# I hate authors who can't be arsed to research **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922 "2009-07-22T22:49:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/41 "2009-07-24T00:19:10Z")
Cryptonomicon gets a lot of love from geeks, but Stephenson’s brutal ignorance about the basic principles of economics made it a tough read for me. One of the most glaring errors was a character opining that the Asian Crisis happened because the countries involved didn’t back their currencies with gold. This isn’t just one character’s opinion; one of the main plot threads in the book is a company’s efforts to create an independent currency backed by gold. Even more hilariously bad happens later on. The company finds a huge cache of Nazi gold, but for various reasons actually recovering it would be impossible. No problem, says the company’s founder, we’ll just leave it in the ground. It wouldn’t be any different from it being in a bank vault. Apparently Stephenson didn’t understand that when you back currency with gold, that means that you exchange that currency for gold on demand. Kinda hard to do when your gold is in an impenetrable vault in the middle of the jungle. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/42 "2009-07-24T00:20:28Z")
I read Naval Fiction- Hornblower, O’Brien, etc. Now, it’s OK if you get the name of a piece of rigging wrong. But two major things: Impressment- only sailors could be impressed. Not landsmen. Flogging: Officers, including Warrant officers- could not be flogged (at least by simple order of the Captain). In two cases I read a book (or started to) where these were major plot points- _and_ they were not explained away by a Press Gang making a mistake\* or a Captain exceeding his authority. (\* No doubt some Press gangs got carried away, but then the book needs to explain this as something unusual and illegal) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/43 "2009-07-24T01:20:22Z")
Pepper Mill has a favorite one – a historical romance in which someone talks anbout being in Cornwall and looking acrosss the border into Scotland… (If you don’t know why that’s annoying, go get a map of the British Isles. Maybe they had REALLY good vision.) My personal annoyance is Michael Crichton’s **Congo**. Normally Mr. Crichton did so much research that he lists his references at the end of the book, but for Congo he pretty clearly didn’t research his Africa, and it shows. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/44 "2009-07-24T02:00:25Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > Eddie is from Co-op City, in real life it is in the Bronx, and in the books it starts off being in Brooklyn. I also suspect Stephen King didn’t have a great grasp on what Co-op City is like. > > Alphabet City is a neighborhood in Manhattan. Ah, thank you. I misremembered (and what is Co-op City like?) ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/45 "2009-07-24T07:01:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Pepper Mill has a favorite one – a historical romance in which someone talks anbout being in Cornwall and looking acrosss the border into Scotland… That’s too good. I would be very grateful if Pepper Mill could name the guilty wrtech who penned that one - it sounds like somethng I could give a special place to in my collection of treasures. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/46 "2009-07-24T08:50:12Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Pepper Mill has a favorite one – a historical romance in which someone talks anbout being in Cornwall and looking acrosss the border into Scotland… I would also like to read that. I already thought Martin Amis was a fairly bad writer, whose father was much better at creating believable characters, when [this](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/amis-cites-northern-blight-of-city-hes-never-seen-642460.html) happened. I think that if you’re setting a novel in a particular city then the book will be shaped by the characteristics of that city. So if you’ve never actually been to the city then the your writing is going to be very superficial. I don’t know what the context of the “one of the darkest places imaginable” line is but it’s worth pointing out that in Aberdeen the sun sets at about 10pm in the summer . In case you’re wondering why Paul Theroux didn’t like Aberdeen, one of the reasons was that he was refused entry to a nightclub because he was wearing jeans, something which could have happened in any smart European city. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/47 "2009-07-24T08:55:58Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Dear Mr. Koontz, > > An Uzi does not have a 400 round magazine. Nope, it was not a misprint. > > Further, ‘Custom light weight bullets’ would not be a good thing unless you where the one being shot with them. > > Thank you. > > A fan that got blown out of the story by your 400 round magazines with light weight bullets. > > Really. How many people read these things before they go to print? It was Mr. Koontz’s “double barreled pump action” shotguns that got me. It’s [http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x91/Captain\_Kennedy/?action=view¤t=PB210045.flv](http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x91/Captain_Kennedy/?action=view¤t=PB210045.flv)been done, but I was left with the impression that he assumed this was a standard item you could find lying around. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/48 "2009-07-24T14:45:06Z")
I once stopped reading a romance novel where the heroine looked out of the window in her Seattle office to view the Pacific. (And no, it wasn’t the kind of drek where it would later be revealed that she had super powers). ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/49 "2009-07-24T14:50:59Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Ah, thank you. I misremembered (and what is Co-op City like?) Well, I haven’t read any of the “Dark Tower” books, but I get the feeling Stephen King thought it was some kind of horrible, crime-infested ghetto housing project. Am I misreading that? In any case, Co-Op City is a privately built apartment complex in Baychester, in the North Bronx. It’s RELATIVELY new, and was built in the late Sixties/early Seventies on the site of what used to be a huge amusement park called Freedomland (I have only the vaguest recollections of Freedomland, but my parents took me there a few times when I was a toddler). When it was first built, the residents were mostly middle-class Jews, and a large percentage of them were retirees. Over time, the demographics have changed, and I’m pretty sure most of Co-Op City’s residents are either black or Puerto Rican today. But its residents are still largely middle-class or lower middle-class. The Bronx has become synonymous with crime and urban decay, in many parts of the country. Co-Op City is one of the most famus apartment complexes in the Bronx, so Stephen King may simply have used it as shorthand for “some horrible, impoverished hellhole in the ghetto.” Co-Op City isn’t Paradise, but it’s a decent place to live if you’re a black civil servant or a Puerto Rican nurse. ---
**Author:** ![spoike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@spoike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spoike)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/50 "2009-07-24T14:53:12Z")
I once read a Clive Cussler novel set in 1906 where, more than once, one character told another, “It’s all good.” I’m relatively certain that particular slang phrase was not used in 1906. There was also a 2 or 3 page period where one of the character’s names switched from Carter to Curtis and back again, another instance where a character previously named Stuart is now Murray, a map that places Montreal where Calgary would be (4000km/2500mi. away), and numerous other smaller mistakes. The worst error, however, was when the characters were trying to beat the arrival of the weather system known as a “Chinook”, because when the winds hit, the temperature could be lowered by 30 degrees Celsius in just a few hours. In actuality, the temperature would be **raised** 30 degrees. I understand that not everyone knows that another name for a Chinook is a ‘snoweater’, but, if you’re going to make it a plot point, shouldn’t you have some idea what the heck it does? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/51 "2009-07-24T15:03:03Z")
Yes, I just read a book that started in the '30s and ended in the '60s, and several of the characters said “It is what it is.” Nope. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/52 "2009-07-24T15:07:14Z")
As a writer, I want to make it clear that this kind of thing is always the publishers’ fault. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/53 "2009-07-24T15:08:47Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Well, Jim Butcher put a parking lot around Wrigley Field in Chicago in one of the Dresden novels, which is when I started to suspect he’d never actually _been_ to Chicago. At least he’s admitted his mistake and has since visited the city. > > Google maps, Mr. Butcher, Google maps… The satellite view is your friend. > > (Well, OK, there’s a small parking lot on the NW corner of the block, presumably for employees and team buses, but it’s very clearly NOT what he had in mind, which was a parking lot _surrounding_ the ballpark) According to Butcher, his most egregious errors were written at a time when Google Maps wasn’t available. I know, it seems like such a time could never have existed. 😃 Google Maps came online in February 2005 (with satellite imagery in April), and even then it wasn’t the supremely awesome tool it is now. By that time Butcher had already written the first six books in the series (book 6 came out in August 2004, while book 7 didn’t come out until May 2006). Before then, satellite imagery was hard to come by easily online, though it _was_ available in some places IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/54 "2009-07-24T16:15:16Z")
> [@spoike](#): > > There was also a 2 or 3 page period where one of the character’s names switched from Carter to Curtis and back again, another instance where a character previously named Stuart is now Murra? Jean Auel (yeah, I know, but \*Clan of the Cave Bear \*is a decent read, and I enjoyed _Valley of the Horses_) did this in _Shelters of Stone_. She changes the spelling of Jondalar’s stepfather from Willomar to Willamar. No reason given, I just think she’s gotten such a swelled head that she thought she could get away with murder. But it’s fricking made up prehistoric character, so who even knows if that was their naming convention? So why change it? I do hope she’s in for a rude awakening when (and if) EarthChildren Ayla Invents Nuclear Fission ever comes out and sales are dismal. I might read it, but I’ll borrow it from the library first to see if it’s worth buying. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/55 "2009-07-24T16:41:43Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I once stopped reading a romance novel where the heroine looked out of the window in her Seattle office to view the Pacific. (And no, it wasn’t the kind of drek where it would later be revealed that she had super powers). 😕 You can see the Pacific Ocean from Seattle, you know. In fact one border of the city is the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/56 "2009-07-24T17:15:50Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 😕 > > You can see the Pacific Ocean from Seattle, you know. In fact one border of the city is the ocean. Psst - don’t write any books about [Seattle](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=seattle+WA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=36.178967,66.445312&ie=UTF8&ll=48.261256,-123.013916&spn=3.80345,8.305664&z=7&iwloc=A). That’s Puget Sound, not the Pacific Ocean. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/57 "2009-07-24T17:19:45Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Psst - don’t write any books about Seattle. That’s Puget Sound, not the Pacific Ocean. Puget sound is part of the Pacific Ocean. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/58 "2009-07-24T17:36:22Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Ah, thank you. I misremembered (and what is Co-op City like?) It’s been a while since my last reading of the DT series, so this is my general impression … but I feel like Stephen King intended Eddie to be a little more of a street kid. Co-op City is fairly self-contained, walking around doesn’t look or feel like a typical New York City or Brooklyn street. There are high-rise buildings, but they are separated by vast areas of empty space. It would be a long, unlikely walk for a kid living in Co-op City to get anywhere that looks more urban. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/59 "2009-07-24T17:47:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Puget sound is part of the Pacific Ocean. :rolleyes: No it’s not. It’s connected to the Pacific ocean, but it’s an estuary. And I’ve never lived in Seattle, but I doubt its residents ever refer to the sound as the Pacific ocean. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922/60 "2009-07-24T17:52:43Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 😕 > > You can see the Pacific Ocean from Seattle, you know. In fact one border of the city is the ocean. Seattle is ~100 miles away from the ocean, give or take. There’s also a mountain range in the way. It is on Puget Sound, but a good 90 miles away from the mouth of the Sound. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-authors-who-cant-be-arsed-to-research/503922.md?page=4)