What’s with leaving out a blank in dates in fiction? Why do that?
I think it’s all Mme. ________'s fault.
Same as the (older) convention of leaving out place names, I’m sure. That’s being discussed in THIS thread.
In some cases, it’s actually part of the name of the year, such as twenty-exty-six.
It’s a safe way of not actually pinning down the year. In fact it’s sometimes not even the last digit but the last two. That way, in creeping continuity, nobody can come back later and say “hey wait a minute, how can he have only been Green Lantern for 3 years if he had his ring at his high school reunion 4 years ago?” Or suchlike.
I can’t believe it took me this long to find that Easter egg. Sheesh.
I blame Major -------- de Coverley.
Because it’s fiction?
As best as I can tell from that thread, names are left out of nonfiction for legal reasons, and they’re left out of fiction in order to emulate nonfiction and seem more authentic. I have no idea how this could possibly apply to dates. Care to explain?
I’ve always imagined it’s supposed to keep us guessing as to when the story actually happens? If so, 198- isn’t all that mysterious; what’s the big difference between 1980 and 1989? 20X6 is a little better, I guess. But I agree there’s no reason to make up a date; we know it’s not going to happen anyway.
My birthday is June 12, 1984.
It’s a literary convention that indicates it’s some time in the 80s. Evidently, such nonliteralness is too much for anal retentives to handle.
I guess I don’t see what advantage 198- has over any random date, like 1987.
Do we really have that accurate records from 198 AD? I mean, they weren’t even using the same calendar, so June 12 is probably too fine of a detail…
From the SNES game “Earthbound”:
The year is 199X"
Sounds so dated now…