“Under the Dome” by Stephen King is a comforting, nostalgic listen to me. I’d walk for up to 30 mins or more, from work to home and back, just listening to it, in years past.

Listened to it again rather recently and one bit, that hasn’t aged well at all is the bit with the military “boosting the wifi” so the tech nerd kid (who is written like someone much, much older, with slang like that of an old surfer dude) could broadcast a video in “full 1080p hd!”.

Now granted, the scene is still effective and gets done what it needs to (in that oddly cozy King style) but good grief, I cringe each time. It’s like listening to a “zoom and enhance!” bit from a bad early 00s procedural.

What are some other examples of this? Again, not instances of bad writing, exactly, but where the author seemed more than a little out of their depth?

  • quantcompandthings@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch.

    There’s a lot of stuff about how art and culture are worth living for no matter what the cost, which is just so quaint. there are characters in it who suddenly go from failed actor with a murky educational background to working in finance and raising a family. to me that sounds like pure fiction.

    the book was published in 2013, post financial crisis of 2008, but the world it refers to is fundamentally the economically vibrant one of the late 80s and 90s, where “slackers” could still get by doing…whatever, like working in a video store I guess. nowadays those people would be living in cars or worse.

  • ElaineofAstolat@alien.topBEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    Joanne Fluke, the author of the Hannah Swenson series.

    The character is supposed to be in her 30s and owns a bakery, but she’s clueless about technology. In one book she didn’t know how to check her phone for missed calls.

    Another thing is that some of the characters seem to be fairly young, but will have names like Herb and Phyllis.

    • gimli_is_the_best@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Fluke’s way of aging people down is to make them all morons.

      I read 2 of those books before I wished a lobotomy on myself.