[USMA:37452] Re: Lary Niven's naivete

[Remek Kocz]

Greg Bear's "Darwin's Radio" was very much confused when it came to using metric in its contemporary European settings.  And that was a surprise, since Bear is very metric in his sci-fi novels.  And I won't even bother with the almost complete lack of metric in the "Da Vinci Code."  Dan Brown would like all of us to think that all of Europe is using Imperial to this day.

I honestly don't mind the use of Imperial measures in fantasy novels.  They're after all set in a medieval-like environment, when those measures were used.  Let's hope that someday, the only use of USC will be in period novels meant to depict our times.

Remek

On 11/5/06, Martin Vlietstra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

I don't have a problem with leagues or miles being used in books if they are appropriate to the context - John Grisham certainly used kilometres in "The Broker" which was set in Italy (but still used Fahrenheit for temperature).  On the other hand, Wilbur Smith got totally confused about how far a league was when writing about Southern Africa in a story set in the early 1700's.  He certainly knew the distances in kilometres - after all he lived there, but to write in leagues and get his unit out by a factor of ten - well .... 

----- Original Message -----

From: Mike Millet

To: U.S. Metric Association

Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2006 5:01 PM

Subject: [USMA:37449] Re: Lary Niven's naivete

... snip

Fantasy novels are still mostly in miles though, at least the ones I've read. Or even worse, leagues.  Still, the huge popularity of the scifi genre should help increas famliarity with metric measures.

Mike