Media Research Failure/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* Some paperback editions of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Time Enough for Love]]'' indicate that Lazarus Long goes back in time to become his own ancestor. While he does {{spoiler|sleep with his mother, this occurs after his birth, when he is a young child. A bit incestuous, true, but not paradoxical.}}

** A book erroneously titled ''The Anime Encyclopedia'' not only fell under this trope, they leaped under its wheels like [[Urban Legend|crazed Krishna worshippers beneath a juggernaut.]]

* A popular history book described ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' as being the work of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]. Um...''no'', although Tolkien once mentioned he 'rather liked' the ''Conan'' stories.

* [[Terry Pratchett]] and [[Neil Gaiman]] were interviewed for the book ''[[Good Omens]]'' by a New York radio presenter who hadn't quite figured out that the book was fictional. The interviewer hadn't read the book, and was probably just given some cards with notes on them by an assistant. The presenter thought it was a book about the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter. (Which it is, but she never existed.) Sort of as if Gaiman and Pratchett had written a book about Nostradamus.

* ''The Metro'', when doing a piece on the town of Wincanton, home of the Discworld Emporium, who had gotten two new roads named Peach Pie Street and Treacle Mine Road, offered a "comprehensive guide to the diskworld". Yes, with a "k". It then went on to compare Ankh-Morpork to London, listing the disc's newspaper as "The Truth Newspaper". Because that was the title of the book in which the ''Ankh-Morpork Times'' was introduced, and somebody couldn't even be bothered to read the freaking ''blurb''.

** This response is about the same for claims that he is jealous of Rowling's fame and gobs of money. This is a bit like trying to put down [[Richard Feynman]] by saying he wasn't as brilliant as Einstein.

** He's also been accused of ripping off Harry Potter because Ponder Stibbons looks like him in illustrations (he was first illustrated in the Discworld Portfolio, which was released in 1996). This brought this response from Terry:

{{quote|"Ponder Stibbons was indeed first drawn in 1996. I, of course, used a time machine to 'get the idea' of Unseen University from Hogwarts; I don't know what Paul used in this case. Obviously he must have used ''something''."}}

*** Also, Hogwarts: 1997. ''Hog'''father''''': 1996.

*** And, indeed, "THE HOGWARTS by MARCUS PLAUTUS MOLESWORTHUS" in ''[[Molesworth|How To Be Topp]]'' by Geoffrey Willans (1954)

* Similarly, [[Diane Duane]]'s ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series has been accused of ripping off ''[[Harry Potter]]'' by people who don't realize that Diane was writing them ''twenty years'' before JK Rowling first put pen to paper.

* Speaking of ''[[Harry Potter]]'': Many websites professing that ''Harry Potter'' teaches witchcraft have cited the line from the first book, "There is no good and evil; there is only power and those too weak to seek it," as "proof". This takes the line completely out of context, as it was said by the ''villain'' of the book. A Christian media-review site cites that line among the many reasons to avoid the films -- not ignoring the fact that a villain said it, but saying [[But Not Too Evil|it doesn't matter who said it]].

** Other Christian alarmists have cited an interview where JK Rowling proclaims her allegiance to Satan as proof of the series' evil. The source of this damning testimony? ''[[The Onion]].''

*** Someone sent ''Reader's Digest'' an angry letter after they had JK Rowling on the cover. They then sent another one that complained about their first letter being truncated when published, in which they revealed their source for their outrage was ''The Onion''. ''Reader's Digest'' did the print equivalent of patting them on the head and saying, "There, there..."

* [[Dave Barry]] points this out brilliantly in his book ''Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far)'' with the page quote and this one as well:

{{quote|''We see this all the time. Journalists, rushing to get a story out under deadline pressure, will report, based on preliminary information, that a ship sank, and 127 people, many of them elderly, perished. Then, upon further investigation, it turns out that nobody, in fact, perished, although one elderly person was slightly injured by a set of dentures hurled by another elderly person in an effort to get the first elderly person to stop talking so loud. Then it turns out that this happened at a nursing home, as opposed to a ship, although the elderly people were watching a video of ''[[Titanic]]'' at the time, and although there were only four of them, as opposed to 127, the nursing home is located on Route 124, which is only three less than 127, which is not that much of an error when you consider the deadline pressure that journalists operate under.''}}

* A review was circulated on several sites of the ''Mortal Instruments'' trilogy by Cassandra Cla(i)re, formerly a [[Big Name Fan]] in the Harry Potter fandom. It claimed that she took the title of her books from a Harry/Draco [[Fanfic]] she had once written, and quoted a few paragraphs. In fact they came from another of her stories, and the fanfic originally titled ''Mortal Instruments'' was a tale of [[Brother-Sister Incest]] between Ron and Ginny.

** However, she had committed plagiarism in her fanfics previously, so this person had obviously done ''some'' research -- making the errors all the odder.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120516005549/http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/goodcomicsforkids/2012/03/06/warriors-manga-live-on-for-now/ This article] about the ''[[Warrior Cats]]'' graphic novels includes a picture of what they call the "first and second volumes of the SkyClan and the Stranger trilogy". They ''do'' have the ''second'' volume of that particular trilogy, but what do they have as the "first" one? ''Warrior's Refuge'', the second volume in the Graystripe's Adventure trilogy, which came out four years and nine volumes earlier. You'd think that the "2" on the front of each would have tipped them off that it wasn't the first volume...

* Contrary to the claims of ''Publishers Weekly'', there are no [[Fauns and Satyrs|satyrs]] in Nancy Springer's ''Apocalypse''{{spoiler|, although Eros could be considered a sort of gender-flipped nymph if you squint. And while Shirley Danyo, in [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse|in her role as Pestilence]], develops skin lesions reminiscent of Kaposi's sarcoma, she's ''not'' actually HIV-positive}}.

** The novel itself was translated into 170 languages; it has also had theatrical, film and television adaptations, meaning the writer of the blurb didn't research or watch any films based on the book.