Monday, September 22, 2008

Writing your book in the future- sort of

I am currently reading Sandra Brown’s book ENVY. It has a copyright of 2001. It supposedly takes place in 2002. Through almost half of the book, there has been no mention of 9/11/2001. Now my point in this ramble is, if it is taking place in 2002 how she cannot know about 9/11. Of course, she didn’t know about 9/11 when she wrote the book most likely in 2000. It just makes one think when they are writing how quick you can date your writing. Mention a VCR and most people look at you as if you were from another world. It is all DVD now. If you can remember for those of us past those years, not that long ago, maybe 30 years ago, cassettes were the popular form of music to listen to. I personally still have record albums lol. So how do we go about keeping our work current without it being out of date?

1 comment:

Rashda Khan said...

Good point about how we should be careful about choosing dates. However, wouldn't you think the editors would have caught the missing reference? Of course, if the book was printed prior to 9/11 than I guess they'd have to consider the cost of pulling copies, rewriting significant angles and parts of the book in the light of 9/11 and then decided to take their chances with what they had. Maybe.