The Reading Room

Mithrandir

9:18 PM

@BESW looks good, but I don't really like that font...

BESW

I've provided two ways for folks to improve it.

Mithrandir

I see

Loong

@Mithrandir Did you see my quick-and-dirty draft and the fonts I tried? chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/35229898#35229898

BESW

Useful rule of thumb for good design: Use two typefaces, one serif and one sans serif. Switch between them to indicate a significant change in meaning or mode.

Three typefaces is legit if there's an important need to signify many mode changes in a small space, but the more typefaces that get used the more likely it is to just become noise.

(Using typeface modifications like bold or narrow is a useful compromise.)

Loong

@BESW That's correct. And in this case the unusual change of font was intended to emphasize the change of perspective. Usually, I would only use one or two fonts in a document.

b_jonas

9:33 PM

Wait, my closed question got deleted? I didn't notice

Oh heck. I thought I'd eventually get to rewrite it and then get it reopened.

Pity.

Yeah, I'm lazy, I should have done it by now, so I shouldn't complain.

Oh, I guess I can still edit it at literature.stackexchange.com/q/324/139 and flag for undeletion

Bookworm

0

Q: What is Walden?

Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Walter David Thoreau is not a normal book in many ways. However, I have often seen it characterised as an uncategorizable book that will not fall into any of the normal categories into which texts are sorted. However, while it has many different elements, it also ...

DForck42

is my question really that unclear as to what I'm asking for?

6

Q: Were R.A. Salvatore's works inspired by real world D&D campaigns?

I have been reading the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore. I am currently half way through Stream of Silver, which is in book two of the collection. While reading this, I noticed that it almost reads like a novelization of a dungeons and dragons campaign. If we assume that the main pa...

legend-of-drizzt r-a-salvatore

b_jonas

@Valorum Re Poirot's age, this sort of contradiction is way more obvious in G. Szabó Judit's books about Anikó. The first book was written near 1981, the last near 2009, and while they needn't be real time, they are approximately real time in the sense that they happen in a world close to when they were written. The first book happens before the fall of the Iron Curtain, in the last books Anikó uses a mobile phone and high speed internet.

This is perhaps so that readers understand them easier. But Anikó has a consistent character and ages only a few years between the books, because her being a teenager is what makes for interesting stories. (Also, she is sometimes called Andrea.)

She and her family are clearly incarnations of the same people in the same family relationships, magically incarnated in multiple points of time.

DForck42

@b_jonas it's always tricky trying to pin point a character's age if the author doesn't intentionally keep track of the timing of the books

Rand al'Thor

10:00 PM

@b_jonas My question about words in Shakespeare got auto-deleted too :-( But IIRC it already has two votes to undelete.

DForck42

@Randal'Thor weird

b_jonas

So, about my answer, when someone asks about what order to read the Poirot books, and there are over 40 of them, and I've only read about a dozen, then is it bad to answer that question?

Should I wait for some expert who's read most of those books?

It's not like I've only seen the original trilogy and arguing for Machete order or something, right?

DForck42

if you can clearly argue WHY, then sure

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 Not really. It was downvoted and closed, so the roomba was always going to clear it up sooner or later.

I still don't think it should have been closed, but when I took it to meta I got accused of strawmanning and there was no clear conclusion.

Benjamin

:35274171 @BESW You could make the spine labels in the background visible as an improvement

@Randal'Thor

DForck42

10:06 PM

@Randal'Thor that quick though?

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 I think it's something like 9 days? For a question that's closed, unanswered, and has negative score.

DForck42

@Randal'Thor ahh, ok

Rand al'Thor

Some like it open, some like it closed,
Some like it all deleted, nine days old.

DForck42

heh

BESW

@b_jonas The Stack doesn't care if you're drawing on your own experience or someone else's, provided you can support your solution with some reasonable experience or similar evidence.

3

Rand al'Thor

10:10 PM

That's weird. Why did my comment here get deleted?

It was constructive and not rude or chatty.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor That wasn't your comment, it was my comment, and I deleted it myself.

Or maybe you mean another comment.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas I mean my comment.

Anyway, I'm going to try and put together an answer to that one, hopefully providing much more information than the OP is actually asking for.

b_jonas

I didn't dare to answer that one. I think the answer is no, but I know too little about Shakespeare and English poetry.

DForck42

@Randal'Thor I commented stating that the framing of the question is probably what the issue with it is

Mick

@Randal'Thor My comment was also deleted. Do OPs have that option?

Mithrandir

10:14 PM

I'm sorry that I wasn't active today - was out most of the time. Heading to bed now. Will be back tomorrow.

@Mick no

b_jonas

But even if the answer is no, a longer answer pointing out which parts of his works are written in iambic hexameter and which aren't would probably be nicer than just one counterexample.

Mick

@Mithrandir Higher powers are watching us, then. Not surprising, really.

b_jonas

@Mick No. Not unless they're administrators, or unless they delete the whole post.

Mithrandir

@b_jonas the comments stay after deletion

Rand al'Thor

@Mick It's odd though, because I still have about a dozen pending flags on comments.

Mick

10:19 PM

@Randal'Thor My mistake. My comment was to a question that was deleted by the OP.

b_jonas

@Mithrandir Yeah, but you won't see them if you can't see the deleted question or answer.

HDE 226868

@Randal'Thor Perhaps flags are being stockpiled for the new mods.

Rand al'Thor

@HDE226868 Something for them to cut their teeth on? Still, it seems likely that at least one or two will already have mod experience from other sites (or even from Lit.1, if DForck is chosen).

DForck42

10:36 PM

@Randal'Thor :-D

Riker

heyyyy I finally saw the moby dick question on the HNQ list

BESW

> We are strange and imperfect and fascinating creatures, and fiction is richer when it explores our ambiguities. - The Big Idea: Lara Elena Donnelly

doppelgreener

@Riker the first time i saw that question i didn't see the "Moby" bit and I was very confused why anyone was asking about that topic here

Riker

>_>

lol tho

Rand al'Thor

'Twill probably be our first Popular Question on main.

DForck42

10:46 PM

@Randal'Thor re: you're edit from Charles Dickens' to Charles Dickens's - as far as I can tell both are correct

Bookworm

11:05 PM

1

Q: How does Shakespeare's iambic pentameter work with Original Pronunciation?

In school, students are often taught about iambic pentameter via Shakespearian examples. These, however, were based on the Received Pronunciation (RP) reading of Shakespeare's works. In reality, Shakespeare used an entirely different pronunciation, replete with differences which removed syllable...

william-shakespeare

Axelrod

Thanks for the edit @HDE226868

HDE 226868

@Axelrod No problem. I've had practice with formatting issues like that, on old Norse stuff.

Nice question.

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor Um, HDE says we already had a HNQ, doesn't that count? chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/35281298#35281298

Axelrod

@HDE226868 Thanks. Any idea on how to get the video to embed properly? XD

HDE 226868

@b_jonas We're both referencing the same one.

Librarian

11:11 PM

2

Q: Are "What type/kind/genre of book is this" questions okay?

Example. I think they might be too broad, except under certain scenarios. I am not discussing just this question alone (although it is certainly what made me ask this), but I want to know, in general, what do you guys think about these kinds of questions?

discussion

HDE 226868

@Axelrod You got me there. I'm less knowledgeable about videos, but I think it might not work on all sites.

b_jonas

Ah, I see. I didn't know which question Rand meant, but he probably replied to chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/35286904#35286904

Librarian

11:43 PM

0

Q: Literature SE blog?

This might be too early into the public beta to ask this, but should we have an un-official blog, like Worldbuilding.SE does?

discussion blog

Rand al'Thor

@Librarian Woh, two upvotes within seconds on my answer there.

Mick

@Randal'Thor Sounds like a good idea, but we would need a stock-pile of articles that could be drip-fed (at least one a week). There's nothing worse than a stale blog.

Rand al'Thor

@Mick Nah, one a week isn't necessary for a healthy blog, at least by SE standards.

I do think we're not busy enough for a blog here yet, but I don't think we need to wait until we have a huge stockpile.

We do have some pretty engaged users here. It might not be that long until we can start thinking about setting one up.

</optimistic>

Riker

11:58 PM

this site has very interactive users

especially in chat

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