I'm a geographer and I really appreciate the fact-check. Remembering the Monty Python sketch where they pull down a weather map in an odd location, and the occluded front they start babbling about is *shown correctly on the map*. Respect like that is key to what makes them Monty Python.
The struggle is real. In the country song "North to Alaska," they talk about an old gray mountain, just a little bit south of Gnome and (of course) there is no mountain anywhere near there.
Considering that Steinbeck mangled the King James Version of Genesis 2:8 ("And the Lord God planted a garden _eastward in Eden_"), Hollywood was simply following precedent!
It's been ~20 years since I last read it, but I do recall reading the passage where Cathy tortures the madam into leaving her the brothel and thinking "This was written by a man with Issues."
