A case in point ...

[blamebrampton]

So, there we were, having a chat on a friend's LJ about the differences between the US and the UK for purposes of a self-Britpicking list, with participants from both sides of the pond and beyond and frequent diversions into baiting and comedy from all sides, and apparently it has become a source of Flocked Drama.

Consider the argument very carefully: At least one American is very upset that British people prefer to be depicted in accurate ways.

And if you can't see why that's a bit dodgy, replace the word British with any other nationality.

I don't want to overstate the case, because really, it doesn't culturally oppress us the way that some other cultures have been oppressed by this sort of thing, since we don't deeply care and we had an Empire first. And while the original source of the complaint is a preference, it's certainly not a sine qua non, and we read heaps of stuff that gets us wrong, and some of it is good and some is crap, and really, at the end of the day we still pronounce and spell aluminium in ways that are scientifically logical, which in itself is enough. But, honestly ...

Interestingly, one of my points of difference was a tendency to soap-opera-like over-reactions in fiction. Clearly I drew the line too narrowly.

AND I left off the fact that it the entire United States has been the subject of mass-brainwashing to accept caffeinated flavoured beverages as coffee. Though I see Starbucks has dropped the word from their logo, truth in advertising at last!

Comments

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

I'm too Australian to be a proper Brit-picker, but if you are going to use a game of cricket to show that your story is set in England, make sure you know the difference between cricket and baseball.

Any difference, really. Because they are actually not very much alike. I was going to write a long rant about this, but since I did so at the time I read the story - which was, in fact, a published novel, so one might have hoped the editor or publisher would have cared enough to notice the problems even if the author didn't - I figured I might as well link to that.

It still annoys me, though.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

You're right to be annoyed. Published works are much worse than fanfic in my opinion, as most come attached to a budget which is meant to be used in part to edit them. And the standard of expectation is higher -- people are taught at school to read books and believe them, whereas most people expect the internet to have higher general bilge factor.

Let us not speak of newspapers, magazines and documentaries, or I will need to have a little cry.

[17catherines.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly - the author is being *paid* to write, her editors are being *paid* to edit, and how long would it seriously take to look up Wikipedia and find out that cricket is divided into innings', and only two batsmen are out on the field at once?

That book still annoys me when I think about it. Sheer lazy writing.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I actually did a quick Google search to make sure that the writer hadn't been led astray by some bastard on the internet. No such excuse!