# Creative works with factual errors that so easily could have been checked and corrected **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051 "2010-07-26T15:01:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/81 "2010-08-03T22:35:22Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I recall reading [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6232148/The-Lost-Symbol-and-The-Da-Vinci-Code-author-Dan-Brown-50-factual-errors.html) a while ago - a list of 50 factual errors in Dan Brown’s _The Lost Symbol_ and _The Da Vinci Code_. Only 50? ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/82 "2010-08-03T23:44:49Z")
In Forrest Gump, at the end, Forrest is narrating Jenny’s death and he says that she “died on a Saturday morning.” Yet, the gravestone has her date of death on it and that date was NOT a Saturday. I can’t see it on the youtube scene, but I remember checking it out when the movie was out to see if it had actually been a Saturday, but it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/83 "2010-08-04T13:28:48Z")
A book I read on Streisand stated: While Streisand’s magnificent recording of Memory was not a hit, Elaine Paige’s cover hit #1 in the UK charts. Methinks the author needs to verify who’s covering whom. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/84 "2010-08-04T14:34:03Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > A book I read on Streisand stated: While Streisand’s magnificent recording of Memory was not a hit, Elaine Paige’s cover hit #1 in the UK charts. > > Methinks the author needs to verify who’s covering whom. And how high Paige’s version went on the charts: [July 4, 1981 charts](http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1981-07-04/) ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/85 "2010-08-04T22:30:09Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > In Forrest Gump, at the end, Forrest is narrating Jenny’s death and he says that she “died on a Saturday morning.” Yet, the gravestone has her date of death on it and that date was NOT a Saturday. I can’t see it on the youtube scene, but I remember checking it out when the movie was out to see if it had actually been a Saturday, but it wasn’t. I have to ask - what motivated you to do that? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/86 "2010-08-04T22:57:42Z")
A friend of mine - a fairly well known figure in the pen & paper RPG world, has had a couple of columns in gaming magazines, won an Origins award, etc. - has a term for this sort of thing. He says it “snaps your suspenders of disbelief”. I like the metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/87 "2010-08-04T23:34:53Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > A friend of mine - a fairly well known figure in the pen & paper RPG world, has had a couple of columns in gaming magazines, won an Origins award, etc. - has a term for this sort of thing. > > He says it “snaps your suspenders of disbelief”. > > I like the metaphor. Your friend is punning on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s [expression](https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/greenberg.nsf/0/aa819a734ce9d34585256e0e00717ab4?OpenDocument) “suspension of disbelief.” ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/88 "2010-08-05T00:00:49Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > > [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > > > A friend of mine - a fairly well known figure in the pen & paper RPG world, has had a couple of columns in gaming magazines, won an Origins award, etc. - has a term for this sort of thing. > > > > He says it “snaps your suspenders of disbelief”. > > > > I like the metaphor. > > Your friend is punning on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s [expression](https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/greenberg.nsf/0/aa819a734ce9d34585256e0e00717ab4?OpenDocument) “suspension of disbelief.” Yes. I didn’t think that needed to be explained. (Though I didn’t know it was Coleridge - just thought it was a literary term.) ---
**Author:** ![Albrecht\_Durer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ccd318/32.png) [@Albrecht\_Durer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albrecht_Durer)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/89 "2010-08-05T03:55:08Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > This might be the third time I’ve mentioned this on these boards, because it annoys me so much: a really bad one in Burn Notice. > > Fiona is held captive by a bad guy who doesn’t believe she was in a Madrid at a particular time (1998, IIRC - post-EU, anyway). So Michael has to go back to Fiona’s flat, find her passport and doctor it to make it look like she has a visa for visiting Spain. > > Fail! She’s an EU citizen and would not have needed a visa for Spain. No way at all, coming in or out from any other place. > > I know that show has a lot of errors, but this one is REALLY bad and could have been changed so very easily by changing it to somewhere she would actually need a Visa for - Madrid wasn’t important in itself. And the woman playing Fiona is English and bloody well should have known. ‘Change this one word, please! I don’t need a Visa for Madrid!’ > > (Yes, Fiona’s Irish, not English, but the same applies). But that only holds if the passport Michael forged the visa stamp in was an EU passport; I’m sure she had several, just like Michael. They may have used an American passport, because that’s what accent she was using. ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/90 "2010-08-05T06:31:54Z")
In Chris DeBurgh’s A Spaceman Came Traveling I always grit my teeth at the line _'twas light years of time since his mission did start_ ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/91 "2010-08-05T14:31:56Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > > [@FallenAngel](#): > > > > There has never been a cartridge called the .45 Magnum commercially produced anywhere in the world, and certainly not a factory-produced weapon chambered for it, but just about every time the weapon was referred to in the story, the author took pains to say Colt .45 Magnum. > > Well, there is a .45 Winchester Magnum cartridge for handguns, so it seems like an understandable mixup. Understandable if all the writer did was scan a list of available handgun cartridges without paying attention to anything else about them. The 45 Win Mag was used in only two handguns IIRC, both of them semiauto and neither of them Colt: the LAR Grizzly and the AMT AutoMag II. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/92 "2010-08-05T15:50:29Z")
> [@Reepicheep](#): > > In Chris DeBurgh’s A Spaceman Came Traveling I always grit my teeth at the line _'twas light years of time since his mission did start_ “Light years” are also mentioned as a measurement of time in C.S.Lewis’ _The Screwtape Letters_. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/93 "2010-08-05T16:05:35Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > I have to ask - what motivated you to do that? 😕 There was a recent thread where someone asked about folk that note errors in movies and TV shows. I was one of the responders. What motivates people to remember baseball stats? What motivates people to play video games? Etc. This is just something some of us enjoy doing. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/94 "2010-08-05T16:15:32Z")
Only book I ever put down after two sentences was _A Rustle In The Grass_, a… well, I said better in another post when the pain was still fresh. > [@](#): > > I got a book called _A Rustle In The Grass_, billed as “a heroic fantasy-style novel about ants”. Sound interesting, right? I open it up, and within two sentences I’m banging my head. > > > [@](#): > > > > High on the branch of a young larch tree a lone worker-ant was scurrying nervously about in the pale spring sunshine. He was a …\… > > Can you spot the error there? > > I mean, really, how could someone be writing a book from the point of view of an ant colony, and not even know that all worker ants are female?? If you’re going to attempt “the most remarkable novel of its kind since _Watership Down_”, do the freakin’ research! ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/95 "2010-08-05T16:25:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I have to ask - what motivated you to do that? I looked up the date because it figured so prominently in the scene when I saw it. I wanted to see if they had actually done their homework and determined that the day she died was actually a Saturday. I have a hobby where I make my own little short films and I like to get the continuity right. Now, the date on her gravestone was wrong, which leads me to a couple of possibilities: 1. They didn’t care and didn’t check. 2. The date was an inside joke for someone and they put it on the prop gravestone. They didn’t figure that people would notice. We can’t always assume that they just “got it wrong.” A lot of effort goes into movie-making and sometimes they put in little touches/in-jokes for themselves, so we can’t discount those things. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/96 "2010-08-05T18:40:21Z")
Thanks for starting this thread, I have one that I am just dying to share. Did anyone here read “Eat, Pray, Love”? What am I thinking, I’m certain that many of you did. Well, there is a glaring error in the book. When she’s in Indonesia, she visits the ruins at Borobadur, speaking rapturously about the beauty/meaning of these Hindu ruins. Um, no. Anyone who’s ever even seen a picture can tell they are Buddhist ruins. There are literally Buddha statues, (headless, but still), at every angle. When I told a publishing friend of mine there was an error in the book she was shocked, that I spotted one. But there it was. It kind of bummed me out, as I loved the book and was really buying into her actually having done this journey. Clearly, though, she did not visit these ruins. I wonder, do publishers go back and correct such errors in later editions. The movie will be interesting, can’t wait to see if they use the Buddhist ruins at Borobadur or the Hindu ruins at Prambanan. Which could never be confused for each other, being so radically different and separated by many miles. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/97 "2010-08-05T18:53:22Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > It kind of bummed me out, as I loved the book and was really buying into her actually having done this journey. Clearly, though, she did not visit these ruins. Not trying to defend the error, but could be that she visited them and just didn’t know any better. Or perhaps she just got confused while writing the book. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/98 "2010-08-05T21:13:34Z")
> [@olpeculiar](#): > > > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > > > Whenever I hear QUIN-cee, Massachusetts, I cringe. There is no such place. It is, and always has bee, zwin-ZEE. > > I don’t suppose anyone can explain why Quincy, MA should be pronounced “zwin-ZEE”? That comment went right by, and nobody blinked an eye at the suggestion that it would be anything other than “kwin-see” or “kwin-zee”. > > Was the “zw” a typo? Just curious… It’s a typo. It’s pronounced “kwin-zee” (which is a fact I never knew before I met my wife, who from near there). My own contribution is pretty much everything in _Crimson Tide_. It’s bad enough that all of the technical aspects were screwed up, not to mention the whole premise of the movie, but the filmmakers even screwed up the most basic things in the movie including: [ul] [li]The uniforms–for example, officers do not wear warfare insignia on the white shirts worn with Service Dress Blues. All insignia is on the SDB coat.[/li][li]The most basic interactions between officers and enlisted. You would never see a submarine officer ordering a sailor to drop and do push-ups, like something out of boot camp. It’s completely unthinkable.[/li][li]The CO’s _dog_ on board? Sure… :rolleyes:[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/99 "2010-08-06T00:54:05Z")
> [@Albrecht\_Durer](#): > > > [@scifisam2009](#): > > > > This might be the third time I’ve mentioned this on these boards, because it annoys me so much: a really bad one in Burn Notice. > > > > Fiona is held captive by a bad guy who doesn’t believe she was in a Madrid at a particular time (1998, IIRC - post-EU, anyway). So Michael has to go back to Fiona’s flat, find her passport and doctor it to make it look like she has a visa for visiting Spain. > > > > Fail! She’s an EU citizen and would not have needed a visa for Spain. No way at all, coming in or out from any other place. > > > > I know that show has a lot of errors, but this one is REALLY bad and could have been changed so very easily by changing it to somewhere she would actually need a Visa for - Madrid wasn’t important in itself. And the woman playing Fiona is English and bloody well should have known. ‘Change this one word, please! I don’t need a Visa for Madrid!’ > > > > (Yes, Fiona’s Irish, not English, but the same applies). > > But that only holds if the passport Michael forged the visa stamp in was an EU passport; I’m sure she had several, just like Michael. They may have used an American passport, because that’s what accent she was using. It was definitely an EU passport. It was shown prominently on screen. Having it be an American or whatever passport would have been another easy way to make the story make sense, but they didn’t do that. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/100 "2010-08-06T04:08:32Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > > [@Albrecht\_Durer](#): > > > > But that only holds if the passport Michael forged the visa stamp in was an EU passport; I’m sure she had several, just like Michael. They may have used an American passport, because that’s what accent she was using. > > It was definitely an EU passport. It was shown prominently on screen. Having it be an American or whatever passport would have been another easy way to make the story make sense, but they didn’t do that. Possibly because showing how to alter and altering on screen, (even in fictional tv) a ‘valid’ US passport would be a crime? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051.md?page=6)