Thursday, May 28, 2009

Cold War

Do you think all the 1980s stuff about the Soviets and nuclear war makes the book too dated?
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5 comments:

Ben said...

I'm always very interested to read about the Cold War because I was too young to remember the worst of it. For some reason, my parents and schools never seemed that afraid of nuclear war in the 1980s, but maybe I can only remember back to the time when it was settling down. This story took place in 1985, right? So I would have been around 6 years old then.

As far as your question goes -- I think it's dated, but maybe not in a bad way. Does that make sense? It might have been more of a negative thing 10 or 15 years ago, but now I think we're far enough from the mid-80s that we can look back on it. And it was probably very realistic to folks who read it when it first came out.

4:22 PM, May 28, 2009
Ben said...

Maybe this deserves its own thread, but this thread reminds me -- what was up with Nixon? He had changed the constitution so he could remain president? Isn't it strange that they would have changed that particular detail from reality?

4:23 PM, May 28, 2009
Erin said...

The book does explain that at one point. The idea is that winning the Vietnam War (because of Jon) made Nixon so popular that everyone wanted him to be president again.

8:21 PM, May 28, 2009
kc said...

I don't think it dates the book, because the Cold War was a major world event that went on for decades. It really was like a third world war in some ways, when you think of the vast resources that went into weaponry, the politics based on fear, the way it touched every corner of the globe and the number of lives it cost. Vietnam, Korea, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Cuba, etc., all happened because of Cold War politics.

I wasn't a fan of the hokey Nixon stuff, although the idea that winning the Vietnam War was only possible with a freakish power like Jon (not an atom bomb, but the product of its development) is a nice touch of "realism."

9:39 AM, May 29, 2009
Erin said...

I think you're right about the Cold War and the fact that it was so long-lasting and pervasive. But I found it a little hard to relate to.

If I remember right (I don't have the book in front of me), the panel showing Jon in Vietnam makes it look like he won the war by walking through the jungle setting it all on fire, which seemed kind of funny.

2:23 PM, May 29, 2009

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