The Reading Room

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1:44 AM

Q: What happens when a rider dies of old age?

In the the Pern novels, what happens when a rider dies of old age? Does the dragon go between without them? It's implied that dragons never die of old age themselves, so I'm asking about the riders. As a second note, is this ever recorded in the books? I would assume that there would be somethi...

Bookworm

2:17 AM

Q: Is Aivas ever mentioned before it is discovered?

Is Aivas, the artificial intelligence discovered in the Pern books, ever mentioned in some of the prequels? I can't find any reference to him in books set before the time he was discovered, including in Dragonsdawn and the other early books.

anne-mccaffrey dragonriders-of-pern

Q: What is the device Shimrod found with multiple balls moving together, and what does it signify?

Towards the end of Madouc, book 3 of Jack Vance's Lyonesse series, Shimrod is studying a strange device with multiple (seven?) balls or discs moving around like planets. They move apparently asynchronously, but occasionally two and rarely three move together in unison. As he watches it, four, fiv...

jack-vance lyonesse-trilogy

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir What's unclear about my explanation in comments?

If the stories are totally unrelated, that pushes a reading-order question over the line into Bad Subjective IMO.

Cf. "which should I read first, Animal Farm or 1984?" Same author, but entirely separate works.

Rand al'Thor

2:35 AM

Btw, is this a question we could take?

Q: Meaning of "condensation"

Does "condensation" in this context mean "increase"? Context: In the first volume of his planned four-volume study The History of Sexuality (1976), Michel Foucault observed a “sudden, radical condensation of sexual categories” in the West, beginning in the late nineteenth century. This meant the...

meaning-in-context ambiguity

I already flagged it, flag was marked helpful but question not moved.

8 hours later…

Fabjaja

11:02 AM

@ Randal’Thor Thanks! I’ll definitely check those out :)

Mithrandir

@Fabjaja Curious - why the space after the @? That won't notify Rand now...

Fabjaja

11:18 AM

@Mithrandir Oh oops :/ can I fix it?

Mithrandir

There's a two-minute edit window, but I suppose I could mod-abuse it

or he's probably just going to see it anyway ;)

Bookworm

11:40 AM

Q: Church Catholic or Catholic Church?

I heard both exprimation, but the first sounds more "creedal". Although, just the second is fine according to the English language norms. When is "Church Catholic" fine to be used?

religion

Fabjaja

11:58 AM

@Mithrandir OK, thanks I don't know why I did that! Thanks for the book rec offer. I'm not looking for YA in particular but if you have anything good I'd love to have a look at it. Divergent is the only YA series I've read as so far it's been the only one that has appealed to me (I like dystopia) I thought it was written well and was not too cheesy (I find some YA can be!) I usually go more for classics but I'm interested in reading "modern" literature too, I just don't know where to go from.

Rand al'Thor

12:31 PM

@Mithrandir I'd much rather get this reopened. We've accepted broad questions about writing style before, so I'm not sure why this one was closed.

(I'm particularly surprised that @Hamlet was one of the close-voters ...)

Fabjaja

1:10 PM

@Randal'Thor Have you read Howl's Moving Castle? Is it any good or is it more for children? Thanks for all your suggestions, they look very interesting :)

Mithrandir

2:08 PM

@Randal'Thor this one seemed overly broad. And still looks that way. Which ones have we left open?

Rand al'Thor

@Fabjaja I haven't even heard of it, sorry.

3 hours later…

Gallifreyan

4:45 PM

You're not dreaming! Neil Gaiman's The Sandman on digital is up to 83% off until 12/18/17! http://bit.ly/2z8C32i

Tweeted by vertigo_comics on December 13, 2017 at 1:15 PM

@Randal'Thor Have you at least heard of the anime by Studio Ghibli?

@Fabjaja if it's at least half as good as the film, it's very very good. Though I heard there are some major differences between the two

Hamlet

@Randal'Thor why?

The effect kind of depends on the specific work you ask about

Fabjaja

5:23 PM

@Gallifreyan I think I'll read it then and see what it's like, because I've watched the anime a few times now and I love it! One of my favourite Studio Ghibli films.

1 hour later…

Rand al'Thor

6:34 PM

@Gallifreyan Nope, never heard of Studio Ghibli, and don't even really know what anime is (or how to pronounce it).

Gallifreyan

It's official: @Randal'Thor lives under a rock

Christophe Strobbe

@Gallifreyan Under a rock with internet access?

user15026

@Fabjaja It's a decent book, although it might be considered to be for kids, I suppose. I enjoyed it, though.

user15026

(It is different than the movie in some respects, but they're both good in their own right)

Gallifreyan

6:57 PM

@ChristopheStrobbe Indeed. The graver the offence

2 hours later…

Bookworm

8:31 PM

Q: Why did A Square react the way he did to the Sphere?

Shortly before the Sphere visits him, A Square had a dream about Lineland. The king of Lineland was unconvinced by A Square's arguments in favor of a second dimension. A Square's efforts to convince the King included analogies, describing things that he wouldn't be able to see without being in a ...

edwin-abbott-abbott flatland

Q: How did the Sphere know about A Square's dream?

Full disclosure: I haven't entirely finished the book yet, so I'm hoping that this isn't an obvious question. When the Sphere visited A Square, he was aware of A Square's dream about Lineland and seemed familiar with its content. How did he know that?

edwin-abbott-abbott flatland

Fabjaja

9:09 PM

@Ash OK thanks.

user15026

No problem :)

Christophe Strobbe

Winter Bash only provides hats, but I wouldn't mind winter socks or boots :-P

Fabjaja

That would only work if your profile pic had feet...

Christophe Strobbe

9:27 PM