Newer Novels Are Less Demure, For Sure

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I’ve previously covered this topic here and there, but I wanted to return to some of the ways modern novels differ from older ones.

Several examples of this are cropping up as I read The Hallmarked Man (2025) — J.K. Rowling’s eighth excellent book, under her Robert Galbraith alias, starring private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.

This long (897 pages) crime novel includes mentions of lots of digital technology that was of course not an element of long-ago books. Strike, Ellacott, and their employees frequently text each other while on stakeouts, pore through social media to seek information about possible suspects and witnesses, explore “the dark web” for clues, etc.

Rowling’s series also features plenty of cursing — taboo in older novels — as well as somewhat explicit sex scenes and somewhat graphic depictions of violence one doesn’t see as much in long-ago literature. (Although Rowling’s work is more reserved than some recent fiction in those respects.)

And, unlike many older novels, The Hallmarked Man and Rowling’s earlier Strike/Ellacott books feature various characters of different ethnicities, various characters who are LGBTQ+, etc. – with all that diversity depicted, like it should be, as an unremarkable part of life.

(Rowling’s unfortunate personal views about transgender people are fortunately not reflected in any of her novels.)

Getting back to the tech thing, one of the first 21st-century authors to strongly incorporate the digital world was Stieg Larsson in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels — with the Lisabeth Salander character’s computer expertise germane to the plot in Larsson’s 2005-2007 trilogy. There was also Stephen King’s 2006 novel Cell (referring to the phone not a prison space), though it was sadly one of that author’s lesser books.

Of course, early sci-fi writers such as Jules Verne and E.T.A. Hoffmann imagined approximations of stuff in our digital age, but this post’s focus is mostly on authors more current to our time.

Other recent or relatively recent books with many four-letter words and/or frank sexual situations and/or queasy violence? Kristin Hannah’s The Women (2024), Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead (2022), Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl (2012), and Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men (2005), among many others. The cursing and violence in a war-set novel like The Women – which spotlights three American nurses dealing with horrific injury situations in Vietnam — is to be totally expected if the author wants to convey realism.

Other 21st-century books with all kinds of multiculturalism and diversity? Zadie Smith’s debut novel White Teeth (2000) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (2013), to name just two.

As I alluded to earlier, there are always exceptions to the rule. For instance, some older novels, like Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) by D.H. Lawrence, contain fairly explicit sexual content — and some newer novels are written in the more prim way of decades or centuries ago. (This is also the case with formal and/or wordy prose.) And there are the rare older novels with diverse, non-stereotypical casts – Georges (1843) by Alexandre Dumas is one that comes to mind – while some newer novels have homogenous casts.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?

Misty the cat says: “Sheesh…I paid good money for a luxury automobile and get this?”

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13 thoughts on “Newer Novels Are Less Demure, For Sure”

  2. Hmm….another great topic, Dave. I think a dose of realism can be welcome, but I really zone out when there’s too much ‘tech talk or sex talk’, LOL. Same for persistent and overt themes of violence.

    I’ve been sour about Rowling and any of her work – under any name – and while it’s nice to hear the Robert Galbraith series is more inclusive, my head goes straight to whether it was reactionary/performative. I’m not knowledgeable enough to have an opinion so I don’t want to throw shade. I probably wouldn’t read “The Hallmarked Man” for other reasons — 897 pages, you say? 😜

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  4. To be realistic, fiction must incorporate the technology of the time, but I’d rather it isn’t the main focus of the story, just to show that the author is “with it.” If the novel or story is intended to be tech-focussed science fiction, that’s different.

    It’s the same with sex scenes. If they are too explicit and frequent, the novel or story drifts into erotica territory, which may not be what readers expected.

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  5. Another great topic, Dave, and many thanks for it. I have to say that I don’t much care for no-holds-barred sex scenes in books, and tend to skip through them. I prefer the closed-door approach, and try to stick to it in my own writing (the exception, my debut novel, was about a girl who falls into an unhealthy relationship and a downward spiral, and wouldn’t have been convincing without a few ‘close encounters’; but I tried to keep them as tasteful as possible). That goes for stories which wouldn’t seem realistic without some gore and guts, like ‘The Women’ which you mention (although I haven’t read that) in which case I don’t mind. Technology is such a part of our lives now that it’s difficult to work without it, and I’ve used online trolling/researching/DNA profiling in my own work too. As to older stories, Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ has very relaxed attitudes to sex, the characters positively encouraged to engage it it as a leisure pursuit – although it’s not a form of procreation. Going further back there’s John Cleland’s ‘Fanny Hill’, ‘Justine’ by the Marquis de Sade and ‘Venus in Furs’ by Sacher-Masoch; and coming back to the 20th century is ‘The Story of O’ by Pauline Reage. These latter four are incredibly explicit – I’m told so, anyway! 😂😂

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  6. I really appreciated your analysis, especially how you highlighted the contrast between J.K. Rowling’s personal views and the organic, natural diversity she infuses into the Strike series.

    Your reflection on technology and realism is also very interesting. In Italy, we’re witnessing exactly the same shift. Italian literature of the past was largely based on slow, lyrical prose and historical themes. Today, we’re also witnessing this modern evolution in literature.

    As for technology, the best Italian parallel to Lisbeth Salander is Mariolina Venezia’s “Fedele alla linea” (and the entire series by Imma Tataranni), or Donato Carrisi’s techno-thrillers (like The Whisperer), where digital traces and computer investigations are the main driving force of the plot.

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    • Thank you, Luisa! “…organic, natural diversity” — exactly! Better said than the way I expressed it in my post. 🙂 Sad that a great author (J.K. Rowling) with such tolerant views on most stuff has this one Achilles heel with trans issues. 😦

      When you mentioned past Italian literature with lyrical prose, I immediately thought of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s “The Leopard,” which is one of the most beautifully written novels I’ve ever read.

      And I appreciate your reflections on how Italian literature has changed, and the parallels in Italian fiction to the tech aspects in Stieg Larsson’s trilogy and his Lisbeth Salander character.

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