The Body - Inconsistancy?

[flwrchld]

Gordie fires the pistol that Chris brings along and when they meet up with the other two boys Chris tells them about how funny he thought it had been. They ask why he brought a gun and he says for bears, other spooky night things, etc.

After they finish their meal (many miles along their journey) Chris is digging the cigarettes out of his bag and Gordie noticed the pistol at the bottom of the bag and comments to himself/the reader, "The pistol was way back at the bottom of his pack, and because he hadn't told Vern and Teddy, I guessed it was to be our secret."

I just read that part last night and it really caught my attention so I thought I would share.

[muskrat]

Yeah, I chuckled over that the last time I read it. Whoops!

It's like when Robinson Crusoe strips naked on the beach, swims out to the wreckage of the ship, and then fills his pockets with various items.

[Pucker]

You've just got to grin and move on when you find stuff like this. An entire thread category could be dedicated to it, but I suspect the natives might get restless at such an idea. Editors are only (mostly) human, and there are good and bad ones, just as there are good and bad butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. What I like about the continuity error is that it serves as a reminder, to those of us who might otherwise get carried away, that the author is just some guy sitting at a desk, making stuff up. He's little different than you or I.

[flwrchld]

I agree with you Pucker... totally. I guess this one caught my attention more than others since it's a short story and the error is so near the original part where Chris does tell the other guys about the gun.

I was hoping someone else had already mentioned this here in the "Different Seasons" forum and since it hasn't been mentioned (I didn't see a thread about it) I thought I would start one. In my opinion I think errors/inconsistancies are like finding Easter eggs and it's fun to catch them here and there.

[omm poppa mow mow]

What I find amusing is that I've read this story, The Body, numerous times. I saw the movie, probably around...'92? Somewhere in that time, give or take a year. (I didn't begin reading SK, in earnest, until 2006) But I don't recall this continuity error, or whatever it is, though it does sound vaguely familiar. I have seen other continuity errors...and I pulled the book off the shelf to look at something else that was troubling me lately--how'd they know the body of Ray Bowers was there--and that is explained. Chris, I think it was, was under the porch when he overhead two older boys talking about it--they had seen it.

So many of us like to write, too. So many of us, the vast majority, are likely never to see out stuff on the shelf. Oh well. Anyway, I came across this error in a long story of mine...somewhat like the one here, in the Body...there have been a few others that have read the manuscript, but they didn't catch it, either. It happens.

[GNTLGNT]

Actually it's secret squirrel code..."pistol" is short for what else? A backpack nuke!!!

[aeriadne]

Chris, I think it was, was under the porch when he overhead two older boys talking about it--they had seen it.

Not Chris, but Vern under the porch. He was looking for his secret (lost) stash of pennies under there when Charlie Hogan and Billy, Vern's brother, talk about coming across the body, not knowing that Vern was just a few feet away. Charlie and Billy had boosted a car and had driven out to a remote part of the woods where they came across the boy of Ray Browers. They didn't want to report their find because they would likely have to admit they stole the car. After they decided to keep quiet and left, Vern ran to the tree house to tell the guys and planted the idea of looking for and reporting the discovery of the body themselves.

[SeleneM1]

I noticed that, too...I always wonder, when I find (and, *ahem* point out) continuity errors, if they'll be fixed in future editions, or if they're just going to stay. If it were my story, I'd fix them, but they do have a certain charm.

[icarus]

I didnt notice it myself but I do remember reading that part and thanks for pointing out that even the greatest of minds can make a slip up now and again which makes them human. The movie "Stand By Me" is very close the The Body in detail but there are a few changes here and there, like at the end when Ace and Eyeball and Billy confront Chris& Geordie and the others, on who is taking the body, its chris who has the gun in the novel, but in the movie its Geordie who shoots the gun to frighten off Ace.