Happy 26th Birthday Harry Potter

[pbray]

Of course in JK Rowling's world it's still 1997, and we're waiting for book seven when Harry will turn 17.

As writers we can take note of what happens when you put specific dates in your books. When JK Rowling started writing in 1990, the dates she used were contemporary. By the time the first book was published in 1997, it referred to Harry being 11, which would place the events in 1991.

Fortunately the time gap isn't a big deal, since the majority of the action takes place in the magical world, and thus there's no need to account for the differences between 1997 and 2007. But if this were a conventional series such date specificity could be a problem.

Comments

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

This time specificity problem had come up in Sue Grafton's Alphabet mystery series. Her sleuth started sleuthing in the 80s or something but the stories happen more or less after each other timewise . . . which means that in the series it's like the early 90s, whereas it's actually being published this year.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I've heard it's a problem for the series and for new readers picking up the books, expecting that a contemporary mystery. As I recall, some of her early books hinge on the slow and painful gathering of information that's is now readily available. Things that we take for granted today--such as the internet and being able to mapquest anyone's home address in seconds--that weren't possible in that time frame.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I was browsing in FoF, and picked up a book with a cover showing flying cars, space suits, etc, from the distant year of...2000.

Not so surprising, except that the book was published in the 1980's. It gave me an instant lesson in Why Never To Set A Futuristic Novel Within a Human Lifespan.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

My mom once told me she remembered reading 1984 in school and thinking it was such a long way away...and then we started talking about how old we'd be in 2000, and how THAT seemed ages away...

[janni.livejournal.com]

Although writing in the generic now can get one in trouble, too--I still remember a book where the heroine gets attacked by the bad guys as she's looking for a pay phone--and within a couple years of the writing, cell phones were common enough that someone in a high-risk job like hers would have had one as a matter of course.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yup. Or how many old books/suspense movies made a point of the villain cutting the telephone lines to the house so no one could call for help? I remember this in an old Dick Francis mystery.

One of the things I liked about Dick Francis's books is that they were always contemporary--if you got one of his books in the 60s, it had 60s technology, if it was written in the 80s or 90s, ditto. The older ones actually wear better, it's the ones that are just a few years out of date that are jarring, as you mentioned with the cell phones.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

This is why I stick to writing Fantasy set in past, imaginary worlds. ;)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Even when I was writing Regency romances I was very careful about date references. For most of my books I used general Regency era, rather than specifically stating whether it was 1810 versus 1811, for instance. The more specific you get, the easier it is to be caught in a mistake.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

I'm working on a book that TECHNICALLY takes place in an alternate mid-1800s America, but I'm trying hard to downplay that so I don't have to get into infodumps on, say, why the Civil War isn't going on. I give enough hints to justify it, but the fewer details I can trip up on, the better!

It helps that most of the story takes place in the middle of nowhere.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite series is the Young Wizardy series, which was only a trilogy, and written in the 1980s. Nina's favorite band was Reo Speedwagon, and her sisters wizard's manual was on an Apple.

Then the books started to appear on the "If you Like HP" lists, and she is now up to book 8 in the series. Poof! The characters are the same ages, but they have morhped 10-20 years in the future. Reo Speedwagon is no longer mentioned, and the Apple morphed into a laptop, pretty much on its own free will.

That said, I still manage to sell this series like crazy, with only a few words of warning about the time period in the first three books.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I remember reading those books, or at least the first three.

I'm curious, do you think it would be a good thing if the author went back and updated the dated references in the early books? Or is there something to be said for leaving the books as is, rather than trying to stay abreast of a moving target?

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I think the books would actually be ruined if she tried to update them. I think it bests to leave them as is, and just continue to move forward. I have noticed she is being a little less time bound in the current books, not mentioning specific current events or pop culture as much.

you don't know me, but

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

In surfing through LJs recently, I saw someone recommend your Devlin books. (Have bought the books, which look highly interesting.) And here I am, curious.

The most outre time-oddity I've seen in a book's setting is in the Dolly mystery series by Dorothy Dunnett. The books in general progress through time as the writing did. However, the sixth one centered on a young businesswoman, who as usual interacted with the series detective. A couple of hints in the narrative place the detective at a time *before* the earlier books in the series, even though the time of the world seems to have moved forward as usual from the fifth book. One becomes very puzzled, one does.

The Young Wizard series by Duane does have its work cut out to keep the slowly-maturing characters in sync with the passing present. Dairine's wizard manual-computer appears to be upgraded via magic as needed -- well, so do the paper-book manuals. This is actually closer to my real-world experience of seeing *somebody* with a new iteration of the personal hand computer every time I turn around, than most magic could be.

Re: you don't know me, but

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hi, glad you stopped by!

Interesting point on the Dolly mystery series. It makes me wonder if the book was a "trunk manuscript"-- something she'd written before the others but for whatever reason didn't sell until later, and thus the inconsistencies between the character timelines and the world timelines.

I like what Duane has done with the series, but I'm sure she's had to give a lot of thought and put significant effort into the decisions that she's made.

It's funny how some things stay the same while others are constantly morphing. If you have your characters listening to a Top 40 radio station that works in the 70s as well as it works today, it's only the specific songs that change. But yesterday's Walkman is today's iPod, is tomorrow's who-knows-what?