Is this really a plot hole?

[intim8]

Spoiler alert: I will describe the ending of Pictures of Her here, so if you don't want spoilers, don't read this, or read the story first. OTOH, it's in Romance, and as a few commenters pointed out, we all know how it is going to end, but how they get there is what makes the story.

It starts out with a recently graduated high school girl asking a photography buff fellow student to take some pictures of her. Present day, so they're digitial pictures on memory cards. She's started a thing where every year she documents the events and such of the previous year of her life.

This goes on for three years, and they fall in love and get married and live happily ever after and grow old together. The final scene is the woman on her death bed and the MC saying that all he has now is happy memories and 63 years of pictures. And he remembers one in particular, a speciific numbered picture on a specific card from when she was 19.

Then I get this comment:

This is certainly one of the best conceived and written stories on Lit. 5 stars unreservedly. Only one slight complaint. If her death is supposed to be an almost current event he could not have been recording pictures for all those years on memory cards. He would have started out when roll film was the most available medium for amateur photographers. Not a big deal really but just a mildly distracting anachronism.

I have no complaints with the comment. I think he's technically correct. But is this really a plot hole? Is that scene really taken as a current event, in the current day? Is this the kind of thing that needs to be accounted for in other stories? Like, to say that in the year 2087 she was on her death bed? Or to somehow signal clearly that this scene is far in the future?

I didn't really think about it, I just kind of assumed that now that they're old, it means the future, not that that is the present and the entire story is a flashback.

This is probably bothering me more than it should.

 

[SimonDoom]

I agree it's bothering you more than it should. The comment is a silly one. It's obvious from references early in the story ("Google Earth") that the story begins in the Internet/digital age. You could be clearer about the date at the end, but it's not a requirement.

The story has a 4.86 score, so obviously it's not a big problem.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

This is probably bothering me more than it should.

Yeah, it definitely is. I've seen situations like this in hundreds of stories on here and in books. It's always caused me to just shrug my shoulders if I even thought about it at all.

 

[NotWise]

I think Melissa Baby dealt with the same problem. All things considered, it isn't a bad problem to have.

Maybe you should have found some way to indicate the ending was in the future. Then you might need to explain why, in this rapidly changing world, they're still using current technology.

 

[intim8]

Then you might need to explain why, in this rapidly changing world, they're still using current technology.

They'd probably still have the ability to read the cards, or would have transferred them to whatever comes next. That' part is probably not an issue, but I can see myself getting anal enough to account for it, at the cost of breaking the flow, now that it is on my mind. Thanks

 

[NotWise]

They'd probably still have the ability to read the cards, or would have transferred them to whatever comes next. That' part is probably not an issue, but I can see myself getting anal enough to account for it, at the cost of breaking the flow, now that it is on my mind. Thanks

You can probably invoke people's tendency to stay with old technology as they age. That works until there's no longer support for their old habits. I can think of a few other solutions, but it's your story.

 

[lustychimera]

They scanned all the Polaroids into the computer.

 

[intim8]

I can think of a few other solutions, but it's your story.

The story is done and dusted. Not going to "fix" it. I just want to get an idea of how much to watch out for this kind of thing in the future.

 

[OffNSFW]

I think the term "plot hole" has become misunderstood as "a thing I wish were better explained." Or "This character didn't do what I would have done," "I thought this coincidence was unlikely," etc.

Imagine a sequence of clearly articulated story beats. A, B, C. Each one leads inevitably to the next, each one follows inevitably from the previous one. They all need each other in order to happen. Darth Vader boards the ship, looking for the Death Star plans. To keep them from him, Princess Leia gives the plans to C-3PO and R2-D2 and sends them down to the planet below. They fall into the possession of the unlikeliest hero, a farmboy named Luke Skywalker. A, B, C.

A plot hole is when B is missing. Jimmy Stewart follows Kim Novak's car, sees her go into the hotel, finds that she's vanished without a trace. It feels like we're waiting on the revelation of a key piece of information, but it never comes. She's simply back for the next scene. The movie forgets the mystery and moves on. It's a plot hole, a missing piece in the logic of the story.

In your case, it sounds to me like you didn't say much about the future either way. You're taking it as a given that they can still view these photos without explaining how technology has or hasn't changed. (I'm in a similar jam with my WIP. The ending assumes the lead character has the same phone number after 30-some years. It's fine.) You're leaving those details to the imagination, and maybe even assuming that most readers won't care--and that's great! Every great story ever written has stuff it could have explained more, but left it out because it was out of the scope of the story.

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is probably bothering me more than it should.

A certain type of person delights in finding things like this. It gets them harder than anything else (and it does seem to be guys in the main). Thing is - like here - they can be totally missing the point.

I say let them enjoy their erection and move on to more reasonable and grounded comments.

A weakness in my writing (of which there are many) is a desire to explain everything. I’m experimenting with leaving out a few things and letting the reader figure it out.

Emily

 

[VallesMarineris]

But is this really a plot hole?

Of course it's a plot hole. The question is whether it's big enough to require fixing. Here's my view as an individual reader:

I’m a literal-minded technologist, with an engine in the back of my brain that’s constantly logging and checking facts. So this kind of mistake makes me pop out of the story and I find myself just staring at the page. I would forgive the author and dive back in, the way a spelling or grammar mistake would (my brain also comes with a built-in spelling and grammar checker) if the story is compelling, but it’s a discontinuity.

I'm used to it, and a single instance won’t ruin the story for me, but more than a couple occurrences makes the story too much trouble, like having to navigate around multiple spelling errors and sentences that don't quite make sense.

If I can wax philosophical for a moment:

We live in a technological age, one which, for better or worse, is changing rapidly. Therefore, all fiction in a contemporary setting is, in a literal sense, science fiction. How would you react to, say, a road trip story in which the characters drive hundreds or thousands of miles, but the author makes all the cities they pass through the same and doesn’t bother to change the scenery?

There are two maxims re this that I keep in mind:

William Gibson: The future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.

Margaret Mead: We are all immigrants in time.

 

[intim8]

A weakness in my writing (of which there are many) is a desire to explain everything.

Yeah, me too, which is probably why this is bothering me more than it should.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Yeah, me too, which is probably why this is bothering me more than it should.

I don’t demand that as a reader, but I often feel I need to tie things up [insert joke here]. It was kinda liberating deliberately not explaining what was going on in A Holiday Wish and leaving it to the readers to speculate.

Emily

 

[intim8]

So this kind of mistake makes me pop out of the story

The discontinuity only becomes apparent at the very end, and by then the reader is probably crying too hard to notice

all fiction in a contemporary setting is, in a literal sense, science fiction

I've said before that we are living in the science fiction future (except for flying cars). I'm old enough that the pace of change has noticably increased exponentially in my living memory. It does sometimes make me glitch in writing, since my internal sense of speed is still running on 1970s time. I have to consciously account for it.

 

[desecration]

I think he's technically correct. But is this really a plot hole?

Yes. No. It's a technical inaccuracy, but we often let those slide in stories. You can fix it by having a character digitize a whole bunch of film at some point, maybe when they're stuck in the house during winter with a broken leg from skiing or something.

 

[Britva415]

The idea that technology won't be able to read JPGs in 40 years is completely stupid, and the idea that the story didn't lampshade 40 years worth of backups is as asinine as dinging you for not documenting 40 years worth of shits taken.

Some things happen offscreen, by convention.

 

[intim8]

The idea that technology won't be able to read JPGs in 40 years is completely stupid, and the idea that the story didn't lampshade 40 years worth of backups is as asinine as dinging you for not documenting 40 years worth of shits taken.

Some things happen offscreen, by convention.

The issue isn't that the ending, which is supposed to be 60 years in the future, would have trouble with today's tech.

The issue is that the ending could be taken to be present day. That would put the beginning, which explicitly mentions digital photography, 60 years in the past, before any digital photography was possible.

 

[orangecurious]

I did think about this when I read the story... i have several where photography is used.

Then I remembered one of mine where i realised the couple may not have been able to video call in the years that that part of the story was set.

then i ignored it.

 

[Paul_Chance]

It's not a plot hole. It's a simple clarity problem, and it's a problem one reader had.

I'd just reread the passage and go "hmmm, they're right, I could have made the future part a little clearer" or "hmmm, I wonder what part of 63 years in the future he missed. Oh well, no need to change".

I'd only be concerned about it, as a writing, if it's a type of critical comment that comes up frequently in your stories. Don't sweat the nickel and dime stuff.

 

[intim8]

Don't sweat the nickel and dime stuff.

I'm not really sweating it, just letting it trigger my overly detail-obsessed part of my brain.

I posted here just as a sanity check, either way.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I'm not really sweating it, just letting it trigger my overly detail-obsessed part of my brain.

I posted here just as a sanity check, either way.

Did it work? Are you sane?

 

[intim8]

Did it work? Are you sane?

As sane as I ever was. Umm.....