Seriously, I once picked up Twilight and opened it to a half dozen or so pages at random. On EVERY SINGLE PAGE I opened it to, I found some passage that was so badly written, sappy, and/or cliche that I had to scream out loud. I love me some good Fantasy (and not just Tolkien) but would prefer something where I don't want to punch everybody involved.
Fact: Ms. Meyers has never been to Forks, WA. She apparently Googled all her information. Fact: Her stuff is a fairly obvious rip-off of L. J. Smith, author of the Vampire Diaries and Night World. Ms. Smith first published in the 1990s. Her vampires tend to sparkle in the sun, her books are about teenaged angst, etc. I've seen the movie Twilight. As movies go, it was pretty silly. Besides Patricia Briggs (her werewolf/shapechanger series), I also enjoy Charlaine Harris and her True Blood series (I have almost all the books - we are now also watching the HBO series from Netflix). Her vamps are a little more believable, for me. Knowing what time the sun sets is VERY important when dealing with creatures of the night, to bring things back around to the OP :thumb:
:focus: If I were to be concerned about the apparent time difference between the two almanacs allegedly used, I would consider the almanacs themselves, and not some possible errancy in the movement of the sun or the calendar. It is quite possible that the two conveniently unnamed almanacs were published for different end-users. A Nautical Almanac is used by mariners and great precision is not only assumed, but required. I suspect that Almanacs for landsmen, "lubbers," generally are not so particular. Switching between the two might possibly result in the time difference cited. Still, the issue may not be the available light at sunset, but rather at the darker end of "twilight." Something to consider: "Sunrise and sunset. For computational purposes, sunrise or sunset is defined to occur when the geometric zenith distance of center of the Sun is 90.8333 degrees. That is, the center of the Sun is geometrically 50 arcminutes below a horizontal plane. For an observer at sea level with a level, unobstructed horizon, under average atmospheric conditions, the upper limb of the Sun will then appear to be tangent to the horizon. The 50-arcminute geometric depression of the Sun's center used for the computations is obtained by adding the average apparent radius of the Sun (16 arcminutes) to the average amount of atmospheric refraction at the horizon (34 arcminutes)... "Accuracy of rise/set computations. The times of rise and set phenomena cannot be precisely computed, because, in practice, the actual times depend on unpredictable atmospheric conditions that affect the amount of refraction at the horizon. Thus, even under ideal conditions (e.g., a clear sky at sea) the times computed for rise or set may be in error by a minute or more. Local topography (e.g., mountains on the horizon) and the height of the observer can affect the times of rise or set even more. It is not practical to attempt to include such effects in routine rise/set computations... "Twilight. There are three kinds of twilight defined: civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight. For computational purposes, civil twilight begins before sunrise and ends after sunset when the geometric zenith distance of the center of the Sun is 96 degrees - 6 degrees below a horizontal plane. The corresponding solar zenith distances for nautical and astronomical twilight are 102 and 108 degrees, respectively. That is, at the dark limit of nautical twilight, the center of the Sun is geometrically 12 degrees below a horizontal plane; and at the dark limit of astronomical twilight, the center of the Sun is geometrically 18 degrees below a horizontal plane." More with the three kinds of twilight critically defined. Also, IIRC, sunset in Islamic countries used to be traditionally defined as that point in time when a white and a black thread could not be differentiated. Perhaps, just perhaps, an Islamic based almanac while internally consistent would give the time of sunset and the duration of twilight as many minutes different than a Western one, or a Nautical Almanac. Given the location, history, and cultures in Day of the Jackal, I for one could live with this possibility by way of a provisional explanation, and read on...
Good point. Look at the difference between Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight, and Astronomical Twilight. All three are technically defined, and all are different. They server different users. Tom
None of these sunset and twilight definition differences matter when the sun is well above the horizon, which all available information suggests that it was at the claimed times. I would chalk it up to some combination of problems post-almanac and pre-publication -- artistic license, misreporting, unreported time zone changes (France is currently double-daylight savings time in the summer, I don't know if this was true in 1961-2), or gross user error of the almanac (e.g. using wrong date and wrong time zone / geography).
Here are my roadblocks: 1) The author would need to be the one to state his source. Forsyth is a master of blending fact and fiction, so that's no simple hurdle. (Read the Wikipedia section on Forsyth causing government headaches!) 2)IF there is a root source (trial proceedings?), then they are probably in French, not easily accessed by your average PriusChat member....but all we need is that one exception. 3)IF (squared) there are root sources, then these can only be the claims of someone being prosecuted for setting up the crime. Pretty hard to prove anything past that point unless. 4) IF (cubed) the plotter identifies the almanacs in question. So....It's a really good micro-mystery with answers ranging from the trivial to the impossible.
I now find information addressing one of my questions above -- France did not have Summer Time from 1946 to 1975, its clock was fixed at 1 hour ahead of UTC for that whole period. So the sun was below the horizon at Paris at the claimed time, so the Twilight definitions and applicability do come into play.
Have a glance at this : Ephemeride.com : Calendrier solaire d'une ville sunset = coucher de soleil sunrise = lever de soleil Town = ville (was Paris) narration of the facts: Attentat du Petit-Clamart - Wikipédia
Since the author does not clarify, but only says that the police explained the man's error to him while he was on death row, I'm going to go with author ignorance, mistakenly assuming that there could be a 25-minute difference between sunset times at the same date two years apart. I will change my opinion if it turns out that the events being narrated (including the reason for the failure of the plot) are historical. I still enjoy Meyer's writing. Of course opinions will vary. I am not familiar with Harris. I will check her books out. I downloaded the sample of Briggs' first book in the werewolf series, and got so engrossed in it that I bought the book and set Jackal aside for the moment. Vampires are not "believable." They are part of our popular mythology, like zombies. But the closer they stay to their origins, the better. Unfortunately, nobody follows their origins. Nosferatu is a great movie. And Bram Stoker's Dracula puts all succeeding vampire books to shame. Walking in sunlight, evaporating in a puff of dust when stabbed in the heart with a dull pointy stick, "good" vampires who drink only animal blood, all these are perversions. Vampires are creatures of evil. Werewolves cannot control themselves and are plagued by guilt until a person who loves them takes pity on them and kills them. But still, these lesser stories can be fun. And a movie CANNOT do justice to a book. Period.
Could the Almanac he consulted be for Western France or depicting sundown for Western France while the assassination attempt took place further east? Audio Book Review of "Day of the Jackal" with Fred.
The author says the sundown time was for Paris. And that different times, 25 minutes apart, were given for Paris on the same date two years apart (1961 and 1962). Otherwise your explanation would have worked.
The assassination attempt failed because it was nearly full dark when it was expected to be full light. The lookout waves his newspaper as a signal for the gunmen to be ready to fire at the very fast-moving motorcade. Further, the book gives the times of sunset in the two almanacs as 8:25 and 8:10 respectively. So, no, it was not a typo for 2.5 minutes.
