Question: how much does close alignment with contemporary cultural icons catch your attention in a romance novel? For example, I am reading Greek Doctor, Cinderella Bride, and I’ve noticed several direct parallels, or nods perhaps, to a contemporary tv show. See if you can guess which one:
Heroine: former model who left her career to go back to school and pursue science career. Full name, Isobelle, but answers to Izzy.
Hero: former surgeon, now science researcher, known for being Greek and sending the heroine’s twitchy bits into rumble-strip mode at the sound of his hoarse, gravelly voice. Heroines sister has nicknamed him: McHusky.
Grey’s Anatomy, right? Obviously.
Funny thing is, sometimes the cultural references that align or even ground a book firmly in the contemporary bother the ever living hell out of me. This one did not – mostly because I interpreted the mentions as homage or even a little wink at the popularity of that series.
Other references that have caught my eye include the “paranormal Amazing Race” better known as the Talisman’s Hie from Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series, and that one did bother me a bit, though I read past it and enjoyed the series immensely. The bother was mostly based on the fact that I really, really dislike the entire reality tv oeuvre.
Otherwise, I wonder if the insertion of real-world details seems somewhat limiting, as it can date the book to a very narrow space in recent history, depending on how long that reference is popular.
For example, and this goes back a year or two, Jackie Kessler’s Hell’s Belles references Marc Broussard’s song Home when her main character, a succubus, uses it to audition as a pole-dancer. I knew the song when I read the reference, and I rather like the song itself – and now whenever I hear it, I think of pole-dancing succubi. For Kessler, this is not a bad thing. I wonder, though, since Broussard isn’t as much a household name as other musical artists, does using a specific song tie that book or that series to a concept that’s already slightly out of date? Or does referencing a song that isn’t extremely pop-mainstream give the world within the book a more genuine link to reality?
I often expect that contemporary romance to exist in a somewhat nebulous space that doesn’t age quickly, even as the actual real-life world changes incredibly quickly. I’m always amused by category romances or contemporary single titles from the 80’s that reference shoulder pads and wide belts and other fashion icon images. Does adding a reference and taking the risk that it will still be applicable in 10 or 15 years detract from the plot? Is it establishing a reality, or dating a narrative firmly in a specific time period? What do you think?
Star Trek was particularly bad about this, because Kirk, Picard and friends would only ever read Dickens and Shakespeare or play Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck. Which is fine, but why did human culture as depicted in Star Trek not produce anything worthwhile after approximately 1960? Just for once, I would have loved to hear a character raving about the neo-brutalist hiphop of the early 22nd century or declare that Lulu Wigbottom is undoubtedly the greatest poet of the 23rd century.
Back to romances, even if the heroes and heroines of contemporary romance are into classic films, why is their favourite always Casablanca and not Captain Blood or White Heat or Roman Holidays or any other great classic film?
One author who manages to make her contemporary characters feel contemporary without alienating the readers with obscure references is Suzanne Enoch in her Sam Jellicoe series. Sam loves Star Wars and Japanese monster movies, she has a cellphone with different ringtones for different people and generally feels like a young woman in her 20s/30s.
In terms of mentions of music in books, if I love the book and the characters I am likely to look up the music, perhaps fall in love with and buy the music. Soooo I love it when there are references to specific pieces in a book I am reading. I also love the new habit of authors posting “Playlists” on their websites and in their books. I have found many an awesome song I have never heard of that way.
Frankly, I have read a lot of “contemporary” fiction from 14th to 21st century and I find the references to time charming. Gives me more understanding of the time frame. Frankly, back at 80’s a “strong” women were pretty wimpy still. One of the most beloved romance novels star a woman who was raped when she was 17 or something and was practically a virgin when the hero finally “melted” her. Without the shoulder pads and two kilos mobile phones and Madonna style she would have been very unbelievable character. The same way, I love the 70’s “contemporary” novels with the bellbottoms and wide labels and shawl collars 😀
I like it when the author uses fashion, music, style and era-typical cultural references.
BTW, a poledancer can use ANY music she wishes… I’m sure quite a lot of them use old music as well as new. I don’t think choosing a modern song as background music anchors the story to any time – well… it puts it AFTER the song. Belle Epoque succubus wouldn’t have danced to Ravel’s Bolero. 😀
This is one reason I have a hard time reading contemporaries! I find the current cultural references very distracting! I read romance to escape my life….I don’t want to hear about the hot song on the charts, the hottest designers (especially the ones I can’t afford), the cars etc…. It puts me in my own time and far too close to reality for me to suspend belief and fall into the story. Now that said, if it is a contemporary with a twist like some of Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander series I can definitely get past it (maybe too much distracting alpha male to notice anything else *sigh*).
The fashion things as far as trends don’t bother me, that is like saying the heroine wore an empire style gown because *gasp* it was the empire period! It was the fashion silly! Anyway, to make it timeless the description should evoke a period (current or otherwise) without forcing the reader to keep a pop culture reference book next to her. In general anything that takes the reader out of the story is bad, be it word choice, pacing, or cultural references.
I remember one book I flipped through a while back, there was a character who went on about how Martha Stewart was in prison. I put the book down right away; I feel that current events date a book faster than fashions or music—after all, you might just not update your wardrobe that often, or like to listen to music past the time that it’s trendy. But that just threw me out of the book.
I don’t mind pop culture references. But I have a problem when the author makes too many or when there is a lot of branding. If you mention a brand of something I often think “Product placement!” no matter whether it is or not. I don’t like having that many specifics tied to my imagination.
The other problem is slang. As somebody referred to “Chucks” in my little part of the US (and possibly my age group) they’re “Converse”. I had no idea what “Chucks” were, but I’ve seen the shoes everywhere. So I like some slang, but you need to be careful with what is used.
That said, I don’t like the idea of the plot basically following that of a tv show. The Talisman’s Hie didn’t bother me because I think the idea of a world-wide race doesn’t feel original to me. Amazing Race just decided to put it on tv, they didn’t create the concept (I could be mistaken). But all those details that are basically ripped from Grey’s Anatomy? Turn me off completely. If I wanted to read about alternate Grey’s Anatomy storylines, I’d read fan fic.