# Mistakes in classic literature
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 8, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227 "2004-05-08T21:43:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/141 "2006-02-18T00:06:54Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#):
>
> You’re a Casey & Andy fan, right? : [http://www.galactanet.com/comic/366.htm](http://www.galactanet.com/comic/366.htm)
Of all the webcomics I’ve read, that is the most recent.
Anyhoo, about 15 years ago I wrote a one-page story about an elderly Japanese gentlemen folding origami animals and musing on a (what I’ll cheerfully admit is a lousy) haiku:
_Drawing strength from numbers
As fast as the slowest
The animals walk_
Then his drunken irresponsible great-grandson shows up and violence briefly ensues.
---
### Author:  [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/142 "2006-02-18T02:29:12Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#):
>
> Talking of Shakespeare, the scene where Hamlet meets the ghost of his father starts at midnight, there’s a few minutes of dialog, and ends as dawn is breaking.
You mean the one that starts (an indetermininate amount of time after midnight) in Act I, scene 4 and ends in Act I, scene 5? How do you know how much time passes between Hamlet and the ghost’s exit in scene 4 and their reentrance in scene 5? Anyway, the ghost finally takes off because he senses the dawn, not necessarily because dawn is actually breaking. It sounded like an excuse. He just wanted to get some of his chain rattling done before the real dawn.
---
### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/143 "2006-02-18T03:11:30Z")
> [@Greg Charles](#):
>
> Anyway, the ghost finally takes off because he senses the dawn, not necessarily because dawn is actually breaking. It sounded like an excuse. He just wanted to get some of his chain rattling done before the real dawn.
Well, you have to consider, too, that poor old Hamlet _père_ had _finally_ gotten shut of his dithering kid and now he was forced by Necessity to actually seek the indecisive git out and talk to him. I’d make excuses for moving on early, too…
---
### Author:  [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/144 "2006-02-20T14:46:37Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> …One critic reported of Doyle that, if you judged it only by what you read in his Sherlock Holmes stories, America was a country crawling with murderous secret societies. Besides the Mormon Danites, Holmes tangled with the KKK, the Mafia (!), Chicago Gangs (!), and a thinly-disguised version of the Molly Maguires.
Well, we are! 😃
---
### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/145 "2006-02-25T09:04:22Z")
One just jumped out at me today since I am now a resident of Ohio.
Was rereading Arthur Miller’s **Death of A Salesman** (Penguin Edition w/Dustin Hoffman as Willy on the cover) and got to the scene were Howard, Willy’s boss, is playing his recording device for Willy and Howard’s son is reciting the state capitals. Anyway, the kid (who seems to be super smart) says the capital of Ohio is Cincinnati. No, it is actually Columbus.
Seems odd that no one would catch it and correct Miller during the production/printing of the play.
Was this ever pointed out to Miller? Did he decide to leave it in, incorrect though it may be? Or, do I have an edition with an error, and every other edition has Columbus in this line?
Sir Rhosis
---
### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2006, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/146 "2006-02-27T15:08:23Z")
I am from Ohio myself and I clearly remember this error from the first time I read the play in high school. My impression has always been that it was intentional.
---
### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/147 "2006-10-25T13:06:01Z")
[QUOTE=Bytegeist]
That bulge is there, in _all_ eyeglass lenses, to give your eyelashes room to move in. If the lenses were flat, your eyelashes would be constantly rubbing against the glass or plastic. Either that, or you’d have to wear your glasses far down your nose.
[/QUOTE]
But if you fill it with water to form a convex lens… it might just work.
---
### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/148 "2006-10-25T13:07:07Z")
[QUOTE=E-Sabbath]
But if you fill it with water to form a convex lens… it might just work.
[/QUOTE]
Woo! I should learn to preview.
---
### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/149 "2006-10-25T13:32:27Z")
[QUOTE=Innanna]
I thought that because it was enjoyable it might not be a classic. 🙂 Glad to know I was wrong. And my HS English teacher reccomended it just for the resurrection of Athelstane (and thank you for the character’s name. Knew it started with an A, but I couldn’t remember anything else).
[/QUOTE]
HEREEEETIC!
What, all of Lope’s comedies and Shakespeare’s plays and Quevedo’s poetry and Becquer’s works aren’t classics? They’re perfectly enjoyable!
Silly **Innanna** 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/150 "2006-10-25T13:35:17Z")
Y’all realize that, originally, “desert” meant “area mostly uninhabited” and not “dry hot area”?
Alaska is mostly desert. Promise.
---
### Author:  [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/151 "2006-10-25T14:13:39Z")
[QUOTE=YWalker]
In Lord of the Flies\*\*, the kids steal Piggy’s glasses and use them to start the fire.
Well, Piggy was nearsighted. That would mean that his glasses would be concave in shape, and would scatter the incident sunlight. You need a convex lens (like a magnifying glass) in order to concentrate the sun’s rays in order to start a fire. They really to have brought along a middle-aged guy with reading glasses to make this work…
[/QUOTE]
Now, I haven’t actually given this a heck of a lot of thought, and I last took a class that covered such things back in the '80s… plus I’ve just spent the last hour studying Art History so my brain isn’t in Science Mode… so this could be the stupidest comment in the history of the board: Would the lens work right if you turned it over?
---
### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/152 "2006-10-25T15:26:24Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir]
So the other day I was in the shower thinking about Hamlet’s soliloque…as one does 😃 …and I got the part about “that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns”, and thought…er…didn’t someone do just that in the first act :dubious:
Kind of undermines the whole thrust of the speech, dunnit 😉 ?
[/QUOTE]
Not really. Because the line is merely quoting (in translation) the poet Catullus.
> [@](#):
>
> qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum
> illuc, unde negant redire quemquam.
So he’s not really stating “as a fact” that one never returns from the grave, merely indulging in poetic imagery.
---
### Author:  [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/153 "2006-10-25T15:32:50Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
Now, I haven’t actually given this a heck of a lot of thought, and I last took a class that covered such things back in the '80s… plus I’ve just spent the last hour studying Art History so my brain isn’t in Science Mode… so this could be the stupidest comment in the history of the board: Would the lens work right if you turned it over?
[/QUOTE]
I haven’t studied optics in a really long time, but I believe as long as the lens has uniform curvature on both sides, you’ll have the identical “view” through it regardless of which side you look through. Now in the case of eyeglasses which are curved differently on each side, you see a different picture when you where them backwards (or even upside down). However, as **CalMeacham** explains, the orientation of the lens (assuming it’s a single lens) does not affect whether the lens causes the rays of light to converge or diverge. A converging lens will always converge; a diverging lens will always diverge; the curvature just affects the distortion. Astigmatics have problems focusing perfectly, because their lenses are naturally curved, and the further away the corrective lens is from their eye lens, the more compensation needed in the corrective lens. I have very slight astigmatism in one eye that results in my contact perscription being different from my eyeglass perscription. The eyeglass perscription for that eye is -0.75 diopters stronger.
> [@](#):
>
> That bulge is there, in _all_ eyeglass lenses, to give your eyelashes room to move in. If the lenses were flat, your eyelashes would be constantly rubbing against the glass or plastic. Either that, or you’d have to wear your glasses far down your nose.
Well, the bulge does jack shit for me. I have really long eyelashes so back before I got contacts (which was sophomore year of high school) I was cleaning my glasses every day.
Oh and in regards to the time passing differently when dealing with ghosts, fey, and other other-worldly beings, I’m reminded of the scene in Stephen King’s _The Gunslinger_ when Roland has finally caught up with the man and black and they spend a long night talking. It’s revealed the next morning that Roland aged 10 years (IIRC) in that night. And in the third book in The Dark Tower series _The Wasteland_, Roland mentions that a couple centuries passed in the world during that night, before the drawing of the three took place.
---
### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/154 "2006-10-25T19:03:01Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth]
To revisit Dr. Watson…in _A Study in Scarlet_, Watson was said to have been shot in the shoulder, while serving in Afganistan. In _The Sign of Four_, his injury had moved to his leg.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe it was a magic bullet?
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/155 "2006-10-25T19:22:34Z")
**Opal** and **Hoopy** – a lens has the same focal length, regardless of its shape, regardless of which side you’re looking through. But, depending on the shape, the focal point can be very differently placed relative to the lens (plus it helps to have the concave side toward your face for “eyelash relief”, as noted), so a lens with a given focal length could work either way, depending upon whether you’ve placed it the right distance away. But it’s not that critical.
More annoying is the fact that, if you have astigmatism, you have to line the axis of the lens up properly with the axis of your eye, so in cases of astigmatism where the axes aren’t horizontal/vertical, you can’t just flip the lens around and have it work right.
As for flipping your eyeglasses completely around, that won’t work well unless your eyes both have the same prescription (or else yopur right eye correcting lens will be on your left eye, and vice-versa), and you’ll almost ertainly have problems if one or both eyes are astigmatic.
That said, I sometimes take m glasses off and flip 'em around, with the part that normally goes over my ears projecting into space. I see fine with 'em that way.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/156 "2006-10-25T19:33:14Z")
Wow, a double zombie thread!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these before.
---
### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/157 "2006-10-25T21:36:14Z")
Does it count to mention that the Eye of Argon (in the piece of the same name) is a scarlet emerald?
Or does that take too many liberties with the term “Classic Literature”?
Thanks to **CalMeacham** for reminding me.
---
### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/158 "2006-10-25T22:54:18Z")
C. S. Lewis’ **The Voyage Of the Dawn Treader** has an albatross, as a manifestation of Aslan, landing on the ship’s mast with a whirr of wings. Albatrosses do not whirr: they glide silently on thermals, with the occasional leisurely flap. What’s more, they land with all the grace and elegance of a sack of spuds thrown out of a truck: an albatross couldn’t perch on a mast on a bet.
And in **The Silver Chair** {look, I’m reading all the Narnia books to my son at bedtime, OK?}, why didn’t Jill just write the bloody signs down? It would have saved forgetting to repeat them.
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/159 "2006-10-25T23:13:35Z")
But it wasn’t an albatross, it was God. And besides, it wasn’t an albatross in a different world.
---
### Author:  [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227/160 "2006-10-25T23:15:31Z")
In Alexandre Dumas’ **The Count of Monte Cristo** , Albert de Morcerf challenges the newspaper editor Beauchamp to a duel for insulting his father. The duel is fixed for September 21st. On the day both turn up with their seconds and… well, I won’t mention what happens next. But a little later in the book, when Monte Cristo is trying to convince Maximilian Morrel not to commit suicide, he mentions in passing that it is September 5th. Time has gone backwards!
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227.md?page=7)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-classic-literature/244227.md?page=9)