I’m reading 11-22-63, and I keep getting yanked out of it by glaring historical inconsistensies. Just yesterday, when I had a free half hour, I was hit by three of these in that short period of time; someone yelling “fuck me sideways!”, which I sincerely doubt would have been said in 1958, a character fleeing the scene of crime sees flashing blue lights & knows the police are near, and another character gets teased at school because of his size and they call him George of the Jungle, a cartoon that wouldn’t air until 1967. I only cite these three because they were so close together - the book is full of these, and it always pulls me right out of the story. My poor husband is going to read it when I’m done, and he’s probably sick of me saying “hey - they didn’t have X back then, right?” I’m 58, grew up in the northeast, and I thought Uncle Stevie was around the same age. These are not obscure facts that are difficult to research. Isn’t there a single editor over the age of 35 at his publishers? I wanted to see if anyone else at the Dope had commented on this, but the existing thread on the book is full of spoilers. I am enjoying the story, but I can’t help but notice these. Anybody else get twisted knickers from this?
How did you feel about the movie A Perfect World?
You live in the Pacific NW so you might not notice that the city of Killeen, Texas is consistently (as in, every time) misspelled as Kileen. There’s also the fact that he has his main character smelling the oil refineries in Midland, TX while in the DFW area, notwithstanding the fact that Midland is over 250 miles away from Dallas. :rolleyes:
Then you have the main character singing the Rolling Stones and using disco slang… not the Stone Temple Pilots and 90s slang, as one would expect from someone born in 1976.
Period pieces can be difficult, but two of your examples are blatant. Red lights were standard at that time, but the gaffe is somewhat forgivable, and of course the cartoon reference is just wrong. I get more annoyed with things like somebody jacking the slide on an automatic weapon multiple times (or jacking it and then thumbing back the hammer before firing), or racking a shotgun at the beginning of a scene and then racking it again before ever firing a round. One scene in Christmas Story that always bothers me is when someone in Ralphie’s class calls him a “geek”. It may have been a common word in the 40s, but I don’t remember it being used in the 50s.
Whenever you see something like that, a wizard did it, OK? Or Randall Flagg…
That’s not an anachronism. Even granting that the exact time period of the film is vague (though seems to be after 1939 and probably before 1950), the word was used, though not in the modern sense. Back then, a “geek” was a sideshow act where a man would bite the heads off live chickens. Really.
The current meaning didn’t develop until the 1950s. Calling Ralphie a geek was a far greater insult in the rough time frame of the film than it is today. It combines halfwitted with disgusting, and was clearly used outside of carnival use.
Once again, this is the issue with people complaining about anachronisms bringing them out of the story – many times the errors they see are merely their own ignorance.
I haven’t read the King, and I usually give that sort of thing a pass, but as mentioned, it seems the book was poorly copy edited; someone should have noticed the errors and fixed them.
Eat, Pray, Love.
Huge error. When she goes to Indonesia, she talks about the spiritual experience of visiting the Hindu ruins at Borobudur. Er, um, those are Buddhist ruins. Nothing like Hindu temples she would have seen while in India, or anywhere else in Indonesia. The site is filled with Buddha’s, it’s just not a mistake anyone who’d been there would make. Kind of ruined the book for me.
Not a single one who’s got the balls to change a word of King’s perfect manuscript, i’m sure.
I was going to mention this in the other thread, but since I’m here…
On page 288 he writes:
Uh, Stephen? The French Quarter is the Vieux Carré…
Having worked as a copy-editor and proofreader, and made hundreds of attempts to fix such things, I know that the usual response is: “It won’t matter. No one will notice anyway. And besides, will it sell even one more copy?” I think that it does, some do, and it may well diminish sales of the author’s next book.
I loved the book, but got jerked out of it myself when someone in the Land of Ago told another character to “get a life.” Nyuh uh.
I enjoyed Stephen King’s writing much more before he quit drinking
This is kind of a reach as far as criticism goes. I was born in 1977. I know every word and note of “Sympathy for the Devil” and I don’t think I can name one single Stone Temple Pilots song. Not everybody from a given period of time is a clone of everybody else from that period of time.
Oh man, you should have spoilered! Now I know something happens at Fort Hod! 
True, but Jake’s man out of time routine is severely hurt when “his time” looks more like the late 70s than 2011 (King started the book in the 70s, so this is understandable).
You’re right, not everyone is a clone, but Jake and I are roughly the same age and we share very few traits. I had to constantly remind myself that he wasn’t in his 50s every time I picked it up. It is poor characterization even if 11/22/63 is still a damn fine book overall.
In my case, if I know that an author is slipshod in such matters, yes, it will be part of part of my book buying decision the next time I see a book by that author. It does diminish my enjoyment of the book (or movie, whatever). Continuity errors also diminish my enjoyment of a book or movie.
King was raised in Maine. All police cars in Maine have blue lights and ONLY blue lights. Red lights are reserved for fire dept vehicles and volunteer firemen.
It always comes as a surprise when I travel and see a police car with a red light.
Wait, what? There are places where police cars have blue and red lights for real? I’ve only seen red lights on cruisers on toys and in TV shows. I figured it was sort of like all phone numbers starting with 555 in media, not based on real life.
Still, if you’re going to set a novel in Dallas in 1963 it might be a good idea to do a little research. King is a well travelled man. He has left Maine.
The George of the Jungle reference is inexcusable - it takes 15 seconds to check that on Wikipedia - as are things like “get a life,” a phrase that certainly did not exist in 1963, and others.
However, I’ll jump to King’s defense on one thing; I’m quite certain “fuck me sideways” existed in 1963. The popularity of the word “fuck” really took off with and immediately after the Second World War and lively and interesting permutations of its use were numerous and well established by 1963.
Well, I agree with you there.