Prison-era 1950?
Hello everyone,
I happened to come across this sentence in a book: "Inside, the walls were worn, the furniture was broken and ripped and ugly, and the décor was prison-era 1950".
I can't quite figure out what the "prison-era 1950" bit means here. Was the décor prison-like? But why mention 1950?
Any ideas? The book is set in the 70s, and the sentence is a description of the fraternity house, if that's any help.
Thank you.
Top answer
1950 - the common materials were formica, fake compressed wood, and plastic. prison-like = unadorned, simple, sparse, functional, indestructible
- 1950 - the common materials were formica, fake compressed wood, and plastic.
- prison-like = unadorned, simple, sparse, functional, indestructible
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0anonymousI can't quite figure out what the "prison-era 1950" bit means here.
The writer got the expression tangled up. There was no "prison era" in the 1950s or any other time. He meant "1950s prison chic" or something like that—a decor that simulated a prison cell from the 1950s, as AS has so perfectly illustrated.
0This apparently means: "...the decor was like a prison in the 1950's era.", that is, grim, sparse, chosen for durability and rough use. The reason this apparently reputable writer wrote it like he did might have been for effect: "prison-era 1950" sounds more "hard-hitting" than "like a prison in the 1950's era." He assumes that the readers will figure out what he means from the context.
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