Vanity Fair Error

I am not proud of my own perverse pleasure upon spotting an error in a magazine. As a magazine editor and even an ex-sub, I have only always worked with lean editorial teams, usually no more than ten people, and that's including art - most of whom, let's face it, don't really read copy anyway. We don't have fact-checkers. We don't have proofreaders. We wear different hats, trying to do everything, and very frequently, not succeeding. As a result, astounding mistakes can take place - and we all live in deadly fear of it. The occupational hazard is we are weirdly attuned to these errors in just about everything we read. Including other magazines.

Like today, on my day off, I was reading an old Vanity Fair - November 06 with George Clooney on the cover. The piece was by Gore Vidal - in Letter From Italy - in which he writes his memories of Federico Fellini during the years Vidal lived in Rome, working on his novel. On page 130, there occurs a paragraph that starts with the arresting sentence, "Suddenly, one day in 1971, there was Fred on the terrace of our Largo Argentina flat." It goes on for about three inches of space. And then it is followed on page 131, by the same exact paragraph.

These errors are amusing, making you blink for a few good seconds of befuddlement, wondering momentarily if it is you - some mental synapse. And then the print comes into focus. And you realise - it happens. Even in the most global of publishing institutions. A mistake.

And foolishly, you find it oddly reassuring and make a mental note to show you boss.