Imperfections
Why Stieg used fake airline route (e.g., a flight from London to Canberra?? – all flights down under going to Sydney instead!) and also fake airline code – I think he used GD for Lufthansa, everybody knows its LH)?
Posted by barda in São Paulo – Brazil , 6 February 2009
15 comments on “Imperfections”
Because he could?! He was an author and never claimed that anything in the books where real events.
Posted by mia in adelaide ,
Of course he could…I was wondering whether anybody would know the reasoning for that, or whether anyone would already have read an explanation…..
Posted by barda in São Paulo ,
How’s this barda , Any stop overs or flight switches may have not had any
impact or importance on the story plot . He purely described his flight from Departure point to the Arrival point , for the sake of brevity. That whole trip is very boring and tiring .But then again fiction writers can change all that with ease.
Posted by Graham Thomas in Mt.Gambier,South Australia ,
I can understand that, and this has of course zero impact on the story, but I simply that kind of guy that loves to touch reality even when reading, I guess I can not disconnect 100%.
Perhaps he was immersed in so many fine details regarding plot and whatnot that he didn’t want to look into real flight paths, get into all of that.
Posted by Andy1 ,
Along the same lines, there is not a ferry from St Lucia to Grenada. And they don’t have tornadoes in Grenada, they have hurricanes. Sloppy research, but fascinating books!
Posted by The Bee in Grenada ,
On the third film, I found it unlikely that Lisbet would be allowed to wear all that punk hardware. Wasn’t she goint to court straigt from jail? (It looked cool in the movie, but I thought it would be credible if she was wearing an orange prision suit or something like that).
Posted by Kim in Minneapolis ,
I think orange prison suits are just an American thing. Might be wrong though
Posted by Kim in Edinburgh ,
The point of Salander wearing her own clothes is to make everyone aware that she is who she is. Salander never tried to be nor would she attempt to be anything else. The point is made clear in the book.
Posted by Bitterlilly in San Antonio ,
I thought that the fact that they dont have tornados in Grenada was that whole point he was making. It was in the midst of a hurricane and the tornado plucked the guy up like a finger of God or something. It wasn’t supposed to be the normal thing.
Posted by Just Me in Des Moines, Iowa ,
There have actually been cases of tornado-like storms in the atlantic. Just search the internet for info. It’s rare but not impossible.
And the orange prison suite is just an american thing, in european countries (that I know of) you can go to court dressed as you like. I suppose they let you change before the trial begins.
Posted by Thai in Shanghai/Perugia ,
Just back from a trip to Stockholm, I took in the Millennium tour whilst there. It provided some insight into the sometimes obvious, but completely ephemeral imperfections:
It was said that Stieg wrote the books as a diversion, entertainment for himself. He apparently was on record as saying that it was refreshing as, unlike in his serious journalistic work, he didn’t have to ‘choose his words’ so carefully! If true, that tells us a lot. Given that and the apparent absence of much editorial input (perhaps because he had died) the writing may not perfect. But I am still such a fan
Let’s hope book 4 reaches the light of day sometime soon
Posted by Brumtaffy in Birmingham, UK ,
About the orange jail suit… this is not that way in Sweden. Plus, even in the US, attorney can request that his/her client be dressed with a business suit for instance, or clean gears, in order to make a favourable or at least neutral impression on the jury. This is the case in Sweden or in Europe too.
This is even a very important point in the book, since she decides not to wear normal suit, but exagerated punk gears because she want to show she doesn’t care and that she probably doesn’t want to make a favourable impression on judges, but only, to establish truth.
Posted by Ep in Paris ,
Wankers!
There are other imperfections – one that springs to mind is the time it takes to drive from Malaga to Gibraltar on the motorway – certainly not 2-3 hours! And the punk get up for the trial is important because she leaves it all on the bathroom floor towards the end of the book…
Posted by Liz ,