S/O Reading Pet Peeves - How Accurate is This Book?

[kglory]

As to 'Mansfield Park', this was a 2007 ITV production.  Billie Piper's Fanny Price bounces and romps and chortles through the whole production, and although she is clearly of marriageable age, her hair is loose and dishevelled and looks as if it has never seen a hairbrush.  If you love Billie Piper you will probably love this, if you love Jane Austen and know anything at all  about upperclass manners of the period - probably not.

I've never seen this movie, but regardless of the costume & hair -- to have Fanny Price bouncing, romping, and chortling through the movie is already totally out of character!

And I confess to have mostly liked Mary Crawford.  I feel like Jane Austen had her say those shocking things at the end so the readers would be content with Fanny, not Mary, marrying the hero.  It always seemed that Edmund and Mary enjoyed each other's company and would have made a fine match, even though Mary was more casual and had less than perfect manners. 

Maybe I'm forgetting something, though, because Mansfield Park is my least favorite of the 6 books.  I've probably only read it twice -- the others, hundreds of times.

[WillyNilly]

I'm reading this thread and keep thinking of the movie Trading Places:

Let me see, you would be from Austria. Am I right?
No, I am Inga from Sweden.
Sweden? But you’re wearing Lederhosen.
Je, for sure, from Sweden.

[rose red]

The hair discussion reminds me of a Little House on the Prairie movie (miniseries?) they did about 5-10 years ago.  The actress who played Caroline had long flowing loose hair  .  The real life Caroline who was so proper and "correct" (even living in the middle of nowhere!) must have been spinning in her grave.

[Lynn2000]

Great thread! As a biologist I sometimes roll my eyes at science stuff in movies, but mostly I'm able to suspend disbelief because I know it would be really dull waiting around for days for results like we really do. I always laugh when I see the beakers of bubbling colored water and the dry ice fog in the background... maybe somewhere they really have those, but not anywhere that I know of. Frequently when I have to participate in publicity videos or photos we end up using "fake stuff" like blinking colored lights because the things we really use aren't very photogenic.

The only thing that really irks me is when people do science/medical stuff without wearing gloves (in a modern lab/clinic setting). I suspect this is because gloves are uncomfortable and sometimes hard to get on and off, and can easily get discolored by the sweat they trap (ew) so I wouldn't be surprised if actors disliked wearing them.

I remember having a passionate, slightly inebriated conversation with someone after watching the first X-Men movie, saying that I studied DNA and I knew for a fact that the so-called junk parts did not give anyone mutant powers as the movie claimed! My companion's response was something along the lines of, "well, duh."

[Elisabunny]

The hair discussion reminds me of a Little House on the Prairie movie (miniseries?) they did about 5-10 years ago.  The actress who played Caroline had long flowing loose hair  .  The real life Caroline who was so proper and "correct" (even living in the middle of nowhere!) must have been spinning in her grave.

That's the one I was thinking of.  The thought of Caroline ever having her hair down (except maybe while fighting a prairie fire) set off a massive "does not compute" in my brain.

[Elfmama]

The hair discussion reminds me of a Little House on the Prairie movie (miniseries?) they did about 5-10 years ago.  The actress who played Caroline had long flowing loose hair  .  The real life Caroline who was so proper and "correct" (even living in the middle of nowhere!) must have been spinning in her grave.

You can usually look at women's hair and makeup in historical movies and date at least the decade in which it was made.  LHotP was rife with anachronisms.  Laura teaching school after she was married, for one.  Married women did not teach.  For one, they were supposed to be at home taking care of their husband and house and children.  Oh, yes, children.  That was the other reason.  If children saw their teacher getting a little bit bigger-bellied day by day, they might ask embarrassing questions!  (Because children in an age with no effective birth control NEVER saw their own mothers do the same thing. )

ETA: and the episode where Laura was hugely pregnant, Almanzo collapsed from illness, and she leaped to her feet and ran to him.  Any woman who has ever had a child knows that you just cannot do that when you're nine months gone.  At best, you heave yourself to your feet and waddle quickly.

[Bluenomi]

Braveheart is a banned topic in our family.  We are all have our own pet peeve about at least one inaccuracy (all different) and I think there is an unspoken competition to be the most upset about it,

Oh and although we are of scots extraction, to put an Australian as the lead just makes it even more infuriating.

He's not really Australian. We tried to claim him for a few years but we've given him back to the US now he's gone a bit nuts.

BTW anyone from NZ want Russell Crowe back? 

[selkiewoman]

'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.'  I wanted to love this movie unreservedly, but the whole premise was a bunch of retired people deciding one day to live out their golden years in India, and you just can't do that.  Getting more than a 6-month visitor's visa (non-renewable from India) would be like winning the lottery.  Great movie other than that.

[Dindrane]

As to 'Mansfield Park', this was a 2007 ITV production.  Billie Piper's Fanny Price bounces and romps and chortles through the whole production, and although she is clearly of marriageable age, her hair is loose and dishevelled and looks as if it has never seen a hairbrush.  If you love Billie Piper you will probably love this, if you love Jane Austen and know anything at all  about upperclass manners of the period - probably not.

I've never seen this movie, but regardless of the costume & hair -- to have Fanny Price bouncing, romping, and chortling through the movie is already totally out of character!

Not to mention, her heaving bosom is enough to put even the most well-endowed barmaid to shame!

I was reading a romance novel - I think it was a Nora Roberts one, set in Alaska.

They had the heroine up in a plane, looking at a herd of moose.  I howled.  Moose are very solitary creatures.  Calves stick with mom and twins might hang out together for a while their first year or two away from mom but otherwise, they are on their own.  I figured out that she meant caribou, which would herd and would be much more prevalent than moose in Alaska, if there are even moose in Alaska at all.

I have read a lot of Nora Roberts novels, and one thing I have noticed is that stuff like this happens pretty regularly. For such a prolific author, she's actually not bad at research. Perhaps more importantly, she's pretty good at sounding like she knows what she's talking about, at least when her readers more or less don't.

But when she does get something wrong (or even just kind of off), and you do know better, it's awfully jarring. I can't remember which book it was, but I can never forget a scene where some character put a Mozart CD on and she described it as "weeping violins." I know Nora Roberts loves her some weeping violins, but I can assure you, violins playing Mozart do not weep. They trip happily along like so much bubbly froth. There is no weeping in any Mozart I've ever heard or played, not from any instrument.

Actually, on the subject of music, I think I've determined that Nora Roberts really loves that type of music that you can see in those displays at the bookstore. You know, where you have the option to demo like 20 different instrumental CDs, and they're all calming, relaxing music with names like "Forest Meadows" or some such. Whenever she actually describes music, it's flutes and harps or weeping violins. I found it annoying at one point, but now I am mostly just amused by the mental image.

[Bexx27]

I'm reading one now that's driving me a little nuts because of the weather. It's set in my area (DC/NOVA) in February and it's been snowing constantly in the book with several feet of accumulation. It didn't bother me much at first because we do occasionally get big snowstorms, but it's been about 2 weeks now in book time and it's been snowing every day. That just doesn't happen here. It snows maybe twice in a typical February and there's hardly ever enough accumulation for a decent snowball fight. The temperature rises above freezing probably 90% of the time. 3 years ago we had 2 large snowstorms within a month and it was a massive event (Snowmaggedon/Snowpocalypse) that pretty much shut down the area. People still talk about it. Heck, people still talk about the Blizzard of '96. That kind of weather is a big deal around here.

But the characters in this book seem pretty casual about 2 weeks of heavy snow. They've been driving between DC and the distant exurbs regularly and even taking flights with no issues. In real life, driving would be extremely difficult if not impossible because the roads wouldn't be cleared, and planes would most likely be grounded or at least nightmarishly delayed.

[Twik]

I know Nora Roberts loves her some weeping violins, but I can assure you, violins playing Mozart do not weep. They trip happily along like so much bubbly froth. There is no weeping in any Mozart I've ever heard or played, not from any instrument.

Even when Mozartian violins are feeling downcast or serious, they're moving too quickly to the counterpoint to be able to sit and weep.

[magicdomino]

I'm reading one now that's driving me a little nuts because of the weather. It's set in my area (DC/NOVA) in February and it's been snowing constantly in the book with several feet of accumulation. It didn't bother me much at first because we do occasionally get big snowstorms, but it's been about 2 weeks now in book time and it's been snowing every day. That just doesn't happen here. It snows maybe twice in a typical February and there's hardly ever enough accumulation for a decent snowball fight. The temperature rises above freezing probably 90% of the time. 3 years ago we had 2 large snowstorms within a month and it was a massive event (Snowmaggedon/Snowpocalypse) that pretty much shut down the area. People still talk about it. Heck, people still talk about the Blizzard of '96. That kind of weather is a big deal around here.

But the characters in this book seem pretty casual about 2 weeks of heavy snow. They've been driving between DC and the distant exurbs regularly and even taking flights with no issues. In real life, driving would be extremely difficult if not impossible because the roads wouldn't be cleared, and planes would most likely be grounded or at least nightmarishly delayed.

Another DC area resident here.  In an area where Fairfax County closes the schools for an inch or two, and Montgomery County closes if snow is predicted, I can just imagine the End of the World freak-out if we got 2 weeks of heavy snow. The most snow that the Washington DC area has ever had since it was recorded was 28 inches in the 1922 Knickerbocker storm.  Even Snowpocalyspe averaged only 18 inches, not counting drifting or the second storm in the same week.

Does the book have the author's bio?  I'm curious about where this person lives, that two weeks of heavy snow are ignorable.

[heartmug]

Braveheart is a banned topic in our family.  We are all have our own pet peeve about at least one inaccuracy (all different) and I think there is an unspoken competition to be the most upset about it,

Oh and although we are of scots extraction, to put an Australian as the lead just makes it even more infuriating.

He's not really Australian. We tried to claim him for a few years but we've given him back to the US now he's gone a bit nuts.

But we don't want him back!

 

[Bexx27]

I'm reading one now that's driving me a little nuts because of the weather. It's set in my area (DC/NOVA) in February and it's been snowing constantly in the book with several feet of accumulation. It didn't bother me much at first because we do occasionally get big snowstorms, but it's been about 2 weeks now in book time and it's been snowing every day. That just doesn't happen here. It snows maybe twice in a typical February and there's hardly ever enough accumulation for a decent snowball fight. The temperature rises above freezing probably 90% of the time. 3 years ago we had 2 large snowstorms within a month and it was a massive event (Snowmaggedon/Snowpocalypse) that pretty much shut down the area. People still talk about it. Heck, people still talk about the Blizzard of '96. That kind of weather is a big deal around here.

But the characters in this book seem pretty casual about 2 weeks of heavy snow. They've been driving between DC and the distant exurbs regularly and even taking flights with no issues. In real life, driving would be extremely difficult if not impossible because the roads wouldn't be cleared, and planes would most likely be grounded or at least nightmarishly delayed.

Another DC area resident here.  In an area where Fairfax County closes the schools for an inch or two, and Montgomery County closes if snow is predicted, I can just imagine the End of the World freak-out if we got 2 weeks of heavy snow. The most snow that the Washington DC area has ever had since it was recorded was 28 inches in the 1922 Knickerbocker storm.  Even Snowpocalyspe averaged only 18 inches, not counting drifting or the second storm in the same week.

Does the book have the author's bio?  I'm curious about where this person lives, that two weeks of heavy snow are ignorable.

LOL, we had to press the in-laws into emergency daycare duty a few weeks ago when Arlington schools closed for rain. 

The author is from PA/NJ.

The other thing bugging me about this book is that the NOVA characters speak with a Southern accent. (I'm actually listening to it on CD and the narrator's voice is non-accented except when she speaks as a character.) People don't talk like that here. That might be the fault of the audiobook narrator rather than the author, though.

[magicdomino]

I don't think even PA/NJ gets heavy snow over two weeks without noticing.  Perhaps the author grew up in North Dakota or Buffalo, New York.   

I bet the book even has the federal government open.