: Re: Referencing modern pop culture in science fiction A geek today is quite likely to reference the pop culture of 30 years ago: "Do or do not, there is no try", "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Ground

The general rule is this: The more current something is, the quicker it goes stale. Allusions are a way of contextualizing a piece of work, a shorthand way to borrow some of the magic of the source(s). But the cost of using them is this. To the same extent that they do work for you for the people that get the allusions, they will fail to do that same work for anyone who doesn't get them.

Particularly for speculative fiction, frequent current or anachronistic allusions diminish the independent reality of the paracosm and make it parasitic on our own reality, reducing it to a pastiche. If you really want your reality to live on its own, better to make it self contained, with its own allusions that travel along with it.

With all that said, everyone uses at least some allusions. And Shakespeare, Plato, and the Bible are all still read today, despite being thick with allusions that we no longer understand or have any access to. The key is to make the work strong enough that it stands up, even if you don't get any of the allusions.

Load Full (0)

: How to quote a book in my novel? I write as a hobby and so my works are pretty amateur, but I still try to keep my writing as legitimate and proper as I can. My novel is about how a

@Sarah872

Load Full 1 Comments

: Would a character displaying the opposite of one of their characteristics break immersion? The main character, while playing an MMO, was teleported to another world in her avatar along with all

@Sarah872

Load Full 3 Comments

: Is it okay to write a story where the protagonist is a Terrorist? I am writing a side story called, The Afterglow of Jovian, which mainly takes place sometime during the final stages of the

@Sarah872

Load Full 3 Comments

: Keep in mind that the "Seven Deadly Sins" are not grounded in anything objective, nor even the founding of any religion. Rather, they source from religious writings of authors of whom most

: Re: Referencing modern pop culture in science fiction A geek today is quite likely to reference the pop culture of 30 years ago: "Do or do not, there is no try", "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Ground

More posts by @Sarah872

: How to quote a book in my novel? I write as a hobby and so my works are pretty amateur, but I still try to keep my writing as legitimate and proper as I can. My novel is about how a

: Would a character displaying the opposite of one of their characteristics break immersion? The main character, while playing an MMO, was teleported to another world in her avatar along with all

: Is it okay to write a story where the protagonist is a Terrorist? I am writing a side story called, The Afterglow of Jovian, which mainly takes place sometime during the final stages of the

: Keep in mind that the "Seven Deadly Sins" are not grounded in anything objective, nor even the founding of any religion. Rather, they source from religious writings of authors of whom most

Login to post a comment!

0 Comments

Back to top