# Mistakes in Novels: A Geography Lesson **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647 "2005-07-22T15:04:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/1 "2005-07-22T15:04:31Z")
I like Adriana Trigiani’s novels, really I do, but she doesn’t know her way around the Appalachians outside Virginia. I’m reading _Milk Glass Moon_ right now, and before I even get to the first plot point, there’s a mistake on page 7! > [@](#): > > Sister Claire is well known in these parts; she’s from the mountains of North Carolina **near Greensboro**. I’ve lived in NC all my life, most of it near the area referenced, and I was not aware the mountains had picked up and moved east. A quick look at Messrs. Rand & McNally would have shown that the mountains are one and a half, two hours from Greensboro, depending on traffic. For some reason, I seem to attract novels that make Greensboro mistakes. In Orson Scott Card’s _Homebody_, the main character, a man who has never been to G-boro before in his life, is able to make it all the way across town in twenty minutes. Maybe if he drove a rocket car, but he was a contractor with a beat-up old truck. Uncle Orson, you really should have known better. You live in the fricken traffic jam! I know I can’t be the only person whose run across these. What’s your “favorite” geographical mistake? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/2 "2005-07-22T15:16:51Z")
There was the classic from the first edition of _Ringworld_ where the Earth is spinning the wrong way. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/3 "2005-07-22T15:28:54Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I’ve lived in NC all my life, most of it near the area referenced, and I was not aware the mountains had picked up and moved east. A quick look at Messrs. Rand & McNally would have shown that the mountains are one and a half, two hours from Greensboro, depending on traffic. Perhaps she meant Greenville, and just mixed up the state? Naw, she probably didn’t bother to look at a map. Like James Patterson in “Kiss the Girls.” The evil, mean killer decides to drive from Durham to Chapel Hill. Instead of just telling us that, Patterson figures he’ll wow us with his geography skills. He then writes about how the killer gets on I85 South in Durham and takes it to I40 East to Chapel Hill. While reading the whole paragraph I kept wondering why the killer didn’t save thirty minutes and a gallon of gas by taking 15/501 straight into Chapel Hill? Better yet, why didn’t Patterson look at a fargin’ map? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/4 "2005-07-22T15:32:43Z")
There’s _The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_, in which the take an ocean trip east from Paris to Venice… ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/5 "2005-07-22T15:35:09Z")
Ok, I know this isn’t a novel but a song but it has always struck me. Chuck Berry’s song Memphis TN. He must never have visited the south part of Memphis or Memphis for that matter. There are no ridges in Memphis and barely any hills. the closest thing we have is the bluffs downtown on the river. Maybe just poetic license. “Help me information to get in touch with my marie She’s the only one who’d phone me here from memphis, tennessee Her home is on the southside, high upon a ridge Just a half a mile from the mississippi bridge” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/6 "2005-07-22T15:35:22Z")
In the adult anime “Fencer of Minerva” there is no Minerva mentioned at any point in the anime. ---
**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 22, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/7 "2005-07-22T15:39:56Z")
**Pepper Mill** has an example she loves – a “historical” romance where the geography-addled author writes about “Cornwall, near the border of Scotland…” As I’ve remarked on this Board before, authors writing mysteries about Salt Lake City often seem to screw up, starting with Arthur Conan Doyle’s very first Sherlock Holmes novel, “A Study in Scarlet”, which puts the Salt Flats to the _East_ of the future Salt Lake City, so the Mormon pioneers have to walk through them to get to where SLC is going to be (The Salt Desert is on the West). Robin Cook then screwed up SLC geography in his novel **Tabernacle**. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/8 "2005-07-22T15:40:12Z")
I’ve mentioned this several times, but in the shots of the tidal wave hitting New York in **The Day After Tomorrow** , Long Island (including Brooklyn and Queens) is completely absent. Also, the wave would have had to have come from inland New Jersey to hit at the angle it did (even though it was originally shown to have come from an easterly direction). Finally, the Empire State Building is portrayed as being north of the New York Public Library; it is actually eight blocks south. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/9 "2005-07-22T17:04:05Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > I like Adriana Trigiani’s novels, really I do, but she doesn’t know her way around the Appalachians outside Virginia. I’m reading _Milk Glass Moon_ right now, and before I even get to the first plot point, there’s a mistake on page 7! > > I’ve lived in NC all my life, most of it near the area referenced, and I was not aware the mountains had picked up and moved east. A quick look at Messrs. Rand & McNally would have shown that the mountains are one and a half, two hours from Greensboro, depending on traffic. > > For some reason, I seem to attract novels that make Greensboro mistakes. In Orson Scott Card’s _Homebody_, the main character, a man who has never been to G-boro before in his life, is able to make it all the way across town in twenty minutes. Maybe if he drove a rocket car, but he was a contractor with a beat-up old truck. Uncle Orson, you really should have known better. You live in the fricken traffic jam! > > I know I can’t be the only person whose run across these. What’s your “favorite” geographical mistake? Having gone to school at UNC-Greensboro and then at Appalachian State, I find this mistake to be sufficiently monstrous on its own. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/10 "2005-07-22T18:10:34Z")
> [@adhemar](#): > > Ok, I know this isn’t a novel but a song but it has always struck me. Chuck Berry’s song Memphis TN. He must never have visited the south part of Memphis or Memphis for that matter. There are no ridges in Memphis and barely any hills. the closest thing we have is the bluffs downtown on the river. Maybe just poetic license. > > “Help me information to get in touch with my marie > She’s the only one who’d phone me here from memphis, tennessee > Her home is on the southside, high upon a ridge > Just a half a mile from the mississippi bridge” Nit-pick: It’s “just beyond the ridge,” not “high upon a ridge.” At least in Johnny Rivers’s version of the song, which I thought was the original (but I’m not sure about that). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/11 "2005-07-22T18:17:20Z")
No, Chuck’s (and Thorogood’s quality update) distinctly says ‘high up on a ridge’. Hell of a song, either way. Maybe River’s was trying to adapt for geography. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/12 "2005-07-22T18:33:51Z")
Though it’s considered a west coast city, Seattle isn’t actually on the coast. It’s about 100 miles away. Plus, there’s a mountain range between the city and the actual coast. I’ve read too many books where people looked out over the Pacific Ocean from their Seattle office or high rise. They must have excellent vision. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/13 "2005-07-22T18:40:30Z")
Not in a book but on the friggin’ BBC _News_: When the airplane crashed in Queens November 12, 2001, the anchor announced: There was a plane crash in New York City today but on the other side of the Hudson River. Either they moved the Hudson when I wasn’t looking, or Europeons can’t tell the Hudson (separates Manhattan from New Jersey) and East (separates Manhattan from the rest of NYC) apart. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/14 "2005-07-22T18:47:23Z")
> [@Maus Magill](#): > > Perhaps she meant Greenville, and just mixed up the state? That’s a Shrubya-quality mistake. People still talk about his visit in 2001 when he said he was glad to be in Greenville SC when he was clearly in NC. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/15 "2005-07-22T18:49:08Z")
C’mon, how can the movie “Krakatoa, _East_ of Java” not be the champ? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![marque\_elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@marque\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marque_elf)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/16 "2005-07-22T19:24:10Z")
Arthur C. Clarke once had the sun on Mars come up in the west and then tried to shrug it off as poetic license. Feh! Arthur C. Chesbro wrote a crime novel partially set in Seattle. He didn’t take the time to actually look up the names of streets here, just made them up. Almost all streets in Seattle have some kind of geographic designation (i.e. NW or SE). None of the streets he created had these designations. If he’s not willing to do the effort, why should I be willing to read his book? The movie **The Fabulous Baker Boys** opens with Jeff Bridge’s walking from his apartment in Pioneer Square to his job playing piano in the Denny Regrade area of Seattle. In what’s supposed to be a continuous trudge, sometimes he’s walking uphill and sometimes downhill. However, it’s an all uphill trip in the real world. That scene got big laughs from its Seattle audience. In **Big** there’s a car chase that starts in midtown Manhattan. The car being chased makes a turn and suddenly is driving through Wall Street, which is several miles from midtown. Manhattan’s a small island but not that small. ---
**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 22, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/17 "2005-07-22T19:37:40Z")
I think we can takle as a given that car chase scenes in movies have nothing to do with real geography. Try to square the chase scene in the James Bond movie **Diamond are Forever** with the reality of 1971 downtown Las Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![Axel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6de8d8/32.png) [@Axel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Axel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/18 "2005-07-22T19:51:26Z")
Pretty much all of Bram Stoker’s _Dracula_. He had never actually been to Romania, and all the descriptions and locations there are out. He also had Dracula’s first residence be in ‘Purfleet, London.’ Purfleet is not part of London, and while it is now very close to some of ‘Greater London,’ in Stoker’s time it was just a dock town 2o miles from London. Purfleet is actually part of Thurrock, where I grew up, and I’ve always wondered why the town didn’t make as much of its connection as Whitby has. The same area, Thurrock, featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Now, this isn’t quite the same thing, because it was just film-makers using a convenient location, but Thurrock (specifically West Thurrock, were the funeral is filmed) is not a ‘grim town in the North,’ as the script and novelisations say. It’s a grim town in the South. ---
**Author:** ![Walton\_Firm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@Walton\_Firm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walton_Firm)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/19 "2005-07-22T20:18:20Z")
_A Winter’s Tale_, by obscure hack writer William Shakespeare, partially takes place on the shores of Bohemia, which is a long way from any coastline. He also made the same type of mistake in _The Tempest_, in which an ocean-going ship departs from the gates of Milan. ---
**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 22, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647/20 "2005-07-22T20:32:05Z")
How about the recent film **Troy** , which has Sparta as a coastal city? Look at any map of Greece to see how true _that_ is. I know that movies based on Greek mythology usually have an abysmal record for accuracy (Look at **Perseus Against the Gorgon/ Son of Hercules against the Gorgon/Perseo l’Invincible** , which thoroughly mucks up the legend of Perseus), but I’d expected better of Wolfgang Peterson. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-novels-a-geography-lesson/313647.md?page=2)