Pop culture in stories

[LaRascasse]

Pop culture in stories. Do you like reading it? Do you like writing it? How much of it do you like to see?
My recent story got an interesting bit of feedback that it was heavy on the pop culture. Some readers felt it dated the story, others mentioned that it frequently sent them to Google.

I, personally, am a huge fan of pop culture in a story. If done well, it adds to a story and gives it a sense of reality. Take just this year...

I'd love for someone to write a story where a wife leaves a man and moves in with a high flying hedge fund manager who has incidentally placed a huge short option on GameStop.

Or.. a maritime crew stuck at the Suez Canal in March getting frisky.

Or.. well the elephant in the room, Covid.

From glancing references to basing your entire story around one of these events, I'll happily read all of it.

Notice how I've intentionally not had a political reference in my examples. I wouldn't put it, not knowing on which end of the political spectrum the reader lands, but if someone can make it work, why not?

I'm not talking about obscure news stories someone who only follows that specific topic would know. In a world where we are bombarded by so much information every second, I'd like to add it to my work and hope the reader gets it.

What do all of you think?

 

[KeithD]

It restricts readership and dates the story, but it's fine for those who like to read in the moment and don't care about how the story will age.

 

[lovecraft68]

Personally I think that people have had it past their eyeballs with society and reality and read for escapism, no my stories are about characters and their situations not trends and current events,

That's just me as a writer, and as a reader.

 

[SamScribble]

If it works for you, write it. Have fun. Just don't expect readers to be as excited about it as you are.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can understand why an author would want to do this, but generally speaking, I don't. My stories focus on the kinky subject matter and the characters and I tend to keep specific cultural details to a minimum. They don't interest me, and I don't want to turn off readers who aren't personally familiar with them. My stories tend to have vague settings -- usually generic American urban or suburban environments. I'm not big on date-specific pop cultural references, brand names, etc. I want a reader who has no knowledge of such specific references to be able to be immersed in the story and not have to run to the Internet to get up to speed on what I'm writing about.

 

[TadOverdon]

It's not unreasonable for the characters in a story to be aware of popular culture, is it?

Yes, it dates the story. As others have said, all fiction dates where the details are concerned.

As far as taking inspiration from current events...I think I remember a spate of sex fiction about preacher's wives during the fifteen minutes that the Becki & Jerry Jr. Show was the thing. LOL

(I have notes for a book like that in my hopper somewhere. Maybe. Maybe not)

 

[MillieDynamite]

At times, I like to write in the past. When I do, I find a few events from the time I am writing in and work them into the story. With that said, I haven't actually published some of those, and my never do so. One must not let the research speak louder than characters. Research must always be there, lurking in the back, filling in here and there, but never become a major player in the story.

Of course, if you write about a love affair on a ship that strikes an iceberg, probably need the sinking in it as well.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I mostly prefer unpopular culture references.

(I seem to recall a certain reader grumbling when I had two characters watch 'Making Fiends' ;-)

 

[MillieDynamite]

I mostly prefer unpopular culture references.

(I seem to recall a certain reader grumbling when I had two characters watch 'Making Fiends' ;-)

I don't know this Making Friends, but Friends will always be a good reference for a story. The syndication will never die and yes, by God, Ross and Rachel were on a break and I wasn't a slut to sleep with him. Opps.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I think it's worth making the references clear enough that people who haven't seen the TV show or heard of the character will still get the point, whether because they're on a different continent or 20 years in the future. If people get the references, they get something extra out of the story.

Personally I like details that show a story is set in a definite place and probable time - it seems more vivid and real than all the generic characters in Anytown, USA. When those feel real it helps the characters feel real which makes their activities more convincing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'll often drop in a light cultural reference touch, usually musical, usually The Doors or Leonard Cohen, but it's only there for me or like-mindeds for whom it gives a tiny extra layer of... something; but never as a plot mover or something to dwell on.

I have a whole series of stories that plug into the Japanese idea of the Floating World, but I only expect a tiny proportion of readers to know the reference and "get" the extra layer of meaning that comes with it. Those that do often comment along the lines of, "I like what you did there," while those that don't don't even know there's a head to scratch.

Elucidation, who needs it? .

 

[Acktion]

For however little it might be worth, I've done it in a story where the characters were driven by the relevant bits.

In Thankful, I peppered it with relevant cultural references of the time period it was set, 1987. Ollie North and Reagan's Star Wars, the ending of the NFL strike (Bring Back the Scabs!). The movies Princess Bride and Dirty Dancing. The songs Living on a Prayer and Touch Me. The first women's powerlifting championship at Daytona Beach... I really can't remember what all I put in. But, it all felt highly relevant to the character development much more than the setting even, although it did pay some lip service to the setting.

Did it date it? Oh, certainly. But, I wasn't really trying for something "timeless." And, I don't think it is as... chafing three decades after the fact as it would be to write something modern that people were sick of hearing about everywhere they turn. Back then, I assure you that we were all sick to death of the Iran Contra hearings that just dragged on and on and on. But, putting it in, even as sparingly as I did, added a little flavor to the exchange between Uncle Billy and... uh... Isaac? Well, whatever I named the MC anyway.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don't know this Making Friends, but Friends will always be a good reference for a story. The syndication will never die and yes, by God, Ross and Rachel were on a break and I wasn't a slut to sleep with him. Opps.

("Making Fiends", no 'r'. Charlotte does want to make friends, but Vendetta has... other ideas.)

 

[CyranoJ]

I, personally, am a huge fan of pop culture in a story. If done well, it adds to a story and gives it a sense of reality.

When writing a story that contains certain subcultures, I'll make references to the appropriate music or to media figures the characters might know. Music in particular can be a big touchstone. I've used analogues of current events as story backdrop material, too. It adds atmosphere.

I find it hard to find a sexy side to natural disasters, though, I have to admit. I'm sure there are people out there writing COVID lockdown erotica, and more power to them, but I just can't do it.

 

[RetroFan]

Writing most of my stories set in the past, I absolutely love it and put it in my stories a lot, to date them to the era where it is set. I have characters listening to music and watching TV shows or movies that were popular at the time; references to famous people such as musicians, actors or politicians; people using products or technology that are no longer around; events that took place at the time; or seeing (or not seeing) buildings and structures that existed at the time but are now gone, or which didn't exist when the story was set.

 

[MillieDynamite]

("Making Fiends", no 'r'. Charlotte does want to make friends, but Vendetta has... other ideas.)

Well, we all have other ideas, at times.

 

[jaF0]

Or.. well the elephant in the room, Covid.

Wasn't there a whole series of stories, maybe even a challenge about the Big Spooky C Bug?

 

[Rustyoznail]

If the story gets dated because of a reference, does it really matter? If the reference is relevant, go for it.

There was a COVID comp here, which had quite a few stories entered. I later had an experience that I turned into another COVID related story.

Will it date? Yep.
Did it make an erotic story? Yep.
Do readers like it? Yep.

All good from my perspective.

 

[PennameWombat]

Pop culture in stories. Do you like reading it? Do you like writing it? How much of it do you like to see?
My recent story got an interesting bit of feedback that it was heavy on the pop culture. Some readers felt it dated the story, others mentioned that it frequently sent them to Google.<snip>
What do all of you think?

Yes and no. I've used subtle references to provide a 'dating,' but for these try to make sure they're not essential to the story. As a rule I don't do 'ripped from the headlines' or such.

But every rule an exception. I did do one story where the reason my M/F got together was a shared love of SF&F (although it's in Fetish, not SF&F). Some references are definitely dating (The Expanse, Night's Dawn by Hamilton) but others are not so much, such as invoking the Cthulhu mythos. But the key one in that story is the movie Audition, by Takashi Miike. If you don't know the movie, some of the references (especially to a wire saw that can cut bone) might be mysterious. If you do know the movie, you're left to wonder how similar my story's female is to the movie's (is her partially-dismembered previous lover living in a bag?) Has maintained the H and the comments are more around the fact that I've never written the very definitely needed because of the semi-cliffhanger it was coming part 2... The problem right now is that the run up to Brexit was very much a Thing as well in that story... and now, there'd be lots of retrofit. Ah well.

A while back through Audible I found a mainstream SF book about an alien invasion of Earth and galactic civilizations. I'm a sucker for those so dug in. Good ideas... but the author used massive numbers of pop culture references and incredibly boring repetition to paaaaaddddd the books out (to what is, right now, 13 books and counting. Obviously, good work if you can get it!) The pop culture references were annoying but it was the repetition that did me in and I long ago gave up on it.

 

[KeithD]

I'm writing one now about a resident of a collapsed Miami Condo building who isn't accounted for. The story just plays off the event, though. The story is why it's just fine with him he's unaccounted for and where he goes from there. That's pulled out of today's headlines, but it's just used as a scene setters. I don't expect it to make the story stale down the road.

 

[TadOverdon]

There's one writer at lit that I know of who got a taboo stroker of epic length out of COVID home isolation.

It's no different than writing a contemporary novel with soldiers in it during wartime.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Pop Culture? Why? The stories here are supposed to excite readers and let them get away from all the bullshit they have to deal with everyday. I really don't think I have ever referenced anything to do with 'pop culture' whatever it maybe.

Although I have probably dated some of my stories with references to AIDS and HIV, etc. But those two, one in the same really, have been around for decades. Not mentioning them would be like not mentioning leprosy in the middle ages or as late as 2016.

 

[SimonDoom]

There was that time I wrote about Mom stripping for Son to the tune of a couple of Danzig songs (anyone who knows Danzig's music should be able to guess which ones). I guess that counts.

In my story about Hobbit sex I quoted the Led Zeppelin song Ramble On ("darkest depths of Mordor", etc.).

 

[TadOverdon]

Pop Culture? Why? The stories here are supposed to excite readers and let them get away from all the bullshit they have to deal with everyday.

Well, not everyone experiences popular culture as "bullshit they have to deal with," but instead as a quality of the water that they're swimming in throughout their lives.

I encounter more and more about videogames, gaming and gamer culture in fiction, and probably even more in porn comics than in prose. I haven't played a videogame other than minesweeper in decades and I don't have kids of my own, so I get lost in the references sometimes. But I see that it's a major source of recreation, even a sphere of life experience, for many people now that rivals or surpasses going to a movie, watching TV, sports and most surely reading. Gotta accept that people who care about it are going to write it into their fiction.

Probably just as well for older writers not to try too hard to portray pop culture as younger characters experience it, though. I usually shy away from being too specific myself. It helps that so many of my viewpoint characters are women in their forties who, for example, may enjoy hip hop but may be forgiven for knowing nothing much about artists, etc.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm writing one now about a resident of a collapsed Miami Condo building who isn't accounted for. The story just plays off the event, though. The story is why it's just fine with him he's unaccounted for and where he goes from there. That's pulled out of today's headlines, but it's just used as a scene setters. I don't expect it to make the story stale down the road.

That'll be current again every few years. I recall similar things happening after 9/11, with people who for one reason or another took the opportunity to 'die' and start over.