I’m currently reading Michael Connelly’s Bosch novels. The earlier ones are set some time pre-2000 - I think in the 80s-90s. I’m finding that they feel somewhat “dated” to me WRT such things as using pay phones, typewriters, paper records, etc. (Possibly, my impression is magnified b/c we recently binged the TV series, which was updated to the 20-teens.).
But I don’t think I get the same feeling when I read books that are significantly older. Say a Chandler novel/film from the 30s-40s. I wonder if part of that is due to the fact that I did not live through that time, having been born in 1960. But even shows/movies/books from the 60s-70s impress me as “nostalgic” as opposed to “dated.” It is just a time period in the 90s and 90s that seem to impress me as dated, as the people sorta present themselves as so “up-to date”, but when you look at them today they are just SO “primitive” in terms of widespread technology we’ve seen since then.
I don’t worry that Rick can’t call Isla on the cell phone and find out why she isn’t at the train station, but when the officers in Adam-12 don’t have personal radios to talk to each other, I wonder how we ever managed! Or think, you know if Magnum had a cell phone, he wouldn’t experience so much hassle.
In a similar area, we watched the Christmas movie Lethal Weapon recently, and it’s funny the escalation of firepower in the years since. Riggs and Murtaugh thought the bad guys were superbad because they had “mercury switches”, a few automatic weapons, and martial arts. Not a single one had body armor, kevlar knives, or anything, and the baddest “merc” looked like Gary Busey!
It’s funny to see the cops in Law and Order (especially the early seasons) use beepers and phone booths, and the “primitive, vacuum tube” computers they had all use ginormous CRT monitors. You don’t notice the ubiquity of flat screens until you watch not-that-long-ago 20-30 year old shows. When Lennie retired, Ed Greene noted they “were going to get Blackberries next year”.
On the other hand, the jivin’ hepcats puffing out enormous clouds of tobacco smoke in this vintage jazz bar are a lot more jarring to me than any party scene on Law & Order.
I think part of the phenomenon is the idea that “the past is a foreign country”. So, really old stuff is acceptable being the way it is, because we mentally put it in the “foreign country” bucket. Whereas more recent stuff doesn’t get mentally put in that bucket. Instead it is more “real” to us, so we get more focused on the little differences.
I recently caught North by Northwest on TV. I chuckled when I was reminded that the whole plot depends on the mistaken identity created by Roger Thornhill calling a bellboy over so that he can send a telegram to his mother. She is playing bridge at a friend’s apartment that has no phone.
