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

[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.