Still, a little bit of style updating would be a good thing. Either that, or just stick with generic clothing descriptions. A white t-shirt and jeans. low-slung jeans, perhaps? A tight t-shirt. I mean, isn't it better to go generic with those descriptions so each reader can sort of dress the character how they see fit?

The thing that makes Anita seem old is her attitude, which paradoxically also makes her seem young.
Exactly. Which makes it all the more ludicris that age-old vampires would put up with it, at least from my view. Wouldn't it be like being in some weird way, in a relationship with a sheltered teenager? "NO! IT HAS TO BE MY WAY! MINE! YOU'RE WRONG! You hate me, you don't undestand me! Woe! I'm going to stomp off to my room and I HATE YOU!... Can we have sex later?"

It's almost a middle class Victorian attitude.
It's exactly a middle class Victorian attitude. But they went to the doctor to adjust their humors with those vibrating machines. And they didn't do bloody sex. At least not at home on the good sheets. And they had the sense not to try to have 18 affairs at once, generally. They had some sense of moderation.

Maybe if Anita got hooked on opium? Laudenum? Yes. That would improve the state of things. Someone prescribe the girl some Laudanum to help with those nerves.

If she wants to be Victorian, let's be Victorian. Reading 6 page descriptions of corsets, underdresses, dresses, boot lacings and coifs and elaborate hats couldn't possibly be as bad as the Nike swooshes. Plus there's the laudenum. Musn't forget that part. Plus, no more pleather!J-C and Nathaniel wouldn't have to worry about slang.

[track-04.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never really seen a big difference between what people wear here (MO) and what they wear where my friends who are from either coast live. Especially with all of the chain stores across the country now things tend to make it here really soon after they hit.

I've never thought about it that way but that really does seem right... maybe it's another thing that she can't necessarily do in real life but she (thinks she) can do it with her character and compensates that way.

[kuzunoha.livejournal.com]

Haha.

Yeah... Hair rarely gets that long in a good enviroment healthy.

All the super long haired lawn growing hair bugs me in both series >.< .

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

It's especially weird that HE'S her mental inferior, and yet there's centuries-old vamps running around that Anita ALSO treats as below her.

If Anita was a real person, not only would she be a bitch, but she'd be one of those people who no one has ever or will ever like.

[ki-caelum.livejournal.com]

I've met a couple (I'm up in Sheffield, student there.), both of whom wee quite strict Christians. (Although one did have a 'well, when I say sex, I mean intercourse, y'know?' attitude.) But yeah, it's pretty rare on this side of the pond.

For me, it fitted with her religious beliefs and her emotional reticence in the early part of the books, but now her new religion seems to be herself. I know your body's supposed to be a temple and all, but most of us don't have a congregation worshipping there :)

[demoncougar.livejournal.com]

"For all of LKH's (and Anita's) yammerings about how they don't really care about fashion, she sure goes on and on and on in loving detail in the books."

Oh yeah, LKH is a total clothes horse. She's acting out her fantasies by dolling up all of her characters.

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Knee-tremble: (used as "Let's have a knee-tremble.") is a slang term for having sex, generally with a cheap prostitute, from the mid 1800's. The sexual position a knee-trembler (the prostitute) assumes is generally standing up in a semi-private area such as an alley. A knee-tremble is not about love, and generally only refers to the sex-act between a client and prostitute. Also, the prostitute referred to as a knee-trembler is assumed to be female.

I'm not so sure about the fans getting rabid in the Plum fandom (although I've only skimmed the top for the most part), it seems that character development done very slowly hardly ever meets with massive upset. The uprising from fans shows up if changes are made without warning - for example if Steph suddenly became a sought-after gun-loving commando that would make people very upset. In AB fandom it was the sudden and un-foreshadowed arrival of the ardeur. Changes that make sense and allow the character to be developed seem to be alright so long as the development fits with the character's previous actions and beliefs or can be traced through the progression of their beliefs and actions. With Anita, sexual voraciousness, especially from a source that was not even mentioned in passing previous to Anita being enthralled by it, did not fit with her previous beliefs and actions nor was there any rational progression from her initial beliefs and actions to her ardeur beliefs and actions.

Another virtue of being generic in the clothing choices for characters is that the descriptions do not become dated as quickly. For example, French cut jogging shorts for Micah seem terribly old-fashioned now, whereas, simply saying shorts or jogging shorts would not make him seem stuck in a past fashion decade.

Which makes it all the more ludicris that age-old vampires would put up with it, at least from my view. Wouldn't it be like being in some weird way, in a relationship with a sheltered teenager? I know exactly what you mean. Jean-Claude is supposed to be this very old, very smart and manipulative vampire yet he can't control one young human woman who wears her beliefs on her sleeve? This lack of following through on Jean-Claude's background and previous actions related to the rabid fans thing – fans are infuriated because Jean-Claude has suddenly done a 180 in terms of his abilities and actions without any plausible reason

It's exactly a middle class Victorian attitude. But they went to the doctor to adjust their humors with those vibrating machines. And they didn't do bloody sex. At least not at home on the good sheets. And they had the sense not to try to have 18 affairs at once, generally. They had some sense of moderation. Heh, heh! Actually the middle class Victorians (and I do mean only the middle class) believed that women had evolved into a state were they did not like sex; men were still enslaved to their baser natures. Thus, to be truly MC Victorian Anita should stop with all the sex, because as a woman she ought to be too refined and pure to have it. Plus female sexual desire was vulgar. Anita already has that very pallid complexion so prized in women, so she'd fit right in. I'm not sure I'd want her on laudanum because her hallucinations might be even worse than what we're treated to now.