Today's post is written by TK Toppin, author of The Lancaster Trilogy and the Jax Marlin series.
When I watched the movie Cowboys and Aliens, a thought bubble formed. Not only was it a fun movie, with classic moments from Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, but something else bugged me.
Hygiene.
Yep. I’ve always wondered about personal hygiene, in the real world, way back when in those days. The germaphobe in me shudders. If movies and books are authentically portraying those time periods (and from what is written in history), then it’s pretty safe to say that personal hygiene in those days were either few and far between, or non-existent. Judging from the sweat stains, general dirt and filth, and those hideously decaying teeth, then humanity in those days must have stunk to the heavens. But I suppose people back then were made of hardier stock. Their survival from that stench alone is confirmation.
From history we know that perfume was invented, and later the combination of soap and water became a popular choice to smell better and keep body parts fresh. But still, when you think about how travel used to be, and how it took you days on end to reach your destination, with limited bathroom stops, one can only surmise that people back then STANK! The invention of wet wipes and Purell couldn’t come fast enough!
This brings me to my next idle thought. The future. Now I love writing SF and stuff that happens way into the beyond. A lot of stuff I see in fiction combine great adventures, where people zip all over the universe in spaceships and wormholes and whatnots with action and intense moments that get the sweat glands overworked. Of course, people appear a lot cleaner-looking in the Hollywood-ized future, with incredible backdrops of super-sophisticated building and vessels and wow-gadgets and everything. But aside from shower/dryer tubes, no one really ventures into the personal hygiene issues. I know, gross, but really. Maybe a little mention or tiny detail about it might keep the curiosity at bay. And don’t you just wonder, when the super-cool hero grabs the equally super-cool heroine and gives her that long-awaited first kiss after battling and killing aliens and spaceships for the better part of a week, and no toothbrush in sight…errr, well, personally, I’d tell the dude to just hold that thought a bit. Plaque buildup is really gross!
Well, I know. I just sucked the romance and adventure right out of it. But brushing one’s teeth, how would you do it in the future? Would we still have toothbrushes and toothpaste? And deodorant—a stick, a spray, a pill? And don’t get me started on toilet paper…brings to mind that movie, Demolition Man, with Stallone and the sea shells. I’m still waiting to know what they’re for.
In one of my books, Jax Marlin, I wrote in a scene where the hero crunched on an oral cleanser, which bubbled and frothed and cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. I’ve seen other references to personal hygiene in other books, past, present and in the future. But it seems to be a topic, or scene, many don’t bother with. But like the senses we try to include in writing like seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching, a little mention or a creative way of imaging the hygiene rituals would make for a well-
rounded tale. Don’t you think?
So what about you? For a Science Fiction or Fantasy novel, how would you create a new personal hygiene item, or how would you incorporate it into your tale? More often that not, it’s easy to just glean over or just ignore stuff like that. But if you’re a curious like me…
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