Things in literature they really annoy you?

[changing47]

For me, it’s when characters are referred to as the X girl or the Y boy by characters who are perfectly aware of their names.

Dumbledore in Harry Potter referring to the ‘Malloy boy’. He knows his name is Draco. Just say it. In Game of Thrones Lyanna is referred to as the Stark girl by people who know her name is Lyanna Stark. It drives me mad.

In Riders, Jake's dog crying. Nope. Can't happen.

In Rivals. Turning right from Knightsbridge in Brompton Road. Nope. Can't be done.

Pedantic, moi???

Your comment has just reminded me to download a Jilly Cooper audiobook. Love Rivals but have never read one of her books.

So she can easily just say Draco

I knew my kids names having named them - but when they were in trouble and I wanted them to know that I often used their long form ie middle names as well.

When I was being more playful - munchkin, poppet - or added ie to their first name. At no point were they or I confused about their actual names.

JKR was a teacher for a time - several teachers on here have explained using surname conveys additional information.

It's done in small more static communities I have live in to sort of place them in context - that particular family.

Examples have been given to show how it suggests people distancing themsleves from family members - conveying emotional distance or contempt or placing them in a wider family network.

Being less precise with the name in a book is conveying additional information to the reader and well as following a pattern of speach common or expected in that setting - medieval fantasy where family lineage is very focused on or school in these example but rural static or close nit community would also work.

It can drive you mad but still be normal for many posters - who have no real reason to lie.

Sigh. Do you not read a lot, so the purpose of establishing character and relationships via dialogue is lost on you?

How a character addresses someone in their presence, or refers to them in their absence, tells the reader something about their opinion of, and relationship to, that character. Tonks is ashamed of her bigoted, snobbish Junior Death Eater cousin Draco. They’re on opposite sides in the wizarding wars, and her mother was disowned by her pureblood family for marrying a Muggle-born. Therefore Tonks refers to Draco in a distancing way as ‘the Malfoy boy’. It’s not a blood relationship she wants to draw attention to.

Similarly Vernon invariably addresses Harry as ‘boy’. He hasn’t forgotten his name. He just doesn’t want to admit to himself that Harry is a person, not an unwanted pet someone abandoned on his doorstep.

Similarly, Harry, Ron and Hermione invariably address and refer to Draco as Malfoy, not Draco, while virtually everyone else among their peers (other than Crabbe and Goyle) is addressed by their first name. Similarly, Malfoy addresses Harry as ‘Potter’. Neither of them has forgotten the other’s first name. It is done for effect.

It’s not complicated!

Agreed. GCSE level.

This is such a stupid hill for OP to die on 😂. I’m entertained by the stubbornness tbh. I’ve known people who can’t admit they’re wrong, but normally it’s about something serious or something with serious consequences. Never about anything as ridiculous as this 😂

I agree. Quite a character herself I suspect!

Don't read the schools one! It's dreadful.

I read a lot - there are many things in literature that annoy me, but most of them have been covered in this thread.

The main thing that annoys me though is "straightforward typos". If the writer can't be arsed to check for mistakes (or pay someone else to do that for them), then I can't be arsed to read it.

It still drives me absolutely mad.

It annoys me. No amount of repeatedly being told to shouldn’t is going to make any difference. It sounds stupid, rude and unrealistic.

GCSE level writing is indeed what it sounds like. Pleased you agree.

absolutely mad
irritates the hell out of me
incredibly frustrating and difficult

terrifying stuff!

I cannot be wrong that it drives me mad and that I think it sounds ridiculous. It is an opinion.

Ooo you little minx 😉

Sure it can annoy you
no one is saying it can’t

but your insistence it never happens in real life is what posters are picking up

🤣 I know?! Pleased you feel it too.

Hmmmm little different now to what you have been repeating throughout that you simply
don’t believe anyone ever talks like this in real life

Why do you care? I don’t think it happens in real life, no. But I’m not bothered what you think of that. I want to know what annoys other people in books.

I don’t believe it 😂.

Oh love 😆

You can imagine how that cuts me to the core.

Maybe you can spend your time after leaving this thread to read a book, and then you’ll might be able to engage with it in the future.

I quite like you OP 😂. You’re different! Talking to you is a bit scary, like standing on shaky ground or blindfolded in a dark room and trying to find the door. Do you ever feel off kilter in the world? As though people are boring and like sheep, no originality or spark? I’m imagining you as having wild, dyed hair, boho clothing and chunky jewelry, some cats or parrots, painted nails, quite happy living your life thinking weird thoughts and saying what you think!