(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

[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*)