Timeperiods in horror

[Professor Angell.]

I had a discussion with a friend who just got into her first horror novel about how we perceived the stories she just read and during our discussion I came to realize that in stories where there's no clear reference to when the story is supposed to take place (years, dates and such) I somehow by default place them in the 20's-30's something - probably due to the fact that I got introduced to the genre as a whole by reading Lovecraft, so that sort of became my default setting for the genre.
I have had a few "huh?"-moments where a story that I for some reason mentally placed in the 30's suddenly features cellphones and such items.

For my friend - it was the other way around. She started, on my recomendation - with a Lovecraft anthology - and expressed some trouble with coming to terms with the fact that is wasn't set in the present day. "It just feels wrong when they talk about telegraphs and carriages and stuff like that" was her term.

So, do you have a kind of "default setting" for when you imagine a story takes place when there's no given answer? Am I alone in placing stories in the past rather than the present? Do you have preferences as to when the story takes place - modern day vs some past age?

[Michael]

That's a great question. For me (and maybe this is just me), it seems to echo the time period I most recently read. For example, if I'm reading a book set in the 90's I tend to stay stuck in that time long after I've finished that book until it gets "corrected" by an author. I realized this after reading one book set in the 80's (American Psycho) and then went on to about 5 other books (some weird fiction, some not) and didn't realize I had unintentionally set all 5 in the 80's. There was no reason to set them there, I just defaulted to that because five books ago Bret Easton Ellis made it clear that American Psycho was set around that time period.
I have had those moments though that an author makes a vague reference to something early 20th century (e.g., telegram) and I tend to default to 20's or 30's due in large part to Lovecraft.

[G. S. Carnivals]

I've read a lot of science fiction over the years, so I've gotten used to time being out of joint. I approach each new work I read with an open mind. I let the story or novel provide its own clues to a temporal setting. For instance, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four will always be set in the future for me, while Robert W. Chambers' "The Yellow Sign" will always be set in the past.

[DoktorH]

Quote Originally Posted by G. S. Carnivals

I've read a lot of science fiction over the years, so I've gotten used to time being out of joint. I approach each new work I read with an open mind. I let the story or novel provide its own clues to a temporal setting. For instance, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four will always be set in the future for me, while Robert W. Chambers' "The Yellow Sign" will always be set in the past.

When it was published in 1895, at least some of the stories in chambers' collection were set in the then-future of 1920, so the collection went from being a dystopian future to an alternate history.

Like other posters, I tend to assume most horror stories are set in the timeframe of my early introduction to the genre until the book/movie/whatever informs me otherwise with references to technology or pop culture. for me, the default setting is the 1980s, as my early encounters with horror were all slasher movies.

[NealJansons]

I've read a lot of fiction and non-fiction from a lot of different periods, so I can usually pick up where and when a story is set pretty quickly. Some authors are better at communicating the era than others, of course. I've also found that older works almost always have some sort of introduction that says something about the period.

It's a sign your friend hasn't read much if she can't handle different eras of technology. If the bug bites her, and she becomes a reader, inevitably she will adapt.

I, for one, greatly enjoy fiction written before my time. It forms the majority of my reading. I am more likely, at any give moment, to be reading older fiction than I am to be reading modern or recent fiction. I feel like crass commercialism has really changed most people's attitude towards literature and writers have ceased, for the most part, to even think of what they are doing as art. The New Yorker, MFA snob crowd takes it seriously, but they seem to have turned into an odd little incestuous club where they compete for literary greatness defined in insular, academic terms. Every now and then, something truly remarkable comes out of that, but most of it seems to be books and stories built to be deconstructed in a classroom rather than to be read.

Weird fiction is the one place I really feel like the authors are, for the most part, taking their art seriously, or at least prioritizing it above cash return. I am almost always impressed by the authenticity of new weird fiction I read, even when of low quality. Even the weird, online weird tales passed around as memes (usually called "creepypasta) are authentic and powerful. No one is writing weird for the cash return.

Sorry for the ramble off-topic.

[Mr. D.]

I thank everyone for their astute observations on this page. My own reading is mostly older authors as well. In fact I don't read much horror at all. I tend to re-read classics. I read Greek and Roman literature, English literature from the begining to about 1750 and 20th century Irish literature. However, I have been slowly reading more horror fiction for just the reasons that NealJansons mentions. Mainstream literature puts me to sleep. It's like a big in joke and I'm not in with the in crowd. Horror literature is done for love as much as, if not more so than, for money. There's still a little bit of Literature going on in the field. I don't think that the same can be said for most other genres nor for what passes for mainstream writing either. In my own readings sometimes I have fascinating dreams where several of the different genres and time periods that I read all come together. That's a lot of fun. My default period is based on a mixture of Poe's and Isak Dinesen's world. I expect horses and ancient family estates in my reading until someone gets in their Prius or turns on their computer.