Cellphones and When The Last Chronicles Take Place.

Book 1 of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

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Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg
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Post by Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg »

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:
Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg wrote:some old coot who lives to 105 with just liquor and hate to sustain him?
Just out of curiosity, you don't know me in our offline lives, do you?
Hah! I actually do know a lot of grumpy old men, if that is what you are saying about yourself. It's because I do so much volunteer work, and not because they feel they can relate to me 'cuz i'm so jaded I might as well be 1,000 years old. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Also, all the science of space and time, and perspectives aside, doesn't it make anyone sad that by the time SRD finishes book 10 and releases the summoning ritual to go to the land in detail, it will be dead and lifeless?! :(

Quick someone start a bonfire and let's get over there before the worm takes it out. Who volunteers to be Jeremiah and stick their hand in there?

...Actually, on a slightly related note, the third saga takes place in the early or mid-nineties doesn't it? He never really makes the mistake of dating his books by...dating his books, that I recall. But assuming LFB takes place when he wrote it, and that he didn't write it the same year it got published, so let's say like 1975 > 10 years for series 2 1985 > etc, 1995ish for this series?
I know what an analogy is! It's like a thought...with another thought's hat on...?

The thing most people don't remember in regards to the Haruchai, is that you NEVER EVER play poker with them!
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Post by wayfriend »

Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg wrote:...Actually, on a slightly related note, the third saga takes place in the early or mid-nineties doesn't it? He never really makes the mistake of dating his books by...dating his books, that I recall. But assuming LFB takes place when he wrote it, and that he didn't write it the same year it got published, so let's say like 1975 > 10 years for series 2 1985 > etc, 1995ish for this series?
I am not sure that the references to cordless phones and cell phones can sustain the premise that it is 1995ish. Maybe.
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Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg
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Post by Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg »

Did someone have a cellphone? I remember Linden uses a cordless phone, but most people appear to have landlines still? Plus she dresses like a 90s lesbian.

Do they still make linkin logs and tinker toys? It seemed like they were barely around when I was a kid in the early 90s.
I know what an analogy is! It's like a thought...with another thought's hat on...?

The thing most people don't remember in regards to the Haruchai, is that you NEVER EVER play poker with them!
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Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg
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Post by Mega Fauna Blitzkrieg »

Krilly wrote:Image
Plus yes, also this.

They had cellphones as far back as the 80s did they not? I mean only coked out Wall Street sharks had them, but the technology was there? Also they were the size of a house?
I know what an analogy is! It's like a thought...with another thought's hat on...?

The thing most people don't remember in regards to the Haruchai, is that you NEVER EVER play poker with them!
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Post by wayfriend »

In [i]Runes of the Earth[/i] was wrote:Typically he wore mirrored aviator sunglasses, but now they were shoved into the breast pocket of his khaki shirt opposite his badge. Various heavy objects dragged at his belt - a radio, a cell phone, handcuffs, Mace, a handgun the size of a tinker's anvil, spare clips-making his paunch appear larger than it was.
I am not saying it couldn't have been 1995. I am just saying, consider how likely it is, and make your own determination.
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Post by DrPaul »

I think one of the pointers to when the events in RotE occurred is that Linden has a pager. Pagers were most widely in use in the 1990s and have been largely displaced by advanced cell phones (or "mobile phones" as we Australians call them) in this century.

Then there is the question of consistency with the timeframe of the previous books. We have some fairly strong clues in the First Chronicles that they took place in the first half of the 1970s in our world, such as the military jargon that Hile Troy uses when explaining his background to Covenant, and the doctor at the leprosarium explaining that the reclusive leper Covenant is shown was only discovered when the authorities visited to tell him that his son died in "the war" which was most likely to be the Vietnam War. The Second Chronicles take place ten of our years after the First Chronicles, and the Runes is set ten years after that, so we have a most likely temporal setting of the early 1990s.
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Hunchback Jack
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Post by Hunchback Jack »

That's a great observation about the pagers. It is a little ambiguous though, because Linden is a doctor, and I think doctors continued to use pagers for professional use long after regular people had cell phones for personal use.

I'm not sure why - maybe it was because they could read a short message on a pager without needing to open or unlock a phone. Or that they could be issued to doctors by clinics or hospitals at a lower cost than phone were. Just guessing.

In any case, I agree generally with your conclusion - the Last Chrons were likely set in the late 90s or early 00's - about the time the first volume was being outlined and written.

HBJ
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