Inaccuracies in fiction

[HoppyHat]

Do they bother you? I realise I am annoyed/disappointed by simple "mistakes" which surely a decent editor should notice?

A couple of examples

A very very popular novel. Set in modern day London. Character regularly gets the bus from A to B along a named road all of which exist in real life. But they don't use the correct bus number! Nothing bad happens on the bus, the driver isn't awful, nothing libellous. So why not use the correct bus number?

I've just finished a book which I really liked. The author is American. But part of the book is set in a posh English school in the 1950s. The headteacher calls the season following summer "Fall". And says (more than once) "you need to write your sister" (or similar) not write TO.

To me these things are so obvious and quite jarring. Anyone else?

For me it’s looking out windows at plants and flowers that are either not in flower at the same time or abundant flowering in winter. It’s not that difficult to look up. And divine scents from unscented flowers!

Very petty, but I’ve always been irritated by a discrepancy in Fay Weldon’s short story Weekend. Probably because I think it’s great, otherwise.

The character Katie is introduced as their friend’s new younger wife. Later in the story, Katie says she’s never getting married and her partner is put out because he wants to marry her more than anything. Because it’s a short story, I couldn’t understand how such a detail was missed in the edit.

A general visual thing on TV which really grates on me - when a character is handed a supposedly hot from the kettle/kiosk cup of tea or coffee, then holds it around the cup (nope #1) then starts immediately drinking it (nope #2).

I so nearly started this exact thread last week! I have just read Her Last Move by John Marrs, which had two glaring factual errors:

1. He set World Book Day on a Friday in April- it is always the first Thursday in March;

2. "Twins ran in his family"- this is not a thing! Non-identical twins run on the maternal line, because what is actually hereditary is a woman's tendency to release more than one egg per ovulation. Identical twins aren't hereditary at all!

I'm so glad I'm not alone in being driven to distraction by things like this!

Not a book, but the Netflix series Gloria, which is about a Colombian drug lord. At one point she says something about 'a fuckton of cocaine'.

As IF people said fuckton in the 70s!

Also, no one in 1940 would remember that! Anti-semitism was rife throughout Europe for centuries before World War Two!

I agree, the standard of editing is generally very poor these days. They can't even spot errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation, which should be a crucial part of their job, so they're unlikely to bother checking historical facts. I often think they must have rather inflated egos and assume they're so clever that they just know everything without having to check. I'd say that about 80% of stuff I read and listen to has errors.

I’ve just read a book where the author refers to the middle lane of the M4 near Swansea. It only has two lanes west of Bridgend. Irritating.

Recently listened to a book called ‘the island’ or similar -two young people stranded after plane crash - they keep the fire burning …THEY KEEP THE FIRE BURNING - have you any idea how much wood it takes to keep a fire burning 24/7 -let alone for weeks, months ,years. A full pine forest , with equipment to chop at least.

It happened in reverse too - a book clearly set in the States and the main character goes to spend her £5 birthday money. I was really cross about that aged 12!

Yes, I'm afraid it would!

VE day celebration in Dublin because the war was over and they sang god save the Queen 🫣. It's as if Neutrality and Republic never existed never mind it was a King at that point.

Worst EVER was a murder mystery set in the 14c (should have shoved it back on the shelf when I saw it was about the Templars, but you live and learn...) the 'detective' asked a peasant on a farm when he'd seen the suspect and the answer was 'about half past four;' when the answer would much more likely have been 'an hour before sunset' or at a push related to the canonical hours (if said peasant could hear church/monastery bells).

The Amazon blurb said that the writer had given up his job in IT to write full time and my review was pretty blunt about the fact that that was a mistake.

Also - a medieval murder mystery (sensing a theme here) where the heroine referred to metres instead of feet or yards.

The version of the cat in the hat comes back that I have at home was typeset in the time of the high inflation of the early 70s. The price of the dad's shoes is in a different type. Obviously the original price was deemed unrealistic but it was too expensive to redo the whole thing 😀

Me too I'm afraid.

I once proofread an awful book by an American author about two people who get shipwrecked in the Maldives. They're eventually rescued and get taken to Male by the authorities, who then go and get them some food. They come back with...tacos! I'm sure the Maldivian capital is just heaving with Mexican food joints. I did flag it, whether it got changed or not I have no idea.

Some inaccuracies are so bad it just feels like the author has no respect for readers

and books that use language that is clearly aimed at a specific demographic(eg using American words when it’s set in UK) go into my cba pile

And as another poster said, getting titles wrong. I see it so often and I've worn myself out pointing that out over the years. These things are checkable, fgs.

I think you’re misinterpreting the editor’s job. A proof-reader will check spelling and grammatical errors (and sometimes have to have it pointed out to them that what they are reading as an accidental error is in fact intention, to indicate someone’s non-standard speech), but an editor isn’t a fact checker, and can’t be. It’s not even that an editor with no Nigerian heritage who isn’t a historian is unlikely to be an expert on oil production or specific peace accords during the Biafran war, or the geography of Lagos in 1994, it’s that they won’t know what they don’t know, like what a character is likely to be eating for dinner or current slang. They need to ask questions, but ultimately to trust their author’s research/experience.

Google suggests at least 2 TexMex restaurants in Malé.

I’m most annoyed by inaccuracies in children’s books. My five year old grandson recently pointed out that jumping spiders (popular as cute tv characters) don’t make webs, and it’s impossible to tow an iceberg with a tiny spacecraft.

tobee that does sound very niche pedantry!!

If ever I get round to writing my best-seller, I must remember to make all towns/places/trainlines totally fictional!

I think that’s the only way! You can base it on somewhere you know but tweak the names!!

I avoid books based where I live because it’s unlikely there won’t be something that irritates!!

GetWhatYouWant that really sounds dreadful. And I get the desire to let them know. The Book of Goose, which prompted my starting this thread, had me reaching for my notepaper to send a "disappointed from London" letter 😆

BouledeSuife that's astonishing 😮