Have You Seen My Radical New Sony Walkman? (Brian Katcher)

 

I'm a big fan of Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze. He was a pulp hero in the 1930s and 40s, the Batman of his day. One of the great things about these old YA novels is that Doc was a genius scientist and invented all kids of crazy stuff. Like a door that automatically opens when he gets close to it. Or a robot machine that would answer his telephone when he was out of this office and take a recorded message from the caller. Or an 'auto-gyro', a flying machine that could not only lift off, but go backwards and even hover in place (some people call 'em helicopters). 

When my father was on leave from the service in the 1960s, my grandfather bought a new car. He showed an amazing feature to my dad: when you turned on the radio, it instantly came on, instead of having to wait for the tubes to warm up. Ten years later, my uncle showed my father another incredible automobile feature: the 8 track tape player. One could listen to any song you wanted, at any time!

About fifteen years ago, I tried to write a science fiction story that never panned out. It was set about forty years in the future and I tried to image what technology would be like in 2050. A phone that you could use to pay for things by just tapping on it. A voice in your car that would direct you to your location while you were driving and would recalibrate your route if you made a wrong turn. Flying fighting vehicles that required no pilot, unmanned 'drones' that could go to war on a battlefield hundreds of miles away.

I always advise aspiring YA authors to avoid three things that can make their books dated: celebrities, slang, and technology. And yet, the very lack of technology can date your book just as easily. I read somewhere that so many books and movies from before 2000 couldn't be made now, simply because a cell phone would have solved the problem immediately. Think of Cujo or The Shining if the victims could have called the police. 

I still cringe when I reread my first book, where a character uses a phone book. Unfortunately, there's not a lot to be done about that. But if you feel bad about your old books, just remember the future, as portrayed in the 1987 movie The Running Man: Rear projection TVs, VHS tapes, and answering machines.