i can't tell if this rant is about archery, fandom, or Harry Potter

[bantha_fodder]

Okay. OKAY.

Question: If I were to write a story that involved lots of archery, I'd get in trouble for putting my real life into my fic, yes no?

But that doesn't stop me from READING. I'm reading this fic (HP), and I'm really enjoying it, because, HEE, it's about archery. And it's a crossover with DCU. I AM A WHORE FOR CROSSOVERS. So, MUCH LOVE to this fic, and its premise. But I cannot finish it. Because:

And when he looked in triumph at Malfoy, he found him looking at Harry, his hand drawing back an imaginary arrow. Harry blinked.

Malfoy let go, the empty bowstring reverberating with a low twang. 'Bullseye', he mouthed.

NO NO NO. I read this three times over to make sure I wasn't misreading, because this is basic physics. But let me tell you right now, if you do this to your bow, either A) your bow will explode, or B) the string will come back and hit you in the arm so hard, and this is a true story from yesterday morning (not to me, but I saw it and OMG), that the bruise that forms thirty seconds later will quite possibly be a centimetre high, ten centimetres long and five centimetres high, and it will look like the worst bruise of your life. And even if it's not the worst bruise of your life, it will indeed twang and it will HURT LIKE FUCK (this I do know from experience, fucking dry firing and fucking loose nocks).

AND, in this story, all the Slytherins know how to shoot. This is all fine and dandy, I'm willing to believe they can kill you with a bow, but a trained archer would never do this and, uh, I hate to be an elitest sporting snob but even though I want to finish the story I'm not sure I can.

A QUESTION: should I tell this author, or leave them be? Because how many archers can there be in fandom? I mean, seriously, I'm probably the only person in fandom who cares about this. AND THAT'S OKAY.

Comments

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

...

Er. It's an *imaginary* bow, though, right?

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

No, the quote is, 'the empty bowstring,' thus implying an actual bow.

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, well.

Do you want us to enable you in being rageful about this, or do you want the truth?

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Is the truth that nobody cares except me? I CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH.

[meyerlemon.livejournal.com]

It's pretty much impossible to exaggerate how very much no one cares.

Maybe you can pick your rage battles! Like, if you were to get rageful about, like, "OMG, I cannot BELIEVE that someone wrote Draco with a perm!!!!"-- I'm sure you'd get people behind you on that!

[maddeinin.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't bother me personally, but if I were an archer, it totally would.

I have some rage issues about how cats are treated (in books, mostly). For some reason, authors keep referring to male torties, in passing, and it bugs me like hell, because a male tortie is a genetic anomaly. Also when they get kittens they're always like six or eight weeks old and I... I can't take it. Behavioral issues! Poor babies!

Then there's Bill Bryson, who writes perfectly entertaining travel books and other non-fiction, only I can't believe a word he says because of the gross errors in his book about languages, the name of which I've repressed.

So, uh. Yeah.

[malinear.livejournal.com]

by the way, totally off subject (but posting about HP reminded me that I hadn't told you yet)...Cho, while it may not be Chinese, IS Japanese and means "butterfly" So the whole name thing could just be JK looking for Chinese sounding names...and ending up with a Japanese one without knowing the difference...

[malinear.livejournal.com]

Oh, and being me, I dunno that I'd actually say something to the author, but the whole thing would probably have made me stop reading by now. And though I didn't release an empty bowstring, I've gotten that kind of bruise just from the normal snap when I was trying to train my arm into the correct position...and damn, yeah, painful and the ugliest bruising I've ever had. The joke at work was that one of my roommates had been beating me.

[indigo419.livejournal.com]

I vote for telling the author! If it were in my story I'd want to correct it.

[ancarett]

I vote for telling the author after you start with a comment about how you have been loving the story so much. Just give them a "technical comment" that suggests a substitute (Have Draco mime pulling back the bowstring would be my own suggestion.)

And I totally get annoyed by people messing up horses or historical inserts -- having Elizabeth rule before Mary or putting the girth around a horses's chest. Bah!

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

I'd tell the author. You told me about the Chinese dialect thing the other day, and I was THRILLED, and changed it. Though only a tiny handful of people would have ever noticed it*, or been bothered by it, I want it RIGHT.

You should let him/her know.



*and even less than that, really, given that there are about 7 people total reading anything Pretender any more...

[charis]

? I mean, seriously, I'm probably the only person in fandom who cares about this.

NOT TRUE.

(But then, I am anal-retentive. And that makes me want to beat my head into the desk for the same sort of reasons as you've enumerated. I may not be an archer myself, but I know enough of them and have been around and helped out enough of them to know the mechanics of it. OW. And ruining the gorram bow.)

[rawles.livejournal.com]

I am anal-retentive and I get the same way if people write inaccurately about things that I know personally. I am also the sort of person who will never write a story featuring something that I have not researched extensively myself.

For instance, I have never used a bow in my life (even though I have always secretly wanted to take up archery), but I knew the problem with that scenario, because I have researched archery before.

So, I would say that, no, you are not the only one who cares, and, yes, you should tell them, because I would want to know. And also, you're not the only one who has stopped reading stories because of stuff like that. I totally do it too.

[dead-log.livejournal.com]

i've only done archery like twice in my life. and i managed to get one of those bruises. it really does hurt, and really is fat. it was huge and ugly, kinda looked like vomit, now i think about it

as for telling the author, yup, if you're bothered. s/he probably wont mind you telling, since it's a technical error, not like you're saying it's absolute crap.

[blythely.livejournal.com]

Heeee. I proof-read that story and didn't notice it. I will tell sparcck and we will appease your archery rage.

We all have our things that irk us. :D

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Hee! It's not something I'd expect non-archers to notice anyway, so it's no big. Just at the time I was like, "ZOMG!" But thanks for pointing it out to sparcck all the same.

[sparcck.livejournal.com]

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner! Fixed now! I'm blaming blythely, just because I can.

Also, maybe you've run into badness with other people, but I have no problem hearing when I've done something technical wrong. Especially when you're an expert on a subject I am clearly not. No need for ranting. I promise you I didn't do it out of disrespect for the sport.

It is, after all, the sport of kings :)

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

HA. It is indeed the sport of kings. And yet, so many people mock me for it. ALAS (earwax).

I'm glad you're cool with it. I've run into it before, and it's not so much fun when people get upset, and it makes me wonder if I'm being pedantic, or too negative, or caring too much, so.