What works in fanfic where your audience is pretty much your friends/community and which tends to be written in the moment and the here and now does not translate into pro fiction.
I mostly agree, though I think I'd draw some nitpicky distinctions between name-dropping references (always bad imo, and especially bad in sff for the reasons you mention), cultural context that deepens our understanding (e.g. this astronaut first wanted to be an astronaut because they grew up watching Star Trek), and Easter eggs that add a level of fun but don't distract from the narrative. I confess to loving a good Easter egg; one of K J Charles's romance novels has mentions of a character from the 1960s radio comedy Round the Horne, which I adore because it's so niche.
what is reverse anachronism? Like homophobia in the Star Trek universe kinda stuff... I know it's tough to create completely alien things, but going back 200 years and going fwd should create similar differences, right?
Do you mean things that are anachronistic/don't make sense because the story world should be significantly different from our world? It's definitely a peeve of mine. There's something closer to literal anachronism I've seen too, along the lines of "I hummed a Taylor Swift tune quietly as I went through the airlock. My love for ancient 20th century earth pop culture sure made me a big nerd!" I detest that more than anything, I think.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-01-25 04:47 am (UTC)I mostly agree, though I think I'd draw some nitpicky distinctions between name-dropping references (always bad imo, and especially bad in sff for the reasons you mention), cultural context that deepens our understanding (e.g. this astronaut first wanted to be an astronaut because they grew up watching Star Trek), and Easter eggs that add a level of fun but don't distract from the narrative. I confess to loving a good Easter egg; one of K J Charles's romance novels has mentions of a character from the 1960s radio comedy Round the Horne, which I adore because it's so niche.
what is reverse anachronism? Like homophobia in the Star Trek universe kinda stuff... I know it's tough to create completely alien things, but going back 200 years and going fwd should create similar differences, right?
Do you mean things that are anachronistic/don't make sense because the story world should be significantly different from our world? It's definitely a peeve of mine. There's something closer to literal anachronism I've seen too, along the lines of "I hummed a Taylor Swift tune quietly as I went through the airlock. My love for ancient 20th century earth pop culture sure made me a big nerd!" I detest that more than anything, I think.