The Wrong Word

That day it was really very hot and humid.

Eric Ambler: The Light Of Day (1962)

describing June 15th in Athens Greece

I have lived in Athens, Greece a large part of my life. Mid June may be hot, and every ten years perhaps even very hot. But it is never humid. In fact, the opposite is true. Visitors are advised to have products that humidify their throats and lips. So while reading the book, a single word was enough for me to stop and think. At that place, in chapter one, the author had lost me. The Light Of Day is one of Eric Ambler's better books. It has won a Gold Dagger Award and it was made into the 1964 heist film Topkapi. And Mr Ambler is perhaps my favourite author. Still with one wrong word he had lost me.

In everyday life, many impossible things actually happen and when we read our newspaper we scarcely doubt that they did. In a novel we know we are reading fiction, and because we know, we must be convinced every moment that what we are told can actually happen. If the author has built his characters from real people he has met, if his characters move in an environment we think is real, if he entertains us sufficiently we forget we are reading fiction and slip into his world. But he must get all the details of the world he has built perfectly right. Remember the word humid--all it takes is one wrong word to stop reading, think, and shut the book.

When language is primarily used to communicate experience, we call it literature. In all the world's great masterpieces or entertainments, the author has met real people from which he adopted his characters and has visited real places which he borrowed for his settings. If one of his primary characters describes the experience of losing a tooth, chances are that the author or someone close to him, has actually lost a tooth. Remember the silly question reporters always ask writers? “To what extent is your novel autobiographical?” Of course the author always answers that it's a product of his imagination. But if the novel is any good, the author is lying. Chances are the author experienced everything in his book. In a different context perhaps, but still he is able to describe experiences realistically because he had them.

Most things that happen in my novels I was fortunate enough to experience. I was told, for instance, that I suffered from a disease and had perhaps weeks to live. But I am still around so I could tell you how that felt, and I have, in my novel FantasyLand. But if everything I wrote about in my books was only based on what had incidentally happened to me, I could have only written one book.

In my first published novel, I decided that my primary character had to fly in an ultralight “trike”. This is basically a delta wing glider with an engine undercarriage. After some primary Internet research, I knew everything about them: from the technical specifications of their engines to what they looked like in flight. But this was not enough. Appearance or technical knowhow is one thing, but actual feeling and experience is another. Some would be authors think that through their imagination they can dream-up anything. If I could put words into my characters' mouths, would it be so difficult to imagine what it would be like to ride a trike? How, for instance, was a convertible different from a normal car? I had been on a plane many times so couldn't I just imagine a ride, in what amounted to, an open roof ultralight plane? I tried to and noted my remarks. But they failed to convince me. So even though I am not the bravest of men, I knew that there was no way around this one. I really had to fly in a trike.

It wasn't that difficult to find one. A local extreme sport travel agency offered to rent one to me as well as a pilot to fly it. One sunny day, after the pilot assembled it from his trailer, we put on the safety helmets, strapped ourselves in and he revved-up the engine. Then we ran down a dirt road and in just a few metres we climbed up steeply. Almost immediately we crossed a gorge. These three seconds were the most potent experience of freedom I have ever lived through. There was the buzz of the engine, the constant pressure of the wind on my body, and my feet hanging down. If I didn't look down, I could have sworn I was riding a motorcycle. But when I did look down, one of my legs started to tremble involuntarily. I tried to stop it but found I couldn't. I was told it was the adrenaline. If I occupied myself with something it would stop. I lifted my camera and framed something for a photo and my foot immediately stopped trembling. Just like that.

Could I have ever imagined these primary feelings? The remarks I had noted didn't even get close! But now that I had actually flown, I found that as I recalled my actual feelings, I had picked the right words. I was convinced on what this was all about and I could convince others in turn. The flight with the trike had showed me the way. I could no longer write about things my characters had to go through and I had not personally experienced.

How for instance do you feel if you drop into the sea from a yacht at 3 a.m. with nothing in sight and you are left alone? Scared certainly, but of what? The darkness beneath you? Sharks? I couldn't rent a yacht or have the guts to jump from a ferry boat but I did hire a fisherman and his small boat. I had him take me far from shore in the middle of the night, and I dropped in with my clothes on. I had explained to him that I was writing a book but he must have thought that I was trying to do away with myself. Why else did he ask for his money up front? Anyway, could I have imagined and described how I would have actually felt? How for instance do you feel when someone brings a handkerchief with ether over your nose and mouth as you are standing and you pass out? How do you feel when you come to afterwards? Can you imagine the feelings involved and get them right?

After the book was published, many people told me how good the chapters with the trike were and how they had loved the experience. Was I an enthusiast? I felt really proud of myself!

Then one day I received an e-mail from a reader. “Mr Terzis” he wrote, “I enjoyed reading your book and especially your trike sequence. There is one item however that you wrote and stood out. Weathermen might describe wind speeds with terms like gale force, or use the Beaufort scale. But, like Annie in your book, I am a professional pilot. And pilots always give the wind speed in knots!”

I had used a wrong word, after all. But just stop and think for a minute how many wrong words I would have used if my experience wasn't real!