Many years ago I was a research and design engineer for a home appliances manufacturer. At that time our company ran an advertisement on TV that supposedly showed our facility and how we communicated with each other. The distance between the two was so large that the advertisement wasn't just funny. It was hilarious. We laughed for months!
Where as far-fetched characters and plot are practically expected in a novel, an unauthentic setting is totally unacceptable. Why? Because people and events have to be extraordinary to hold our attention. We don't want to read about John taking the garbage out and Mary cooking—we can see them doing that next door. So to offset the extremities in character and plot, and to make the story believable, we need the authentic setting to assure us that this is all true, that it's actually happening in the real world.
