Why was Stephen King's "Carrie" set in 1979? (novel, characters, writing)

[OzzyRules]

It was his very first novel. Written in the early 70's. I wonder why he set it in 1979. I was sort of confused reading it for a while. It mentioned the girl being born around 1962 and it just didn't sound right. Even the movie that came out a few years after the original publication was released in 1976.

One funny thing is that in one part the popular high school girl is daydreaming about her future marriage. Joining a country club as soon as her husband makes "five figure" salary. $11,000. That was really not that much in 1979.

I searched for an answer online. It's hard to picture myself in the early 70's looking towards 1979. In fact, it's impossible. Others have posted the similar questions online but I haven't seen an interesting answer. I'd appreciate any info or ideas anyone may have about this. Thanks.

[Ketabcha]

I'll suggest that you post the question at Welcome to StephenKing.com. You might have great success with an answer.

You do bring up an interesting question. My guess about the 5-digit salary is that Carrie was very "protected", naïve and abused by her monster of a mother. She probably had no idea what people actually earned in 1979 when she was 17.

I know Carrie is a fictional character but I really weep for that child. That's the joy of King. He creates characters with such depth that we really get to "know" them.

[netwit]

I think it was simply that it was his first book, he didn't know when he started writing it that it would ever be published, and in case it took a while for it to be published, he wanted the story to read 'current.' And the second reason would have been that by setting it a few years in the future, he wouldn't have had to worry about all his facts.

[Mark S.]

A lot of King's early works set the story in the "near future" of the time. The Stand did the same thing --- and had similar problems, especially when they updated it for the '90s. King has admitted that he's always been more of a writer of the moment than he wants to be. All of his pop culture references really help to ground the story in reality, but they soon become outdated. Future generations are going to need footnotes to get the references.

[CA4Now]

That's interesting. Years ago I recall reading that King's wife fished his first few pages of Carrie out of the trash can and encouraged him to finish it. It was the first novel of his that was published, although it was the third or fourth that he had written.

[katygirl68]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

A lot of King's early works set the story in the "near future" of the time. The Stand did the same thing --- and had similar problems, especially when they updated it for the '90s. King has admitted that he's always been more of a writer of the moment than he wants to be. All of his pop culture references really help to ground the story in reality, but they soon become outdated. Future generations are going to need footnotes to get the references.

Yeah, there were some inconsistencies with the update, but it was still a great book. I had read the original version when I was younger, so I understood the references. I'm sure most people can overlook little points like that when the overall story is good.

[oeccscclhjhn]

i find myself having to do my own research when reading good books. it does not detract from the story one bit, and you get to learn something new every day. many times i take things with a grain of salt, and then look it up later, and find out for myself if it's plausible, possible, or beyond belief. many times through my own knowledge base i know it's not true from the git go and that the author pulled it out of his shoulder bag. this recognition of inaccuracies are rare and quickly overlooked.