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Perhaps this detail should stay in to show a difference between (some) American and (some) European sensibilities? There's a question of how familiar or unfami
by skybrian 4y ago
Perhaps this detail should stay in to show a difference between (some) American and (some) European sensibilities?
There's a question of how familiar or unfamiliar a story should seem when it's set in a time and place that's different from what the reader is familiar with. Do you emphasize the differences or hide them? Maybe you add a footnote? But this assumes the reader needs a footnote. It's a way of highlighting the distance between the reader and the story setting.
Cultural changes are like that.
As someone who reads in part to find out about cultural differences, I think that maybe stories shouldn't seem too familiar, and I like footnotes and asides. Perhaps others will think them distracting, though.
- whimsicalism 4y agoPerhaps Europeans also don't realize how much more common smoking is in Europe than in the states?
- wongarsu 4y agoProbably not, but isn't the huge difference in smoking habits all the more reason to include it in a story set in Europe?