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illegible_scribble
Posted 2015-01-29 2:40 PM (#9392 - in reply to #9314)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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gallyangel - 2015-01-17 8:50 PM

What dates a story for me is culture. If the society/culture of some far flung place feels like 1955, 1968, whatever, then I have problems very quickly. I'd like to think I can handle bad, indifferent writing (I have to read my own), so that's not an issue for me. What breaks that suspension of disbelief is different for everyone.

I read Joe Haldeman's The Forever War (1974) a few months ago. Whilst I really enjoyed it, I have to say that I liked Scalzi's Old Man's War (2004) better. Of course, the fact that I was too young to really have a first-hand awareness of the Vietnam War probably contributes to that, because that resonance with people who were acutely aware of / involved in the war seems to be a huge part of the book's enduring appeal.

But Haldeman also posits that all female soldiers tacitly agree to sleep with all the male soldiers and avoid monogamous linkups to help prevent "problems" amongst the troops, and the main character freaks out repeatedly about homosexuality. Both of those I found to be now quite unlikely concepts which really "dated" the novel and broke my suspension of disbelief.



Edited by illegible_scribble 2015-01-29 2:42 PM

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