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

[track-04.livejournal.com]

Anita's fashion sense has always struck me as something that wasn't even particularly cool at the time it was in, though. The descriptions sound more like something my grandmother would have worn at the time, not someone who would even be attempting to be hip. o.<; Or that could just be my own personal bias. Because I loathe fanny packs. >.>;

And I'm not entirely sure your take on the midwest is absolutely correct. We do tend to be behind but 3-5 years seems like a little extreme. 6 months or even possibly a year, yeah, but we're not quite that out of touch. I'd give you a little longer in the 80s when LKH would have been growing up, true... but it seems to me that she was always just a little on the lame side to begin with from what I'm picking up. *laughs*

And I don't think the slang she uses is regionally based. Not from what I've heard from people from the St. Louis area, at least. I think it just shows LKH's severe inability to get with the times. XD;

[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.

[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.

[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.