Just because it sounds cool -- Look it up!

[Wifetheif]

While enormously successful, Ernest Cline is one of the laziest writers on the planet. In his 2020 book "Ready Player Two" he writes about these fantastic headsets called ONI that allow a user to experience virtual reality indistinguishable from true reality. So far, so good. BUT Ernie decided to grab a cool sounding word without looking up it's meaning and dimensions. According to Cline moving an ONI headset a "micron" would cause the ONI headset to malfunction and kill the wearer. HOWEVER, it is clear that Cline has no idea what a micron is. A micron is roughly the same size as a particle of fog. My late father used to calibrate aerospace instruments to tolerances of a fraction of a micron. He used a micrometer, a device for measuring microns all day long. Human skin varies in dimension by many microns all day long. Our skin MUST move many microns a day or we all would expire. This means that EVERY user of an ONI headset WILL die a horrible death! An unforced error that destroys his very premise. Had he said, "a sudden jolt" or "vigorous shake" Cline has no problem. But in using his "cool" word he comes across as a moron. MORAL: Unless you are dealing in fantasy look up your damn units of measurement and understand their scale!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

There are so many examples of such "worldbuilding" in SciFi and Fantasy stories and books, and they often exhaust my pool of suspension of disbelief quickly. Many writers are ignorant of physics and chemistry and they are often too lazy to research or get proper advice from somebody qualified. On the plus side, those books often sell well, so hurrah for stupidity being so prominent in the world.

 

[Wifetheif]

I will admit that i once used "distaff" simply because I thought it sounded cool. I was a young and very green writer. My editor at least wan't a dick. Ne circled it and wrote, "look that word up!" But I'm not a bestselling author being published by a major house -- Where WAS the editor on this? He's supposed to make sure the author is correct.

 

[Lifestyle66]

While enormously successful, Ernest Cline is one of the laziest writers on the planet. In his 2020 book "Ready Player Two" he writes about these fantastic headsets called ONI that allow a user to experience virtual reality indistinguishable from true reality. So far, so good. BUT Ernie decided to grab a cool sounding word without looking up it's meaning and dimensions. According to Cline moving an ONI headset a "micron" would cause the ONI headset to malfunction and kill the wearer. HOWEVER, it is clear that Cline has no idea what a micron is. A micron is roughly the same size as a particle of fog. My late father used to calibrate aerospace instruments to tolerances of a fraction of a micron. He used a micrometer, a device for measuring microns all day long. Human skin varies in dimension by many microns all day long. Our skin MUST move many microns a day or we all would expire. This means that EVERY user of an ONI headset WILL die a horrible death! An unforced error that destroys his very premise. Had he said, "a sudden jolt" or "vigorous shake" Cline has no problem. But in using his "cool" word he comes across as a moron. MORAL: Unless you are dealing in fantasy look up your damn units of measurement and understand their scale!

Maybe Cline was deliberately trying to be a trendsetter, evolving the language with a new, populist definition. We might be surprised at the number of people who would pick up on that and use "micron" to measure other things, like the size of their brains (although that may be more accurate.)

 

[TheLobster]

Relevant: Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale

 

[Wifetheif]

Relevant: Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale

Yeah, Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker books does as good a job as explaining just how incredibly vast the universe actually is as anyone. Even if we could travel at 100 times the speed of light it would take decades to reach most stars. There is no galactic federation for us to join once we clean up our room.

 

[AlinaX]

I just bought a ruler to see how long an inch really is, and... well, not what I expected.

 

[TheLobster]

I just bought a ruler to see how long an inch really is, and... well, not what I expected.

I'd never do that. The necessary qualifications of an erotica writer is to have zero idea how long an inch is.

 

[AlinaX]

I'd never do that. The necessary qualifications of an erotica writer is to have zero idea how long an inch is.

Ah, like bra sizes?

 

[THBGato]

I will admit that i once used "distaff" simply because I thought it sounded cool.

Best use of distaff to dish a dis:

ANDREW Why, would that have mended my hair?
TOBY Past question, for thou seest it will not curl by nature.
ANDREW But it becomes me well enough, does ’t not?
TOBY Excellent! It hangs like flax on a distaff, and I hope to see a huswife take thee between her legs
and spin it off. (Twelfth Night, 3:1)

 

[Britva415]

Never heard of "literary exaggeration?" Sometimes a literary micron is not a literal micron.

 

[Britva415]

Ah, like bra sizes?

To be fair, bra makers collectively don't seem to know either.

 

[AlinaX]

Never heard of "literary exaggeration?" Sometimes a literary micron is not a literal micron.

Indeed, and literally is often not literally literally.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah, Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker books does as good a job as explaining just how incredibly vast the universe actually is as anyone. Even if we could travel at 100 times the speed of light it would take decades to reach most stars. There is no galactic federation for us to join once we clean up our room.

I have a hard time understanding this guy Eric Weinstein, but he believes it's possible through methods beyond point-to-point travel. Here he is confusing the hell out of Joe Rogan.

Another controversial view with Rogan:

 

[Wifetheif]

Indeed, and literally is often not literally literally.

The counter to that is he could have chosen any unit of measument at all or even invented his own. He chose micron. The more thechnical your term the more literal it is.

 

[AchtungNight]

According to famous scientist Albert Einstein, only two things are infinite- the universe and human stupidity.

And Einstein wasn’t sure about the universe.

 

[Britva415]

The more thechnical your term the more literal it is.

That makes no sense, unless what you're saying is, the more literally you take it.

You can't project that onto the author.

 

[lovecraft68]

And in this episode of haters have to hate, we have another example of someone who has made a lot of money with inaccurate shoddy writing, and the butthurt from those who think they have more talent, but have not made a dime.

But that's okay, because they write for themselves and their grammar morality is intact, and that's what matters.

 

[Wifetheif]

And in this episode of haters have to hate, we have another example of someone who has made a lot of money with inaccurate shoddy writing, and the butthurt from those who think they have more talent, but have not made a dime.

But that's okay, because they write for themselves and their grammar morality is intact, and that's what matters.

Yeah, it's pure hate and couldn't be anything else, even when I pointed out that I did the same thing! I've written award winning, respectable selling nonfiction and have been cited and quoted by dozens of other writers BUT my criticism can ONLY be hate. So, no one can criticize anyone successful or it's envy and hate? That leaves out ALL literarary or cinematic criticism. In what world is that desirable?

 

[Wifetheif]

That makes no sense, unless what you're saying is, the more literally you take it.

You can't project that onto the author.

If you say meters your audience expects meters unless it is clearly hyperbole. "The whole nine yards," does not mean a literal nine yards. Saying however that something is nine yards away does mean nine yards away. An author chooses every word they use. If you use a technical measurement and it is not to be taken literally, the author needs to make that clear. In this case he said micron one must assume he meant micron
What else could he have meant?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

If you say meters your audience expects meters unless it is clearly hyperbole. "The whole nine yards," does not mean a literal nine yards. Saying however that something is nine yards away does mean nine yards away. An author chooses every word they use. If you use a technical measurement and it is not to be taken literally, the author needs to make that clear. In this case he said micron one must assume he meant micron
What else could he have meant?

Well it's either literal, in which case it's stupid writing - we move tens of thousands of microns just be breathing when we're asleep - or it's a hyperbole so ridiculous that we can't take the narrative seriously - like Rambo taking on 20,000 men with six bullets and winning.

 

[Wifetheif]

Well it's either literal, in which case it's stupid writing - we move tens of thousands of microns just be breathing when we're asleep - or it's a hyperbole so ridiculous that we can't take the narrative seriously - like Rambo taking on 20,000 men with six bullets and winning.

Exactly! Thank you. All of us know that details matter.

 

[Unblemished]

People use these terms non-literally. It’s a total non-issue. Countless trashy novels describe their robots and vampires and all reacting “within a nanosecond” when it’s blatantly obvious from the scene that they aren’t moving at a fraction of a percent of that speed. It’s just a colloquialism to mean “he was really fast” or, in ‘microns’ case, “you can’t move even a little”

 

[Britva415]

it is clearly hyperbole

Yep.

What else could he have meant?

The entire premise of the thread started from "he couldn't have meant micron." You weren't wrong.

 

[Rob_Royale]

It happens. I was reading a book that featured US Coast Guard frogmen. This former Coastie can tell you that the CG doesn't have any. A little bit of research, ya know?