(no subject)

[trinityofone]

Dear editors of The Road--

Please turn your attention to page 35 of the first American edition, published by Alfred A. Knopf. The first sentence of the second paragraph reads as follows:

"They ate the little mushrooms together with the beans and drank tea and had tinned pears for their desert."

Really? I mean, I know an apocalypse has occurred, but I wasn't aware that that enables one to remake entire geographical features out of canned food products.

DESERT /= DESSERT! Were you guys all asleep that day? Did something about page 35 make you drowsy? What the hell?

And yeah, I know it's a little thing; I just really don't expect to find major typos in major works of literary fiction that I assume the author, proofreaders, editors, etc. have read more than once. It totally yanked me out of the story, guys!

I guess what I'm saying is, if you are having these problems, maybe you should consider hiring some different people. *coughmecough*

Because I, uh--I never make typos. Or at least I feel really ashamed when I do!

Please try to do better next time. I'm sure Mr. McCarthy would appreciate it, too.

Mildly appalled,

Trin

-----

Seriously, yo. Does anyone else feel, like, really shocked when they come across something that major in a published "literary" work? I mean, I get annoyed when I catch mistakes in some of the trashy sci-fi or fantasy I read, but I should not have to stop 35 pages into The Road to freak out about misspellings. Cannibals, maybe, but I haven't even gotten to them yet.

Alternately, I may just need a lot of therapy and, like, a course of dictionary deprivation.

ETA: Page 89:

"It's okay, he said. We just have to wait. But I think its okay."

You have it right, and then two sentences away, it's WRONG? JESUS CHRIST, PEOPLE! You're totally harshing my post-apocalyptic buzz.

Comments

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else feel, like, really shocked when they come across something that major in a published "literary" work?

God, yes! It makes me see red to find typos of that magnitude (and really, I see that not as a "little" thing at all; desert/dessert is a very juvenile mistake that we expect high school age people to get right) in any published work.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it's not just me! I actually had to put the book down and send my mom--a writer and editor who taught me everything I know and thus possibly ruined me for life--a shocked e-mail, and then make this post. I don't think desert/dessert is a little thing either...but then I am among those of us who are INSANELY ANAL about this type of thing. We should totally have regular support group meetings! With doughnuts!

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, we should have support group meetings, and I can totally get behind the doughnuts. In fact, we could use that as a means of weeding out unworthy members - anyone who brought "donuts" could be ridden out on a rail!

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, exactly! I refuse to eat "donuts"! (Um, unless they're Krispy Kremes--and check out that spelling; oy!--in which case I might cave. They taste really good.)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Wait, although actually, Krispy Kreme spells it "doughnut." I feel totally justified in eating them now!

[sonofzeal.livejournal.com]

Doughnuts? Or donuts?

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I hate "donuts." It's stupid lazy American spelling, like "thru" or "lite." I prefer to use the Canadian/British alternative when possible.

[sonofzeal.livejournal.com]

You might like this (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blrevocation_cleese.htm) then.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Very much so, thank you!

I actually like a lot of American English. Just not the stupid, lazy, or ugly bits. ("Dialog"? What the hell is that? It looks...icky.) But I favor -ize over -ise, and REALLY hate the travesty Brits are willing to commit by putting periods and commas outside the quotes. THEY GO INSIDE THE QUOTES, PEOPLE! Always!

It's probably a bad sign that I find fights about grammar amusing and fun.

[sonofzeal.livejournal.com]

"Dialog" always looks so stunted to me. I generally don't favor British spelling (although, in the speed of typing, I occasionally add 'u's where you wouldn't expect on this side of the pond), "dialog" looks so incomplete to me that I make it a point to spell it "dialogue."

When I was at Amaze, the programmer who wrote the stuff to make the level scripts work with the game was a Brit. So when we'd write functions for people to use we'd have to figure out how to spell things, and it would often be some sort of compromise. So the "u" would go in, but it would end in "-ize" or some such.

[neery.livejournal.com]

It is a TRAVESTY that Americans put the commas inside the quotes, because hello, the quotes are NOT EVEN A REAL PART OF THE DIALOGUE, they're a grammatical feature so we can hang "he said" at the end. Only periods should ever be inside quotes, and it pains me to have to do it the American way in my fiction (but not enough to put up with the complaining betas instead, sigh.)

[setissma.livejournal.com]

I recall several appalling errors in HBP, including typoes, spelling, and possessives. I was like, and HOW many editors does this thing have?

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Mistakes in HBP surprise me less, because this is the same series that has brought us CAPSLOCK OF RAGE and Ron ejaculating. Not that the skills of the writer should really have much to do with the proofreaders doing their jobs, but I guess it does change my perception a little. That's kind of snobby and messed up--anyone can make a mistake. But c'mon, team of editors--catching that stuff is your job!

[ladyamarra.livejournal.com]

*waves* Here from the Reel_sga Com.

I wanted to ask, thinking back on the good times of last year, if you will do a challnge like the Reel this year too?

I had so much fun last year and would love to do another round;)

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm actually in the middle of helping to run sticksandsnark right now, which is the Rodney/Teyla Thing-a-Thon, but maybe when that's over I'll chat with FCOL and Siria about doing something again. Please let us know if you have any suggestions!

[idiasm.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitely... There's no way there should be typos, grammar mistakes, any of that stuff when books pass through editors and copy editors and the writer and all that. I see it all the time, not just in the classics but in major bestsellers, small-time, whatever. It's disappointing.

[inthekeyofd.livejournal.com]

What I freakin' can't stand is when they spell a name wrong..meaning, it's on a DVD or in a book of a movie..it would be good to actually PROOFREAD to make sure that you spell the name of the STAR right. It drives me up one wall and down the other.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

You mean on the DVD of the actual movie that the actor is in? OY. I got angry enough when I read some book that kept talking about "Jennifer Anniston." If I ever saw something like "Friends starring Jennifer Anniston," I would SCREAM.

And don't even get me started on press releases! Those things are RIDDLED with errors. One of my rookie journalism mistakes, back when I was a sophomore in college I think, was to trust a press release for the spelling of Macaulay Culkin's name. It was a release for his own movie and they got it wrong. NEVER trust a press release!

[inthekeyofd.livejournal.com]

Let's see a few examples, David and Joe's names on the Season 1 dvd, Kevin McKidd's name on my Dog Soldiers DVD and in my 300 Art of the Film book..the spelled Gerard---Gerald..I mean, when highlighting a star it would be nice to spell said star's name right??

And Macaulay, that's what he gets for having a name that could be spelled 15 different ways. *smile* that's like that Matthew McCounghneyheyheyheyhey..*smile*

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Yep, I hate typos in "real" books. It just sends me up the wall and I notice them so much more now that I beta for people on occasion.

You know one of my pet hates is people substituting alternate for alternative. *cough* I have read this is acceptable as common usage now, but it still gets me. "Common usage" WTF? If enough people get it wrong, then it's right? o_O

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I haven't noticed people saying alternate for alternative so much, but I do get annoyed when people (especially my parents, for some reason) say "alternative universe." I feel really strongly that it should be "alternate universe." But maybe I'm wrong and doing exactly what you despise! (But I still think it's "alternate universe." Dammit.)

My "common usage" pet peeve? "Alright." Which is not all right--not with me, anyway! Grr.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Teehee! We all have those pet peeves.

It shocked me when I did "Last Visible Writer" last year and people tried to vote me out for not putting a period (.) after the abbreviation of Dr. Apparently in America they do that. Here in Australia, the "r" is the last letter of the word "doctor" and therefore you don't put a period after the abbreviation. But, the lack of period was their pet peeve and therefore their reason for trying to vote me out. I mean seriously!

And, ah...I do tend to think it should be alternative universe, but it's a name and it seems whoever named it went with alternate and I'm not going to fight that one. Still it's not like we exists in one universe one week and then go to the other one and alternate between them, is it? :P (See, told you it's a pet peeve! *grins*)

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

No, I find them allll the time, and I just ignore them.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

That's probably better for your general sanity, I think!

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

It does annoy me when I find them in journal articles, but otherwise, I sort of assume it's much like fiction.

For instance, I had two people go through every inch of that Torchwood site I made, and we talked about it, and etc etc...I showed to someone else and in five minutes, they went, hey, do you realize you have X mistake here and here? I had to laugh.

Plus, given what I have heard of editing processes in some companies, I'm quite surprised there aren't more. //shrugs//

I don't know that I have any general sanity left. I need someone to come to my house every morning, hold my hand, and go, breeaathe a lot. Or win the lotto and lay around in my piles of money. Perhaps that went somewhere else.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Yes! I hate that so much. I circle mistakes in academic journals. And books that I own. And lecture notes. Possibly I'm anal; I like to think of it as dedicated to the English language.

[jade-dragoness.livejournal.com]

When I notice those sort of errors I just roll my eyes and supress the impulse to mail the editor a letter.

I get more annoyed with something is used that clearly doesn't fit with the rest of the story. For example, I have this book I love rereading that is written in the POV of an alien being whose culture is set at a dark ages type of setting. But at one point in the the alien wishes it had access to blueprints of a building. Blueprints... *twitches*

[hypothalamus.livejournal.com]

This happens to me all the time, actually. When I read something for not the first time, anyway-- often I see typos, and so on, and fuck ups, and I always...feel weird about it because it's published, and then, yeah. I tend to want to write a little letter to them politely pointing it out, but then I suppose they won't release a new edition of it just because of typos, so. But it bugs me.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

*laughs hysterically*

That is fantastic. I'm now imagining a traffic policeman pulling them over and saying, "Ma'am, get off the unicorn, please."

[risha]

Oh. Dear. GOD. I've owned that book for, like, twenty years, and I never could figure out what the title meant. Get Of The Unicorn actually makes sense.

[alie]

Oh. Um. Yes. I interpreted that to mean "[bad euphemism for masturbation] the unicorn."

I HAVE A DIRTY MIND, OKAY?

[agentotter.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say I feel shocked in those circumstances, but definitely disgusted. And it seems like it happens a lot more now that it used to. And really glaring errors sometimes, too.

And don't even get me started on the local newspaper, which looks quite professional and is printed very well and has at least ten spelling or glaring grammatical errors per page (sometimes per article!). It's the sort of thing that makes you want to march down there and demand that they give you a proofreading job... not because you have a huge ego and think that they can't function without you, but because it'd be nice if *somebody* paid attention.

[ferret-kitty.livejournal.com]

Orson Scott Card wrote at one point that he considered ending a book or a story with a comma, just to see if anyone (his editor) would catch it.

I understand what you mean.