lkh_lashouts | Something that has been bugging me...

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?

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The thing that gets me is not only am I pretty sure she should be older by now (wasn't it a few books ago when she was supposed to be 28 already?) but that LKH, the first and last time I saw her at a convention (about eight or nine years ago) said that she purposely made Anita in her early twenties when the books started so she could age her. And she has the frickin' marks, so it's not like they have to worry about her getting old and groddy (not that a thirty year old is that old, but apparently LKH thinks so).

The clothes have always pissed me off, year. If she had straight hair she'd probably be crimping it or something. I'm also only 21, so I can't really talk for people in their late twenties who have gotten solid jobs and relationships and everything, but she should be using more slang. Hell, Jason and Nathaniel should just be walking slang machines. (I could totally see Jason mockingly using gangsta terms all the time ::grins::)

jason and gangsta terms...thats perfect. :D

Hee! Yes! Jason would all be about the gangsta terms, fo' shizzle.

ANOTHER pet peeve. I know Anita does very specialized work and is paid in accord to that. But geez...at least half the mid-twenty-somethings I know are still working out what they want to be when "they grow up". While there are plenty of people Anita's age who do, indeed have the financial responsibility and security she does....they still tend to question where they're going and what they want a bit, you know? At least Jason acts like a twenty-something when it comes to his future and what he wants.

Yeah, there IS that. Though, I guess you could argue that she already had atleast one big change-up in her life, considering she studied preternatural biology in college and isn't in that field....

But, she not only has one financially stable job that she's sure about, she also has the stuff she does for the police and the execution..er..ing....

Isn't the average amount of jobs a person in her age group is supposed to have in his/her life something like 9? (Singular, one after another, not at once ^.^)

Yeah, Jason is probably one of the most normal characters, and the horrible thing is that half the time he's just there for humor or for scene transitions or something, yet he's so developed without LKH even having tried.

Ooh, and another pet peeve....I'm ticked off at her sexual habits. I have a very good friend who's a prude much like Anita was at first, so I never had a problem with that. But I don't think ANYONE around her generation has that "no sex or sex ALL the time" mentality. People in their twenties are a LOT more sexually open, on average, than I think LKH believes.

Hey, I'm a biology major and not in the field at all. I work admin. A lot. The problem I've found is that you need to have a squillion years experience in the field before they let you play in it.

That, and I could argue that raising zombies kinda is in the field of preternatural biology, because of the whole zombie factor.

That's the same with any major that involves field work ::sigh:: Hell, getting to be any job period.

I wouldn't think zombies fell under biology at all--what's there to know? They're rotting human corpses, human bodies are basic biology, high school level, even. They'd probably be more likely to fall under parapsychology, considering it would be a lot more important to know about mental functions and about the powers of the people raising them. If they even have that degree in her world, since we have it in ours and all....

Some people are mature enough to know what they are going to be doing at 21-22. I just don't entirely buy it with Anita..though what her character seems to do is FALL into what she's going to do. Talents determine it, not necessarily anything personality- or maturity- wise.

"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 :(

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.

Not to mention Nathanial was a STREET kid.

A friend of mine was a street kid for about 5 months. She chose it, sort of like a cultural expeiriance.

Nathaniel, even though "reformed", would still have mannerisms and a touch of the language. That's what he grew up in.

On a different note with the demands of food for lycanthrope's I don't see how he would survive on the streets like that. He would be shifting all over the place. I know people that scrounge all day through ashtrays, scraping tobacco out of butts, with a single dirty rolling paper so they can share the cig with four other people just to feel less hungry.

Nathaniel should definatly be using some slang.

Oddly, I've known a few throw aways who really didn't use that much slang, either. My problems with Nathaniel, however, are LEGION..and just get started with her screwing him.

That is just so wrong, considering her position in his life. SOO wrong.

-Dira-

Ah. This could be a difference in location.

Most of the street kids I know are younger and aren't prostitutes.

I still stick with the fact that he would have a street "persona". I've never known someone who lived on the streets that didn't.

Wasn't he a street kid before he was changed? He was one of the ones that Gabriel took in, wasn't he? Gabriel went around and "saved" people from their horrible lives by turning them into wereleopards...(And, gods, why did LKH have to get the no-killing-main-char policy after killing the coolest were ever?).

I got stuck on how his hair's ridiculously long, how long it would TAKE for his hair to get that long, and how much hell he'd have to go through to keep it in any kind of reasonable shape while on the street. Or does he have super-special hair that grows like my lawn?

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 >.< .

Something that has been bugging me...

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