Timeline for How to tell readers that I know my story is factually incorrect?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 19, 2019 at 23:30 | comment | added | Amadeus | @Graham Simple. Make Watney far from the ship, they see a mountain collapse on him, his transponder is wrecked=life signs zero, they expect rebound aftershocks from the meteor, they have to leave before the ship topples. A meteor strike can be precisely as powerful as we need it to be; Watney can be as lucky/unlucky as we need him to be, and as distant (doing his job) as we need him to be. Without breaking immersion for the few people that know "wind" is BS. You can claim it just works, but so does a meteor strike without being physically impossible (in an otherwise realistic setting). | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 23:22 | comment | added | Amadeus | @JörgWMittag Right, but you don't see the director giving himself a lead-in cameo to tell people "you know, this crew would be dead from radiation long before they reached Mars, but then we wouldn't have a story, so I want you all to put that aside..." | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 23:07 | comment | added | Jörg W Mittag | Magic radiation shielding is the other ingredient that makes The Martian work. It is, however, never mentioned and not a plot point, it is just assumed to exist. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 20:22 | comment | added | Graham | @Amadeus Possibly, but then you have to justify having enough warning to get the rest of the crew away in the lander. Weir has said he couldn't work out anything which was 100% fact and made the plot work, so he "adjusted" the facts. Reading the book, with the pressure on the commander to make that call, I wouldn't disagree with his choice. It just works. | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 19:55 | comment | added | Amadeus | +1, that's a good catch. Of course, about 200 meteors per year strike Mars, and they can cause Marsquakes. One of the larger ones could have been an at least possible alternative to create an emergency, bury Watney in a crevice or under a pile of rocks, and force an emergency evacuation. There is no guarantee of forewarning of the strike; we aren't monitoring for space debris around Mars. Mars has the highest rate of meteor strikes per planet; See: space.com/21198-mars-asteroid-strikes-common.html | |
| Jul 19, 2019 at 17:21 | history | answered | Graham | CC BY-SA 4.0 |