On the Bleeding Edge wiki, readers contributed to a list of typos and misspellings (aka “errata”) in the first hardback edition of the novel:
56: “some some tell”
71: “there might not much difference”
131: “Scream, Blacula, Scream” film title does not have commas
181: “Latrelle Sprewell” – should be “Latrell”
192: “dos” should be “does”
297: “does not not entirely”
314: “The spread on the Jets-Indianapolis game Sunday is 2 points.” It was actually 1.5
314: “a defensive end who then proceeds to run the ball 98 yards to a touchdown.” It was actually 95 yards.
340: “Keenan and Kel” should be “Kenan”
451: “Off she goes goes on the time machine”
457: “the Schachtman unpleasantness” – Shachtman is how the name is spelled.
Today, at my local bookstore I checked the new paperback edition against the list of typos and, to my surprise, only one of the typos — “Off she goes goes on the time machine” — had been fixed.
Now, why they wouldn’t bother to correct the spelling of Latrell Sprewell’s name, or “Schactman” or the other super-obvious errors is beyond me. Is it just laziness? I’m sure Pynchon is a stickler for errors of this sort and I wonder if he’s even aware of this.
Anyway… Hey! Penguin Books! Get your editorial shit together! You’re passively promoting the Decline of Literacy!
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