flemmings | (no subject)

As always when reading Christie, I'm confounded by her definitions of 'old and moribund' as well as 'so long ago no one can remember.' Doddering oldsters of 65, and eighteen years being 'time that the memory of man runneth not.' This undoddering septuagenarian retains a perfectly clear memory of 2006 and rather wishes she didn't. I might cut some slack for British people growing up in the first half of the last century with its doubtless lamentable diet and habits, that might render you old at 60. But eighteen years, *especially* if you're older, is last month, at a stretch.

Then again, there's those memes of how everyone in the 50s looked so much older than their twenty-some actual ages. It's been explained by the fact that everyone smoked, which will certainly do it to you.

But while we're at it, I'm also kerblonxed at books labelled 'historical fiction' and set in... the 70s. I suppose the kneejerk definition of hist.fic is 'anything before I was born' but still. In the 70s, I wouldn't have called anything set in the 1920s historical fiction. History was Back Then, before the costumes and mores all changed. When it was truly another country, not this one in unfortunate clothing.

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I saw some dewy eyed infant refer to the 1990s as "historical setting" and nearly left my body. Omg no! That's my *life,* not history. I remember reading this bit about how all the ppl seemingly trapped in the past thought they were living Now, just like you, you poor deluded fool. I guess it's another round of

As you are now so once was I
As I am now you soon shall be
Therefore think on Eternity.

I also personally think in the 50s and even later ppl used less makeup and general intense styling. And ppl, esp women, in tv and movies are heavily made up no matter what and kicked out past 40, so we're not used to seeing actual faces. I remember seeing pictures of that Friends (ugh) tv reunion and the men looked like normal older ppl. The women looked like preserved specimens.

Hmmm: I was the free codliver oil and orange juice etc generation and you know what, my generation probably has better health and life expectancy than the present one*, especially as all those diseases like measles are coming back (yes, we had measles when I was a little 'un, and we quarantined for ages).

* And I don't think it's all about 'we did not have loads of sugar and fast food and sitting in front of screens', the grants for further education and the employment opportunies and a functioning Welfare State meant so much less stress and fret.

We had-- and I had-- measles, mumps, and chicken pox, so young that I barely remember them. But this happens with three children born within +/- two years of each other. For sure we quarantined with them and got vaccinated when vaccines became available.

The hollowing out of the Welfare State and the deplorable U.S. healthcare system does indeed mean that the present generation has a dismal prospect before it.

The 90s? Historical setting? Noooo, not quite.

Maybe it's a matter of makeup, but I remember my father saying that his mother looked the same from 30 to 60. She became Adult when she married and had the Adult look, which meant no makeup and lots of worries. At 60 she became (her definition of) Old. Mind, she was born in the late 19th century.