Convergence of literary complaints
Apr. 9th, 2004 04:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherynscaleI just finished some early nineties political thriller about an advanced race and the fabulous scientific discoveries they left behind, and how all the governments on earth fall all over each other guns blazing to make sure they're the only ones that make out with the neat old stuff. It actually wasn't as bad as I make it out to be in that summary, but I found it all so very hard to swallow.
In one bit, there was a bit about snake venom, and a minor character is killed off by a single bite from a coral snake that has been dropped down his shirt. Now, as it happens, I know some things about coral snakes. They're apparently in the cobra family, and do have some fairly serious venom power - a good venom injection can do for a good-sized human. However, they've got virtually no fangs at all - they have to essentially chew through a few layers of skin before they can get any venom in you to begin with. So a single bite is highly unlikely to do anybody, unless it happens to get a lucky hit somewhere the skin is really really thin. Like, say, the inside of your mouth. Or something. So I was willing to believe in the cat people and their advanced electromagnetic technology for most of the book, but after the bit about the coral snake, I wasn't buying any of it anymore.
I must have spent too much time talking about books with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
triadruid. That's the sort of objection he'd make - "They got their facts wrong!" Usually, all I require is internal consistency, that once an author has established that coral snakes kill with a bite, that he not later go back and have a character survive seven bites miraculously.
Ah well. Perhaps I'll wander over to the librarytomorrow today and see if I can pick up some other reading material. I'm also reading Titus Groan on the recommendation of greektoomey. It's slow going, but richly, fascinatingly horrible. I'm glad I picked it up, but I require some lighter fare to balance out.
In one bit, there was a bit about snake venom, and a minor character is killed off by a single bite from a coral snake that has been dropped down his shirt. Now, as it happens, I know some things about coral snakes. They're apparently in the cobra family, and do have some fairly serious venom power - a good venom injection can do for a good-sized human. However, they've got virtually no fangs at all - they have to essentially chew through a few layers of skin before they can get any venom in you to begin with. So a single bite is highly unlikely to do anybody, unless it happens to get a lucky hit somewhere the skin is really really thin. Like, say, the inside of your mouth. Or something. So I was willing to believe in the cat people and their advanced electromagnetic technology for most of the book, but after the bit about the coral snake, I wasn't buying any of it anymore.
I must have spent too much time talking about books with
triadruid. That's the sort of objection he'd make - "They got their facts wrong!" Usually, all I require is internal consistency, that once an author has established that coral snakes kill with a bite, that he not later go back and have a character survive seven bites miraculously. Ah well. Perhaps I'll wander over to the library
greektoomey. It's slow going, but richly, fascinatingly horrible. I'm glad I picked it up, but I require some lighter fare to balance out.
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Date: 2004-04-09 07:28 am (UTC)