Yes, people did use the word 'gear' for clothes in the 1970s.
The word "Sorrow" for "Sorry" is used in a play called The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley, so I'm guessing it was common parlance in some circles, but I've never encountered it anywhere else.
I agree about the slang and the references to pop culture. For the most part, they are unnecessary. I can see why she set the Marlow books at the time they were written though - it's a choice series writers have to make: stick with the one time or move with the times. Sara Paretsky (VI Warshawski) and Sue Grafton (Kinsey Milhone/alphabet series) both began their detective series at around the same time, and the former has moved with the times, while the latter has stayed in the 1980s - and the latter one is somehow more irritating (to me, anyway). But yes, AF could have done it without the references to pop culture, which really do date the books more than was ever necessary.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-06-27 06:14 am (UTC)The word "Sorrow" for "Sorry" is used in a play called The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley, so I'm guessing it was common parlance in some circles, but I've never encountered it anywhere else.
I agree about the slang and the references to pop culture. For the most part, they are unnecessary. I can see why she set the Marlow books at the time they were written though - it's a choice series writers have to make: stick with the one time or move with the times. Sara Paretsky (VI Warshawski) and Sue Grafton (Kinsey Milhone/alphabet series) both began their detective series at around the same time, and the former has moved with the times, while the latter has stayed in the 1980s - and the latter one is somehow more irritating (to me, anyway). But yes, AF could have done it without the references to pop culture, which really do date the books more than was ever necessary.