Under the Dome Issues (some spoilers)

[sam peebles]

Okay, so I'm a little bit more than halfway through the book, and I am enjoying it immensely, but there were some parts that caught my eye and confused me while reading. I don't know if they're mistakes, or just something I missed, so I'd appreciate it if someone could maybe explain it to me.

Lester Coggins - he hosts that prayer circle by the edge of the Dome at the same time Joe rallies a peaceful protest. The Dinsmore child takes a shot at the Dome and it ricochets, catching him in the eye. Lester is the first one to arrive at the boy's side, and he ends up without his shirt on, tearing it into makeshift bandages for Rusty Everett. Now...good ole' Lester has been flagellating himself as recently as the night before. I would assume the last thing a man in the public eye would do is reveal this secret to the entire town. But there is no mention of the fresh welts on his back, or of old scars. It just isn't discussed. Did I miss something? Was it not Lester that ran to the boy and took his shirt off, or was it someone else?


Barbie - in the beginning of the book, it's mentioned he is a captain in the army (or was). Then he is referred to as a lieutenant. He is called both titles multiple times. Which one is it? Can it be both? I didn't think there was such a thing as a lieutenant captain...I know he is promoted to colonel, but this is prior to that.

One more thing...the other reverend, the one that's the head of the Congo church. I think her name is Piper (there's so many characters and I don't have the book in front of me right now). How old is she supposed to be? I think it may be forty-four, based on when she was fifteen, her temper got the better of her and she tore apart her entire room. Her dad died 9 years later, and I think (but can't be sure) that it's mentioned that that was twenty years ago. If this is correct, there is an anachronism in that her favorite poster that she tears down when she was throwing her tantrum at fifteen is Oasis. I don't think Oasis was around twenty nine years ago. How old would've Liam and Noel been? Then again, Piper might be considerably younger, which wouldn't make it a mistake at all. So I just don't know.

Can somebody help me please? I don't mean to nitpick, it's a great book so far, and I assume these mistakes were on my part as the reader. I just need clarification.

[wally wonder]

coggins:
i thought someone noticed coggins welts/scars/whatever at the dome...maybe not...seemed like it was mentioned, though.
barbie:
didn't catch any mix-up concerning barbie's rank. i know he wasn't enlisted, orificer-corps, 'bout it.

piper:
seems like i read piper was 42...or maybe that was julia...i think it was julia...poetic license, regardless...i've seen it happen.

maybe things'll clear up by the end? if not, just give it another read and keep your questions in mind. if you're still feeling miserable, i've found that best thing is to get warm and dry and get something in your belly. :y:

[sam peebles]

In regards to Coggins, one of the Rennies felt the welts under his shirt and wondered briefly about it while wrestling with him in Big Jim's office (I think it was Big, makes more sense rather than Junior).

Even if Piper is 42, it's still way too old to have a poster of Oasis when she was 15. Even 35 would be be too old.

One more incongruity I read. Keep in mind none of them really detracted from the story being told, just thought maybe they can be corrected for future printings. Towards the end, when Chef is blasting away the "cops" with his AK out by the radio station, he wonders if one of them may have raped his wife. But Chef never knew his wife had been raped. Andy intentionally (and wisely, IMO) with held this sensitive info.

[wally wonder]

One more incongruity I read. Keep in mind none of them really detracted from the story being told, just thought maybe they can be corrected for future printings. Towards the end, when Chef is blasting away the "cops" with his AK out by the radio station, he wonders if one of them may have raped his wife. But Chef never knew his wife had been raped. Andy intentionally (and wisely, IMO) with held this sensitive info.



hi sam. dunno if i'd call that one an incongruity. seems likely that a man would wonder something like that, one man knowing men. that's how i read it. chef seemed like an introspective kind of guy, out there all alone, coming up w/his philosophy.

[guido tkp]

does it really matter...
are you that disillusioned with the tale..the writer, over this ?

remember that king ha mentioned that the original cut of this thing was much bigger...
and that he was, supposedly (wisely ?) coerced into a few trims: could it be any of these matters might not have occured in the original, unexpurgated text...?
who knows !

but...if i'm not mistaken..we live in a rather imperfect world...so..they missed a beat or two...

to quote a black lectroid: so what, big deal !

[jcadams]

I noticed the part about Chef wondering if this guy raped his wife, but figured that maybe Sanders did tell him the whole story while we weren't looking. They were doing an awful lot of drugs, maybe he let it slip?

[jchanic]

How would Sanders know what had happened?

John

[wally wonder]

How would Sanders know what had happened?

John

:rofl: i'd decided to pick up the book and try finding where chef knew...pp973-974...and yeah, he knew, then i read your question...but i think the post before says it, and we saw stuff like that throughout the story, something like, "so barbie told him," though we don't get a detailed description...for now i'm able to resist the urge to looksee how sanders knew.

[lalonded]

Is anyone but me concerned with the fact that Junior sits with the corpses and then visits Dad (and others) and nobody comments on how he must smell with all that decomp on him?
For me it's a whole in the plot I'm having trouble getting around... :eyebrow:

[Ins4n3]

I think that they were all more worried about the boy who just got shot in the head, so i wouldn't think anyone would be paying any special attention to how Lester's back looks; Plus alot of times people tend to keep to themselves about cicatrices and other wounds on people in case they are sensitive about how they received them. The last thing on Reverend Lester's mind was probably if anyone sees his back, and his main train of thought being that one of God's children was just fatally wounded and he needs to do everything in his power to help. Linda and Jackie find blood and the knoted rope in Lester's church later on in the book as well.

The error about Barbie has been caught and mentioned on the message boards before, just a error on the editor's part, more than likely because the editor has never been in the military so it got over looked.

As for Piper's oasis poster I can't say, probably a mis-calculation by SK.



One more incongruity I read. Keep in mind none of them really detracted from the story being told, just thought maybe they can be corrected for future printings. Towards the end, when Chef is blasting away the "cops" with his AK out by the radio station, he wonders if one of them may have raped his wife. But Chef never knew his wife had been raped. Andy intentionally (and wisely, IMO) with held this sensitive info.

Don't hold me to it but it seems like Andy said something to Phil about it later on. If he didn't, they did enough drugs together that I'm sure at some point he spilled the beans at some point when we weren't looking.


Is anyone but me concerned with the fact that Junior sits with the corpses and then visits Dad (and others) and nobody comments on how he must smell with all that decomp on him?
For me it's a whole in the plot I'm having trouble getting around... :eyebrow:

This is a good point, maybe he just bathed in cologne or was able to take a shower since Big Jim had enough propane to power his house.

[BombMP]

I thought it was a tad odd that Romeo had all Winchester gun products as well. Winchester has been almost exclusively ammunition for quite some time (though they're going to be producing rifles again soon). I'm also glad somebody else noticed the rank inconsistency. This may not seem like much, but the fact that a 30 year old Lt. is referred to as "retired" is a glaring inaccuracy to anyone who has served, though perhaps not all that noticable for a civilian.

I'm no critic, but I do get a little frustrated when obvious details like this don't get their fact checking - hell, wikipedia-ing - done. But I've been reading King since I was eight and couldn't go without him. If I had a quarter of the creativity he has, I'd be ten times the writer I am.

[M-O-O-N that spells Nikki]

How old is Barbie supposed to be? 20's or 30's ?

[BombMP]

I'd also like to point out that a .45 Springfield Armory is not an "automatic" handgun. Automatic refers to a machine pistol. Semi-automatic is a pull the trigger each time affair. I'm not being overly picky either, as any gun owner (or as previously mentioned, veteran) will recognize this problem. To those that aren't familiar, no big deal. To those that are even remotely familiar with handguns, it's like putting the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. It's noticeable and it takes away from the story.

Okay, now that I've covered an issue that I considered moderately important, I'll cover one that I think is of relatively no importance at all. A Springfield Armory handgun is not referred to as a "Springfield" by any gun enthusiast. "Springfield" is a term relating (in the mind of the gun owner, that is) entirely to the rifles produced by Springfield Armory. It's so famous that the term "Springfield" brings a mental image of a very specific weapon to mind, so it's close, but it would be akin to calling a VW Bus a "Bug" if you get my drift.

I'm obviously bored, I'm a nerdy trivia stickler for details type, and I was happy with the book. I only hope that someday I'm a popular writer and Stephen King takes the time to sit around and pick apart my mistakes. It's so easy to be a critic, but not so easy to create...