# Minor Details that Annoy You in Fiction
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 3, 2013, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016 "2013-06-03T09:13:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/61 "2013-06-04T07:39:28Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> I’ve been a practicing Catholic for 45 years (or at least, I’ve been going top Mass weekly for 45 years), went to a Catholic grade school and a Catholic high school. I’ve known hundreds of priests- and the next one I hear address anyone as “My child” or “My son” will be the first.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve known a priest who referred to people as “My son.” But he was also a massive movie buff (his most recent movie trip was mentioned in the homily almost every week) so when I first heard people saying that priests don’t normally do that I figured he just swiped it from the movies.
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Forgetting how old their characters are.
This is what made my nuts about Stephen King’s 11/22/63. The main character is supposed to be 35, just a few years older than myself, and his pop culture knowledge is rooted almost completely in the late 70s, which is before he would have been born. I’m not saying it’s impossible for someone to love the pop culture of someone else’s generation, but the main character had literally no connection to any piece of pop culture created after 1979.
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#):
>
> Or in the _Hunger Games_ trilogy, the Districts are little more then city-size despite there being only thirteen of them to constitute a whole nation covering North America.
It’s mentioned somewhere in the first book that Katniss believed all the districts were the same size as 12, but that once the train took her through them she realized just how massive the rest of them were. Much, much bigger than city size, but still a significant population decrease from what we have now.
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/62 "2013-06-04T08:12:40Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> One thing that’s always annoyed and mildly amused me is the tendency of certain female authors (and it’s _only_ female authors who do this) to refer to a character’s genitals, regardless of gender, as “their sex”. For example; “He pressed his hard sex against her soft sex and they had sex.”
I remember reading _Penthouse Forum_ or _Variations_ years ago, and being completely yanked out of some story because the writer decided the best euphemism for “anus” was “rosebud”. Actually, I think that was what convinced me that all the stories/letters were either fabricated by the magazines’ own staff, or were reader submissions, but rewritten by that same staff to conform to the “house style”. Because every author seemed to want to use that same ridiculous euphemism.
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### Author:  [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/63 "2013-06-04T09:28:43Z")
> [@Flywheel](#):
>
> Trains that travel on nonexistent routes.
>
> Specifically, trains leaving New York via Grand Central when they would actually use Penn Station. [This article](http://www.technologytell.com/entertainment/1979/tv-shows-break-the-laws-of-trains-and-space/) has some good examples…
If one is a railway enthusiast, one will come across numerous annoying mistakes in fiction writing / films. As a poster on this thread says, “part of the curse of being a nerd”…
I’m a railfan but not American, and not hugely knowledgeable about American railroads, so didn’t know before this post, about the frequent mistakes re Grand Central Station. I suppose it just sounds very glamorous and New-York-y, so authors / scriptwriters automatically seize on it, regardless of the facts.
One American rail error in fiction which did irritate me, was in the novel “Tatiana and Alexander” by Paullina Simons. The heroine, newly arrived in the US in 1946, has to travel for some reason from, I think, New York to Chicago; and the author refers to her as making the train journey using Amtrak. Er, no – Amtrak as general “blanket” operator of US long-distance rail passenger services, was inaugurated in 1971: the heroine would have been travelling by the services of whichever private railroad company/ies.
Another, perhaps trivial, which bugs me; is in Frederick Forsyth’s thriller “The Day of the Jackal”. The action of the book is in 1963: the villain travels by train from central France, to Paris, on his mission to assassinate De Gaulle – his train is describes as “steaming into” the Gare d’Austerlitz terminus in Paris. At that date – he might well have started his journey behind a steam locomotive; but the main line from Austerlitz terminus, far down toward the centre / south-west of France, had been electric for many years. I suppose one could plead “artistic licence” – trains can be described as steaming around, for the sake of effect, even if they’re not hauled by a steam loco; nonetheless, this point annoys me.
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### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/64 "2013-06-04T10:02:19Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> In what way did they use the Apache? I know there is a way to attach downed pilots to the outside using their vest and D-rings. I knew two that got flown out of harms way like that during Desert Storm.
I assume that would be inadequate for somebody in severe danger of bleeding to death, which IIRC was the case in the book. I’d need to go back and reread it to check.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/65 "2013-06-04T10:46:50Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Forgetting how old their characters are.
>
> I recently read a novel set in 1935 in which a character, the mother of another major character, is said to be in her early 60s. She’s much older than any of the other characters, clearly of another generation. Later, her story is given in detail. She married her husband when she was 19, just before he went off to the war, meaning WWI, and gave birth to her daughter the next year. The daughter is on her third marriage, BTW. The book is set in America, not England.
Are you sure it was WW1? There were wars in the 1890s. The Spanish-American war or the Philippine-American war would fit for an American. The Boer War would fit for a Brit.
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### Author:  [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/66 "2013-06-04T11:08:25Z")
> [@vontsira](#):
>
> If one is a railway enthusiast, one will come across numerous annoying mistakes in fiction writing / films. As a poster on this thread says, “part of the curse of being a nerd”…
>
> I’m a railfan but not American, and not hugely knowledgeable about American railroads, so didn’t know before this post, about the frequent mistakes re Grand Central Station. I suppose it just sounds very glamorous and New-York-y, so authors / scriptwriters automatically seize on it, regardless of the facts.
Including the common mistake of calling it Grand Central Station. It isn’t a station, it is Grand Central Terminal.
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/67 "2013-06-04T11:19:48Z")
> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> Can I add craptastic copyediting? Grammer and spelling errors that should be picked up by competent copyeditors, or where the writer needed to be whacked with a brick and reminded that there are rules of spelling and grammer and everybody should be copyedited.
> [@WotNot](#):
>
> Did you do that on purpose? Tell me you did that on purpose.
Hey, in any writing, you have to get the grandmother right.
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/68 "2013-06-04T11:40:54Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#):
>
> Including the common mistake of calling it Grand Central Station. It isn’t a station, it is Grand Central Terminal.
Does terminal not just mean the last station?
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/69 "2013-06-04T11:45:38Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#):
>
> On a similar vein (but possibly less minor), Shyalaman’s _Signs_ drove me absolutely nuts trying to figure out what variety of priest/pastor/minister Mel Gibson was supposed to be. Was he Catholic? Then why was he married? Was he protestant? Then why does the chick in the shop ask him to hear her confession?
Wouldn’t an Episcopalian fit the bill?
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### Author:  [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/70 "2013-06-04T13:07:04Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> It’s the mundanities that take me out of a story, details added for flavor (or padding), rather than the big stuff.
>
> Like a teenage boy wearing pajamas to bed in summer, then getting out of bed when he hears a noise and putting on his slippers. Pajamas in summer? Slippers just to walk to a window? Then he sits on the sill of the window – he bends down so his butt is on the sill, and the window is on the first floor. He swings his legs over and is frightened by the drop to the ground. The window is low on the inside – how high can it be on the outside?
>
> It would have been better if the author had said ‘Jimmy climbed out the window’.
I’m not a teenage boy, but I sometimes wear pajamas to bed in the summer – it can still get cold at night – and put on slippers as soon as I get out of bed. My bedroom window is also about waist-high on the inside, but maybe 10’ off the ground on the outside. Er, because we’re built on a slanting ground, not because I’m 20’ tall. 🙂
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> It’s mentioned somewhere in the first book that Katniss believed all the districts were the same size as 12, but that once the train took her through them she realized just how massive the rest of them were. Much, much bigger than city size, but still a significant population decrease from what we have now.
Hadn’t parts of the country also been rendered uninhabitable by whatever disaster destroyed the United States? That was my impression at least, and I see Wiki mentions that Panem was founded after some apocalyptic event brought down the US.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/71 "2013-06-04T13:24:57Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> Does terminal not just mean the last station?
Yes. Podunk is the terminal station, way out in the sticks. A station where many lines come together and end is also a terminal, and that’s how the term is usually intended. You go to the “terminal” to catch a train on any of several lines out of the city. Because London was largely built before trains, each company ran its line into the city as far as it could manage and built a “terminal.” At one time there were twenty or thirty, so if you wanted to cross through London, you had to come in on one line, jaunt to the other terminal, and ride out on another line. (Kind of like Amtrak and North Boston/South Boston today… unless it’s changed in the last couple of years, you can’t get from NYC to Portland on one track.) Even today not all the radiating lines in London are connected. Grand Central was the replacement for a similar situation on Manhattan, and they managed to build it before it became impossible to do so.
None of which really matters here. It’s not named Grand Central Station. It’s formally and repeatedly named Grand Central Terminal or GCT. The former is as wrong as talking about the big statue out on Liberty Peninsula.
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/72 "2013-06-04T13:36:55Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#):
>
> the writer decided the best euphemism for “anus” was “rosebud”..
This could certainly open up for some interesting interpretations of _Citizen Kane_.
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/73 "2013-06-04T13:38:31Z")
What I mean is, while Grand Central Station is wrong, would Grand Central station be correct?
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### Author:  [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/74 "2013-06-04T13:52:48Z")
It always annoys me when a movie or TV show has a scene where one character is hanging off a cliff or something and another person pulls him/her up with one arm. Pulling up even a light person with one arm is exceedingly difficult.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/75 "2013-06-04T13:56:10Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> Wouldn’t an Episcopalian fit the bill?
I don’t know - would it? I go to an Anglican church (same brand, different label AFAIK) and I never saw anyone do confession. I would bow to contrary experience if anyone has any.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/76 "2013-06-04T14:03:34Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#):
>
> I don’t know - would it? I go to an Anglican church (same brand, different label AFAIK) and I never saw anyone do confession. I would bow to contrary experience if anyone has any.
Well, how about [this?](http://www.stmaryschurch.us/why_an_episcopalian2.html)
“A priest is a person who has been affirmed by the larger community as one designated to convey the means of grace to Christians in the community. Only bishops may ordain priests and deacons. Priests baptize and preside at the Eucharist, preach the Word of God, and hear confessions. It is the priest who pronounces forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ if the bishop is not present … Episcopalians may make private confessions to a priest and indeed some should, but private confession is not obligatory in the Episcopal Church. A general confession of sins is part of each Eucharist. The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis came to make private confession a part of his Christian life as he grew in his faith. We would do well to follow his lead.”
That said, married Episcopalian clergy [can apparently become Catholic priests](http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/MARPRIE.htm).
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### Author:  [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/77 "2013-06-04T14:07:21Z")
I work in local television and movies about television news NEVER get it right. Hell, even tv shows about television news rarely get it right.
In _Bruce Almighty_ Jim Carrey is a reporter who’s super excited about doing a live shot during “sweeps week.” A) No reporter gets worked up about doing live shots. They do them all the time and B) sweeps periods last a month, not a week.
_Up Close and Personal_, _Morning Glory_ and others feature live cameras without any cable connection to a remote van or satellite truck. Until very recently, this was technically impossible.
Also in _Morning Glory_ a reporter goes out to cover a live story with only a photographer… no live truck operator or producer. Field producers were cut from most local news long ago and live truck operators are also disappearing (photographers have taken up that duty in addition to shooting video.) But a national network newscast would never operate this way.
In “The Newsroom”, at times they’ll structure their newscasts or add/cut stories right before air while casually sitting around the control room… and that’s a network newscast. In even the smallest markets, rundowns are carefully developed in editorial meetings well in advance with management, assignment editors, anchors and even some reporters present. At best, stories may be dropped for time by producers during newscasts if other stories go longer than expected.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/78 "2013-06-04T14:30:27Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> I’ve been a practicing Catholic for 45 years (or at least, I’ve been going top Mass weekly for 45 years), went to a Catholic grade school and a Catholic high school. I’ve known hundreds of priests- and the next one I hear address anyone as “My child” or “My son” will be the first.
>
> Any book, movie or TV show in which a priest addresses ANYONE that way turns me off, and indicates pretty strongly that the writer has never spent 5 minutes around an actual priest.
I was just thinking about something similar to this. This isn’t really in one piece of fiction, it’s more like a trope, but when someone is so desperate that they have to run into a Catholic church to pray. It’s never a Protestant church or anything else, and the priest is always _right there_ standing by ready to give a helpful piece of advice. It’s like TV and movie priests spend all their time hanging out near the altar just ready for some desperate hero to come in out of the rain, they’re never in the rectory, visiting a sick parishioner in the hospital, or doing anything else.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/79 "2013-06-04T14:32:56Z")
> [@Victor\_Charlie](#):
>
> I work in local television and movies about television news NEVER get it right. Hell, even tv shows about television news rarely get it right.
In their defense, if this is a defense, they’re not trying to get it right. You can tell they’re writing these scenes so they have the fewest characters and the most drama they can. News in movies or TV is rarely written properly either because it’s just there to advance the plot or sum up a character’s problems.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minor-details-that-annoy-you-in-fiction/660016/80 "2013-06-04T14:37:16Z")
> [@Lamia](#):
>
> Hadn’t parts of the country also been rendered uninhabitable by whatever disaster destroyed the United States? That was my impression at least, and I see Wiki mentions that Panem was founded after some apocalyptic event brought down the US.
Yes. I’m not sure it’s ever said outright, but I think it was a nuclear war.
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