: Re: What can I do to make my writing fit the 1950s? I'm working on a project (for a game) that needs to have a strongly 1950s feel. I, however, was born in the 1980s, so my writing has plenty

@Shelton455

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If you really want to make something feel right for the era, you need to also capture the real morality and values of the era.

It's fatal to feel of the era, especially if your test is for people who lived in the era, to depict characters from historical eras somehow magically have the ethical and moral sensibilities of present. My grandmother is 103 years old and very often when we discuss something in the past some moral matter will come up and she will say, "People thought differently about that back then," or "most people didn't know any better." My grandmother could instantly peg a character as out of place anytime in America from the early 1920s to the early 1990s based on their moral stances alone.

I think it is extremely difficult to create relatable characters, especially protagonist who hold the mainstream or even advance moral views of their era, when we have today have evolved past that morality. But the failure to do so will never create a highly believable character, especially if your target audience is people who lived in the time or have even studied it in any detail. I spot moral anachronism constantly, and they often yank me out of the story.

(As an aside, I think the best example I have seen of modern writers working very hard to capture the true feel of an era can be seen in the Cohen's Brother's remake of "True Grit". They pretty much nailed the manners, language and even the cadence of speech of the 1870s. But a lot of people complain that can't follow the dialog.)

You also have to deal with modern taboos such as the "N"-word. It's one of our strongest contemporary taboos, one of the few remaining that will get you ejected from polite society in an instant for using it.

But that wasn't always the case and that causes problems for writing dialog for a historically accurate story

In the the 19th century, it wasn't considered an insult, unless applied to a white person in which case it had the same connotation as calling someone in Europe a "peasant."

You can see this writings in the Civil War. . Fredrick Douglas seems to have been the person who first fixed it as a pejorative but most people regardless of their views on slavery or civil rights didn't see it as such. Even some abolitionist used the word, apparently unconsciously and those who weren't ardent abolitionist gave its use no thought at all. Reading their unedited writings is wince inducing even if they were people literally fighting and dying specifically to end slavery.

Even well up until the 1950s, many people white and black did think much of it. It was not until the 1960s that it became universally regarded as a pejorative and not till the 1970s taboo.

Yet, accurately depicting the historical frequency of the use of "N"-word in a story set in any era prior to the late 1960s, such that it would meet the test of someone from the era would, likely destroy the ability of the contemporary readers to enjoy or remain immersed in the story because every violation of the taboo would yank them out of the story.

I would be one of those people. I can't even tolerate the new "soft-R" version much liked by Rap artist. I literally flinch when I hear even the(largely) socially acceptable version because such a deep moral revulsion was drilled into me against the "hard R" version in the 70s when the taboo was being consciously setup in the culture. I can't comfortably watch or listen to any media that contains either version, it at all but the most minimal frequency and every use of it yanks me out of the story or drive me from the room. Can't even watch documentaries sometimes and even original historical sources are unpleasant.

I probably miss some good stories out their sometimes, but a taboo is an emotional safe guard, and I will never lose that one. No author, no matter how skilled, could write a story with an historically accurate frequency of the N-word, that I could possibly read without constantly controlling my since of revulsion. I would never enjoy the story or seek it out.

All artist eventual encounter limitations to their arts, either in themselves, or their audience. But if you really want to nail the feel of an era, to the extent it will pass the test of someone like my grandmother, you'd have to go that extreme.

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