: Re: Miles or Kilometers for historical fiction? I am writing a novel of historical fiction about the Second World War. It is written in the POV of several German and Russian characters but is intended

@Bryan361

Vote Up Vote Down

I would say: In general, use the system familiar to your readers.

German officers during World War 2 presumably spoke German. But if I wrote an historical novel intended for American readers, I would give the dialog in English, for the obvious reason that most of my readers do not understand German. The reader understands that the dialog is intended to be a translation.

Likewise, I'd generally give units of measure in the Imperial system, because that is what the reader is familiar with.

I'd say this is borderline because most Americans are at least generally familiar with the metric system, so they wouldn't likely have serious trouble understanding the units that German officers would really have used.

There can be an issue if the actual numbers matter. For example, if I was reading a novel where a German character said, "Our reinforcements are still 13 miles away. 13 is proving a very unlucky number for us today", as a reader I might balk and say, "But wait, he would have really said 21 kilometers. Why would the character relate 21 kilometers to the unlucky number 13? This doesn't make sense." (Assuming Germans think of 13 as an unlucky number. Just making an example.)

I'd avoid using one set of units in dialog and another set in narration. I think that would get very confusing. Readers would have to convert back and forth to make sense of the story.

(0)

Login to post a comment!