Ice Creams used to cost 5 cents
Jun. 27th, 2008 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysI've always loved the wit that Robert Sheckley displays in his short stories. The Robot Who Looked Like Me is a collection of such stories. Even if the punchlines are predictable and the references are quite dated, it is still great fun.
Still, the dated thing bugs me a bit. Writing is a product of its time - the early 70s in this case. You cannot escape that. But if you are trying to write outside your time, it probably pays not to be too specific about stuff. The thing Sheckley keeps doing is putting specific monetary values into his stories. People take high paying jobs in the far future in his stories for amounts that actually seem pretty puny by todays standards. Surely it isn't that hard to change the currency name ("Credits" used to be popular) or just talk in more general terms about the big money. It isn't a big deal and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the stories but it does bug me because it just seems so fixable.
Still, the dated thing bugs me a bit. Writing is a product of its time - the early 70s in this case. You cannot escape that. But if you are trying to write outside your time, it probably pays not to be too specific about stuff. The thing Sheckley keeps doing is putting specific monetary values into his stories. People take high paying jobs in the far future in his stories for amounts that actually seem pretty puny by todays standards. Surely it isn't that hard to change the currency name ("Credits" used to be popular) or just talk in more general terms about the big money. It isn't a big deal and it doesn't stop me from enjoying the stories but it does bug me because it just seems so fixable.