Historically/scientifically incorrect reference in a story

[Kilolo]

lots of people having misunderstood the thread topic isn't it? it's been a day and i rarely seen anyone who actually get it.

I'm asking for people as a READER for how far a reference could be incorrect to the point they would get annoyed, not as an AUTHOR. thus why i put this on reader general sub-forum

of course it's fine to wrote however you like, you can wrote a male giving birth, a dolphin lay eggs, or both polar bear and penguin are on the same pole. you do you, i don't care.

but what i'm asking here, as a reader, is there's really nothing that wouldn't make you get annoyed at a story for being inaccurate?
lots of people bash kantai collection anime ending because it depict as if japan actually won the world war 2, i read lots of comment of pirated manga site that they drop the manga at some point because they couldn't bear the author wrote creating communal bath in a way that very unsanitary and unhygiene. not to mention there's things about farming (where some crops can only grow in hot area or such), or nobility system with their territorial management.

i read more than i could count when there's an incorrect reference, and i just laugh off most of it. but sometimes, there's some things that painfully incorrect that makes me drop the series altogether. it just matter of taste and it is fine.

the most recent and popular example are Shuumatsu no Valkyrie, in how they wrote most of the character totally out of depiction from their popular lore. me and my friends just mostly laugh at how creative the author in making up such a character lore. but there's a time when one of us got "huh?" at some depiction and actually getting annoyed instead.

which is why I create this thread asking for personal preference as a reader, just what kind of incorrect reference i shouldn't do that some people don't like. and do i even have to say that it's fine to not liking something?

but no, most people here are being like : it's fine to wrote however you want no matter how incorrect the reference is.

I didn't ask you that. I'm asking what's the readers don't want.

 

[Habtamu]

Your average reader does not care about whether something is historically accurate because often times, history is a boring subject to them. They’re just there to enjoy something new or fresh. If you change up a few events or details that makes it more interesting, rather than simply knowing the result beforehand because it’s historically accurate, and by doing so a new story is created, they may even appreciate your efforts to spice things up.

Besides that, you think history is completely accurate to begin with? History is very often altered to fit whatever narrative the ”winner” who comes out on top desires. History is very shake and unreliable. Unless you were there and personally experienced it in the flesh, it’s best to take things with a grain of salt. It’s very likely that the history you think you know has already gone through many iterations of edits over time until the original recollection of events is completely lost in a mess, sometimes to such extremes that they become the exact opposite of what they once were.

This might be a hot take, but screw historical accuracy, I couldn’t give a flying shit if the original history was something boring as hell. If I wanted to learn history I’d read a thick ass history book. I came to a web/light novel to be entertained, not fall asleep in a history lecture.

As for scientifically incorrect. Don’t care. If it’s another world, what do I give a shit about it? It could be right there even if it’s some brain dead shit if it was our world. Different laws for different worlds. If it’s set in our world, then yeah, sure, at least try a bit. It doesn’t need to be perfect as what is currently considered perfectly accurate from a scientific perspective may be completely incorrect in the future as new information in a scientific field is uncovered through advancements in technology.

this actually, we don't know to begin with what is accurate and inaccurate.

 

[xiaomangisbusy]

anyone who read lots of novel/manga or any other media definitely had stumbled upon this at some point, like when author specify something based from out world but turns out to be false.

how far would you tolerate this kind of incorrect reference? assuming you don't know if the author either just lazy to looking for reference, or just totally made the whole thing up.

is reversing gender fine? changing personality? to what extent do you think that an incorrect reference should be intolerable.

As someone with a career in science and Asian heritage, I personally won't read something that I don't find accurate enough in those areas. It's a subjective threshold depending on the individual expertise of the reader on the subject imo. Having some here and there is probably fine. But if the entire novel plot is based on a severely inaccurate scientific or historical point, I might back out of reading it depending on whether I like the premise. In terms of 'offensiveness', I don't care as long as the author doesn't try to act like they're some expert that can't be wrong when other people point out inaccuracies or don't like their interpretation of history/reality. People can write what they want even if I don't like it.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a Chinese setting novel has a nonchinese author (that's totally fine by me) and they try to defend their Chinese language mistakes by saying stuff like "but I have a Chinese friend" instead of listening when readers who are actually Chinese correct them. If you can't be accurate, it's okay. Just say you're not an expert, you're not sure, and admit to the inaccuracies. I might have kept reading despite inaccuracies if I had not seen them react so rudely to people just trying to politely correct their Chinese.

Some authors are so adamant about being right as if they were actual historians or scientists when they're obviously not. It's such an odd hill to die on.

This might be just a hot take compared to other people here though, idk.
And maybe I didn't really answer your question that well either hahaha.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

I don't like if everything is going semi-accurate, usually with character personalities(gods and historical figures) being one way, just so it can make a 180 with a new and/or random character later on. I mean the author did at least some research and it showed previously. Now, there is this blatant excuse to shoe horn something irrelevant in comparison with the others.

Historical inaccuracies, as in events, don't tend to make me react in any way. I shrug it off as, "everyone is lazy. So of course they wouldn't know. Let's file it into alt-history and call it a day."

I gloss over scientific bafoonery. For the most part novels of all formats stick with middle school(U.S.A.) levels of science or they'll alienate a ridiculous amount of people. Have your pineapples grow in the middle of the siberian wilderness. Sure you can make nitrogen in a non vacuum using magic. I'm sure nothing will go wrong creating a zero-point with the magical willpower of someone who has an existential crisis every 2 chapters. Let's ignore how the stories own power system would mean that the resistances won't match to explain why they didn't burst into flames being anywhere near magma, let alone had it graze them.
It'll still annoy me...