Murals in Rolfeston public buildings are:
"'Nineteen-thirties WPA style...'" (p. 307)
Tom thinks:
"It's the half-familiar that gets you...This is the closest thing I've ever seen to a real old-style soda joint, the kind in Roy's movies. It's not a revival or deliberately retro, either. It's just...what it is." (p. 333)
Inside:
conservative clothes;
long hair on girls, short on boys;
some ribbon-tied pigtails;
some overalls but not as a fashion statement;
some teenagers smoking but not as an act of defiance;
a jukebox -
- but this is the latest digital model.
An elderly Frenchman wears a black beret and overalls as in "...old movies..." (p. 336) but:
"...he left before looking like this died out. And on this side of the Gate, he'd have no reason to change. Nobody to mock or nag him into it." (ibid.)
"...a thought hit [Tom] with a sudden chill: It probably wasn't a swing revival. For all he knew, it had never gone out of fashion, in this enclave of the dimensionally displaced. The population was too small to generate many fashions of their own, and if they were cut off from the living currents of society on FirstSide by choice or circumstance..." (p. 411)
No doubt, this is some readers' idea of a nostalgic utopia but it is also logical in the circumstances.
Nostradamus, the New Virginian Internet/Intranet, is organized in one neat package but it compares with surfing the Net as a utility apartment might compare with Castle Gormenghast - no crannies, dungeons, attics or sheer size. (p. 303)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And, of course, as New Virginia grew or expanded (GRADUALLY, as John Rolfe VI preferred), the people there would develop their own fashions and styles; in fact, a whole new culture.
Sean
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