Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore, ECHO and more - View topic

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Question about the setting

Author	Message
Teresita Getting Comfortable Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:00 am Posts: 27 Location: Seattle	Question about the setting Katchoo and David's marriage license application is set to expire on 1/6/2005 so we know it was issued before that date, but the year it was drafted up was given as Jan 1, 20__. So that pins the setting of that section of SiP down to a five year period. Is there anywhere where the time frame for the story is more specific? _________________ Teresita's two cents, and worth every penny!
Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:58 am

Novemberchild Down to the Underwear Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:59 am Posts: 1792 Location: Cologne, Germany	In Nevada a marriage license expires 1 year after it is issued. For more information go to: http://www.weddingvendors.com/marriage- ... es/nevada/ _________________ I'm not crazy. I'm just in the wrong environment! Let's see what the anti-depressants do about that! * * *
Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:07 am

DavidLovesKatchoo Getting Comfortable Joined: Fri May 18, 2007 6:58 am Posts: 28 Location: Chaparral of California	... _________________ "I would fear ten sheep led by a lion before I would fear ten lions led by a sheep" -Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughn Last edited by DavidLovesKatchoo on Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:04 am

Teresita Getting Comfortable Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:00 am Posts: 27 Location: Seattle	DavidLovesKatchoo wrote: It depends on where you start from. In the first issue of SiP Francine is 25 years old and Katchoo is 26. By the end of the series, Katchoo is sharing a Griffin Silver video with Jet, and Jet calls Katchoo her guru for oldies. Katchoo then confronts two of her employees and asks them if she is old. At first they tell her she is still young, but she informs them that she turns 30 the following month. So SiP occurs over roughly four years, if you consider the first issue begining with the Freddie incident. If you consider the actual chronology in terms of the characters shown at their youngest and most relavent event, then the story begins when Katchoo and Francine 14, at Francine's high school play. Which then progresses over a year until Katchoo turns 15. That is the point where she is raped and beaten by her step-father, and thus runs away to Los Angeles. So we are looking at a total chronological time frame of 16 years, and a major story transition that covers roughly five years (from the Freddie incident up till getting the inheritance back from the IRS). Okay, we know from the Marriage Licence that Katchoo was born on November 19, 1976, so if she turns 30 one month after the end of the series, then the end of the series takes place in October 2006. Someone born in late 1976 would have graduated in 1994, and the Freddy Incident takes place 10 years later, in 2004, which would seem to be too late considering everything that happens. And there is a discrepancy in the timeline having to do with the High School play, a sign calls it the Senior play. As seniors, Francine and Katchoo should be about 17 or 18, unless both of them skipped a couple grades due to high academic achievment. Another problem has to do with the fact that Terry Moore wrote the first three books in 1993 without the slightest inkling that it would go on as long as it did, and he set the high school stuff a decade before, which would be 1983. All this confusion is the reason I asked my question. _________________ Teresita's two cents, and worth every penny!
Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:17 pm

Pluto The shoes are off Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:27 pm Posts: 195	The first issues of SiP are set in 1996-97, and we were told Katchoo was 26 at the time. I can only assume Moore decided he didn't want his heroine to be that old. So he decided to suddenly make her six years younger, even if it didn't make any sense in light of the earlier parts of the story. (It would mean that she was 12, not 17-18, when she met Darcy and became her lover and advisor. And that when Sharon said Katchoo was ancient, "almost 30 now", in 1999, she really meant she was all of 23.) _________________
Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:20 pm

Novemberchild Down to the Underwear Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2006 8:59 am Posts: 1792 Location: Cologne, Germany	The only thing that's definitely proven when it comes to timelines, is that Terry sacrificed time as we know it for the sake of the story (unless that is all part of a plot we haven't discovered yet ) In some places exact dates can be calculated, like Francine's birthday party on a Saturday, which must have been in 1989, or the date of the "exhibition of man" (SiP I #1) most likely set in 1993, or Freddie's wedding with Casey (date on the ticket he offered Francine). In other places assumed dates can be invalidated, remember the scene where a drunk Katchoo is picked up by Tambi in a bar? Someone noted that the song "Pull me under" by Dream Theatre wasn't released at the time... or what about the text passage mentioning a teenage Katchoo buying DVD's? So meanwhile I got used to refer to the over all setting as "ten years time" and accept that the story is told like all stories told of life, inconsistent in chronology but full of messages to be found... Don't look for the clock, but for the heart... _________________ I'm not crazy. I'm just in the wrong environment! Let's see what the anti-depressants do about that! * * *
Sat Jul 21, 2007 12:52 pm

Fade2Black Administrator Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 6:51 am Posts: 7955 Location: on your screen Spammer Test: No Please fill in the third number: 6	I concur with Novemberchild's sentiments. Terry said in a recent interview that he was the driver. He never had time to look back as he was always trying to get to the next destination. Keep in mind, Terry was constantly multitasking and didn't have the luxury of a team of editors at his beck and call. Inconsistencies are to be expected but easily forgiven.
Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:07 pm

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Question about the setting

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