On the other hand, preparing to write a lot of educational videos and texts used to be much more difficult without the internet. Today, a person can even write a good travel guide to a city they have never been to by just using Google Street View. And yet, human negligence knows no bounds. This viral thread in the AskReddit community is further proof of this.
More info: Reddit
#1
You don't even have to be a healthcare person to raise an eyebrow at that.
#2
For 90% of history, corsets did not hurt! Tightlacing was not the norm! Corsets were just bras and bodice shapers! A princess who’s worn corsets her entire life should be used to it. She can hate the feeling, but the whole “I can’t breathe!” trope needs to stop.
Edit: And don’t even get me f*****g started on the idea of someone having scars bc of their corsets. Corsets were NOT worn on bare skin. They would wear a chemise ffs!
#3
Let's make an assumption right away - there are a lot of authors who have done poor research on the subject they are writing about. Even more than those who haven’t done any research at all. Both in fiction and non-fiction.
And so we get the roar of spaceship engines in the vacuum of space, knights performing gymnastics in full armor and tirelessly waving a two-handed sword for several hours, and other stories that then appear in threads like this one.
There is always the temptation to explain any inconsistencies in the plot and text with the universal "It's just magic!", but there’s a limit to everything! You can try to provide scientific justification for the possibility of dragons flying or how they manage to breathe fire and not burn themselves - but when you have a Viking drinking from a fjord (which is, in fact, a sea bay with salt water), that's something completely different!
#4
The fact is that if you’re out for more than a second or two, you likely have permanent brain damage. Especially without modern medical care.
#5
#6
"I just need to upload the IP address to the cloud server and then we will have root access to the network"
No, you won't. You just won't. That's like saying
"I just need to glue the plastic frog to the radiator and then the car will be able to fly".
"Okay," you may say - "but what to do then if the author cannot be an expert in absolutely all possible things?" The answer is quite simple - do not try to be an expert yourself when playing on a deliberately foreign field.
For example, the great John R.R. Tolkien, as is well known, when describing the campaign of the Fellowship of the Ring, specifically calculated the phases of the Moon - just to casually mention in some scene that there was a full moon in the sky.
On the other hand, the Professor was never an expert, for example, in economics - his goal was, first of all, a grand linguistic experiment. That is why you will not find in The Lord of the Rings any attempt to explain how the underground cities of the dwarves lived without grain and vegetables, or how much a pint of milk cost in Minas Tirith.
And still, the world created by the genius of Tolkien is considered one of the most developed in all of world fantasy.
#7
#8
#9
Many authors, succumbing to the already typical cliches, try to add excessive realism to their books - and the texts only suffer from this. "For example, in a typical fantasy world, elves are so reverent about their forests and trees that they are ready to give their lives - both their own and someone else's - literally for a broken branch?" says Oleksiy Arkhireyev, a Ukrainian copywriter and novelist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment here.
"At the same time, elves are usually great archers. And any big battle is a huge number of arrows. For example, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, English archers fired about 7 thousand arrows. And where, I ask you, did the elves get such a quantity of wood for these arrows?" Oleksiy questions.
In any case, it’s best to be guided by common sense, check the opinion of experts, and do a detailed study of the material you will write about, Oleksiy believes. "And even better - write about what you personally know very well, what you understand at an expert level or so. Then the text will definitely be interesting - and if you add some writing skills, then it will be completely captivating."
#10
Names are so easy to research and yet…
Also someone not knowing the appropriate ways to use Your Highness, Your Majesty, Your Grace, etc….
#11
Idiotic CPR and defibrillator use, of course. People waking from long coma, getting up and leaving like nothing. Blunt force head trauma, knocking person unconscious for two mins, them getting up like nothing happened. Running with broken leg. Horror is super notorious with this - immediately passing out after getting shot with tranquilliser dart.
Closer to my field - cancer patients, their treatment portrayal.
#12
However, even the greatest masters of world prose and poetry could make mistakes - and sometimes even quite grossly. What can we say about simple craftsmen of texts then? So now just feel free to read these stories, and maybe share your own in the comments below. Perhaps your tale will be no less funny and captivating than those that we have collected in this selection? Who actually knows?
#13
When they go to film, they discover the locals didn't actually celebrate Day of the Dead in that region. The studio decided to host the festival themselves so that the movie could film its scenes as scheduled. The festival was such a hit with the locals that ever since then, the town *now* has a Day of the Dead celebration.
So who knows, maybe not doing research can result in a fluke where your factual errors can force reality to make them become true.
#14
They also take their boats up the "rivers" at the end of the fjords, as if that's a thing. The author apparently didn't even spend 5 minutes googling what a fjord is before including the word at least four times per chapter. If you wanted it to be a river just call it that!
Only book I've ever rage quit.
#15
Making taking care of a lot of animals seem like just a few minutes' work a day. Ditto farming acres of any crops. That work never ends.
Using real-world cities but never mapping distances. Miami and Tampa, for instance, are not at all close to each other.
#16
I get that in many cases this is a “suspension of disbelief” thing more than a “author didn’t research” thing, but it still irks me. This trend repeated over and over again in media has left the general population with some really unrealistic/misinformed ideas about how animals think and work, which A- is unfortunate for their pets; and B- glorifies and bolsters the exotic pet trade, which is rife with animal abuse and mistreatment.
Everyone’s spent their whole lives consuming media that tells them that animals will automatically love/obey the “good guy”, and everyone is the good guy in their own mind. In reality it takes learning and work to train and bond with an animal no matter who you are.
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve told someone “my dog is a little scared of strangers but if you ignore him and pass him treats he’ll warm up fast”, and they’ve gone “dogs like me!” And reached right for his face anyways. Then they spend the next ten minutes trying to rationalize why the dog barked at them when he was obviously just scared.
#17
#18
#19
This holds true for every other major city as well that is the backdrop of a book.
#20
In the same series there was an article about a woman with an eating disorder and they said something like “at 13, she weighed 50kg (110lbs), which is way too much for a 13 year old”. Excuse me? No it’s not? Funny thing is I read it at 13 with an eating disorder, weighing 50kg and at that time people would ask me if my parents gave me food at all lmao
Edit: i hate to say it guys but the author is a woman. It seemed like she actually did some impressive research on eating disorders but that line shouldn’t be there
Edit2: actually i remembered another crazy thing she wrote about eating disorders, one of the mcs had ed and she would always judge other women who were fatter than her. i won’t speak for everyone with an ed but yeah, we don’t do that.