Comments on: Do We Need Awards for Brand-Name Blight in Fiction? http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/do-we-need-awards-for-brand-name-blight-in-fiction/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Thu, 16 May 2013 19:28:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/do-we-need-awards-for-brand-name-blight-in-fiction/#comment-4882 Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:29:02 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/do-we-need-awards-for-brand-name-blight-in-fiction/#comment-4882 “Kindle” is a good example of a brand that could carbon-date fiction. I can’t think of any novels from the 1980s that are still in print and have a lot of characters working on their KayPros. Maybe it’s because they’ve all died, smothered by their former coolness?

]]> By: knightofswords http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/do-we-need-awards-for-brand-name-blight-in-fiction/#comment-4880 Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:44:16 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/do-we-need-awards-for-brand-name-blight-in-fiction/#comment-4880 While mentioning brand names, fads, events, etc. in novels written about the past can, I think, help establish the novel’s time and place, doing that in novels set in the present seems likely to date them very quickly. Saying that “Bob read Janice’s latest on his Kindle” might sound cool now, ten years from now the word “kindle” might make people think Bob was starting a fire with your books (not optimal). I suspect many authors use those brand names to show that they’re in the know about the latest whatever, but also as a lazy shorthand method of characterization. Let’s face it, if Bob drives a Buick and Bill drives a Porshe, which one is most likely to be the cool power player at the office?

Malcolm

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