I've heard several times and read countless more times that an author shouldn't scatter pop culture references in their writing because it gives your work the same shelf life of those references. I'm not fooling myself into thinking I am writing the next "Catcher in the Rye" but I also doubt the J.D. Salinger thought he was writing something that would be an anthem for teenagers for years to come. I like to look at works like "Ready Player One" that didn't even use current pop culture references, but ones from over 20 years earlier. btw, if you haven't ready "Ready Player One" by Earnest Cline you totally should.
My characters are based off of a lot of the stuff in pop culture right now. Heck, the fact that I am writing a superhero book could be considered me whoring out pop culture, except that I was born and raised with them and was a fan way before the current trend started. So I sprinkle my story telling with internet memes and movie quotes, so sue me!
I would like for my book to be read by people. I know, I'm going to be selling it and not just giving it away, but the money is an added bonus, the real treasure is having people read what I wrote and, I hope, enjoy it. I don't know if anyone starts writing a book just because they want to become wealthy, I would like to believe that it's because they have a story inside of them that they feel others would like to hear. That's how it is for me at least. So, I'm using a lot of pop culture references and I'm sure the reviewers on Amazon will let me know that I shouldn't do that. Maybe they'll read this before they do and decide to leave that off. I doubt it.
-Pauldo
P.S. I didn't really get very much done this weekend as I had hoped. I wrote some and did outline a new section that I am adding in. Right now I'm watching Season 1 of Newsroom for no real reason only because I had one line a dialogue from it stuck in my head and I needed the context. Does anyone else ever have that problem?
I like reading pop culture references when I read books. It makes the story more relevant to me, and I also feel like it gives me insight into the author. To be honest, I think technology references give books a shorter shelf life. When I read books and there are no cell phones, it tells me what generation the book was NOT written in. Unless the book is historical fiction or something like that.
ReplyDeleteI just used a "Don't Taze me, Bro" joke and that's the sort of thing that I was talking about. I thought the way I used it was funny, so I'm keeping it, but that was really what got me to post this. One of the characters has a connection with video games and I'm not referencing actual video games, but I am making it clear to people who would know what game I am actually referring to. That's been kinda fun to try and work in.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the cell phone thing, There was a book from the 80's that I really enjoyed back then, but I tried to re-read it a few years ago and found it annoying because nobody could ever communicate with anyone without finding them. It was really an annoying story element since I kept thinking "Why not just text them for crying out loud!".