Oh, That 80′s Fever…

In the name of the new novel, it was time for me to get in touch with my childhood and make sure I had my facts straight about which music groups were in existence at the time, and whether they wore clothes like this, or that. It’s one of the weirder aspects of writing a story when you find that you want to plunder your childhood realize that while the imagery is there, the proper chronology and historical perspective isn’t. Like at first I wanted to have some kind of reference to The Cure and possibly a mention of Lovesong only to realize that it wouldn’t be written until 1989, and this particular bit of plot takes place in the year 1983, though that means I still get to mention Lovecats or something. It also means Duran Duran is still in full swing, so maybe I can find a way to stick that in there as well.

The internet is truly frightening in moments like this when I realize that in one afternoon I’ve waded hip deep into subjects like the English countryside, ley lines, crop circles and fairy rings (I settled on fairy rings) and I never had to once go to a filing cabinet and consult the Dewey Decimal system. Having this amount of knowledge just a few keystrokes away is something we all take for granted now, but I’m still amazed at how quickly I came to rely on the ‘net once it exploded. It used to be just hanging out on forums and BBSes, but once the “web” aspect really got going and people had a few years to put… well, whatever they wanted on it, the Internet really became the first and fastest way to find out just about anything about anything.

I think anyone that had a childhood in the 70′s is more or less trapped in the same transitional period I am; old enough to remember the analog era when TVs had dials and knowledge was at the library, but still young enough to have had exposure to the new digital information structure in school. It’s a clean line of demarcation between the previous generation and the new ones that will always take unlimited knowledge and instant access for granted. And it’ll probably warp more than a few minds as the years pass. I mean, the way internet access is getting more and more portable, pretty soon you won’t have ANY excuse not to know something, since it’ll be a Google away and you can get at least passing familiarity with just about any subject on Earth.

My mind boggles at the thought of it.

Damn. I’m old.