Things that are common in fiction but not in your real life

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Apache

The old TV show Mannix had him getting knocked out 55 times by blows to the head and shot 17 times.

Even as a kid I used to put these words into Gunsmoke's Marshall Dillon's mouth, "It's okay, I just got shot in an unimportant part of my heart." Even at that age I had trouble suspending disbelief that much. Looking it up in an Internet search, supposedly Marshall Dillon got shot 56 times, knocked unconscious 29 times, stabbed three times and poisoned once.

[issybird]

Even Nancy Drew was regularly knocked on the head, tied up and locked in a closet.

[Quoth]

I've not read books with women dressed in yellow, or people having tomato soup and cheese toast, or pinching their nose.

We used to have tomato soup and cheese toast at home growing up.
I've known some women that wore yellow. One in the late 1980s never wore any other colour.
Some people with sinus trouble do pinch their nose.

But there are things I read in books that are unrealistic:
1) Bang on head for unconscious. It might just enrage the person, give them brain damage or kill them. Not a useful knockout technique and all non-fatal drugs are too slow. Get dosage wrong and it might just make subject woozy or kill them. Body weight is used as a dosage guide. Same with Chloroform, very dangerous and the subject needs restrained for a while.
2) People getting knocked over by a bullet from a pistol or revolver. They may collapse from the injury or shock but anything without its own rocket fuel would knock over the person firing the bullet.
3) People just asking for a beer, whiskey. They use brands. They MIGHT simply ask for a Martini, sherry, port, glass of red house wine etc as an ordinary bar or ordinary restaurant might not have varieties.
4) Books that list the brand for each item of clothing every time we meet a character. Reads like badly made TV/Cinema with product placement. I put one USA Boarding School Teen Romance book in bin for that.
5) Amazing recall of detail of the car in an incident. Like model, year, most of number plate. Real life: I think it was a small red one. … No, I'm not sure if it had rear doors. Maybe a hatch back. In Ireland now, maybe they might get the year and county since that changed to being on the number plates.

Unrealistic and unfeasible speech tags due to writer trying too hard to avoid said.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Quoth

4) Books that list the brand for each item of clothing every time we meet a character. Reads like badly made TV/Cinema with product placement. I put one USA Boarding School Teen Romance book in bin for that.

Which promptly dates the book and labels it as disposable fiction given how quickly brands go in and out of fashion. It's the same for chick lit - I avoid it because I dislike the product placement aspects. That makes a book look like the literary version of a soap opera.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

1) Bang on head for unconscious. It might just enrage the person, give them brain damage or kill them. Not a useful knockout technique and all non-fatal drugs are too slow. Get dosage wrong and it might just make subject woozy or kill them. Body weight is used as a dosage guide. Same with Chloroform, very dangerous and the subject needs restrained for a while.

I remember the TV show Dexter, which I liked. Dexter used an injection of a veterinary drug to knock out his victims. Instant collapse and an hour or so later they woke up without any bad consequences, not even feeling sick. And that happened not once or twice, but basically in every episode. You'd think that one of them would have died at least, or not collapsed at all. Nope. Like a clockwork.

[Sirtel]

Another thing, mostly in movies. There are very few overweight persons walking around, or none at all. In real life, at least half the population or more are overweight, in Europe and the US at least (not sure about other countries). But most people look like models in movies.

[Uncle Robin]

The triumph of good over evil.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The triumph of good over evil.

Well, that's kind of a given with fiction. I mean, who wants to read about/watch the triumph of evil? The real life is for that.

[Tarana]

Campbell's tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich was my lunch on Sunday. So, still popular. I offer same to my cousin's son whenever he is here.

In fiction, hardly anybody uses the toilet. Must be a mess out there.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Quoth

3) People just asking for a beer, whiskey. They use brands. They MIGHT simply ask for a Martini, sherry, port, glass of red house wine etc as an ordinary bar or ordinary restaurant might not have varieties.
4) Books that list the brand for each item of clothing every time we meet a character. Reads like badly made TV/Cinema with product placement. I put one USA Boarding School Teen Romance book in bin for that.

So apparently the characters in the books you read aren't picky about their drinks, as long as they are wearing the right brand of clothing

[4691mls]

People clapping their hands in excitement when they get unexpected happy news.

In my real life, reactions are usually verbal -like "woo hoo!"

Or maybe a high five, depending on the age group.

[kacir]

On Reddit a lot of women are complaining that men can't accept NO! as an answer. A lot of men think that when they are persistent enough and try to impress the female required number of times she will relent. Does not work in reality.
Yet, it is the main plot of many, many romances and romantic movies.

[issybird]

I think this is getting a little muddled. The OP explicitly said

incorrect, impossible or sci-fi/fantasy, but things that could be real

That eliminates such issues as the conking on the noggin one. It also eliminates standard tropes, such as the amateur detective. As for the toilet, I think aside from the ick factor it’s just part of excluding the mundane - things you can take for granted but would be excruciating to read about in detail.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Why do women in books wear yellow so often, regardless of their own coloring? It's not a color that looks good on just anybody. I don't notice a lot of women wearing yellow IRL.

It's not a common color for sure, but I see it worn by both Pasifika women and some South Asians, though in the latter case, only saris, I can't recall having seen yellow salwar kameez or the like around here

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

I think this is getting a little muddled. The OP explicitly said

I think some of the authors and some of the readers think some things that are very unlikely are real.
Getting hit on the head and then being unconscious is perfectly real. It's just that not being unconscious or being seriously injured is more probable.

Also strangulation. I've been knocked unconscious by it. But in real life the attempt might not cut off the air enough, so victim doesn't become unconscious. Or they get brain damage or die.

Then people try it and kill people. And also the sort of romance where the man is actually stalking / harassing / not accepting no. Then "wins" the girl. That's toxic and reinforces the toxic male culture and even to an extent brainwashes some women to accept harassment as wooing. It's not.