The Reading Room

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Hamlet

01:31

@Randal'Thor it's more that they have written documentation of their racism.

Of course, who gets the label "racist" and "sexist" often has a lot to do with politics.

For example, JKR is probably the last author people would accuse of racism, but "Cho Chang" is literally a made up name.

Or Isaac Asimov: pretty much the only thing this dude did at science fiction conventions was harass woman, but for some reason he has a reputation for being "progressive" or "feminist"

And this shows in his writing: his female characters are either nonexistent or stereotypes.

Catija

Or, famously, Orson Scott Card.

Hamlet

@Catija that's a little more complicated, because if you look at his writing, you can see a shift in his portrayal of queer characters as he gets older.

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is incredibly racist as well, to the point where he's using the exact same language used to justify slavery/genocide

But if you look at his later writings, his writing becomes more tolerant.

It's important to understand that you can enjoy literature while also criticising it. (stolen from Anita Sarkeesian)

I also think that for promotional material of the site, it seems fair to find the few authors who aren't writing stuff like this.

Catija

01:48

My understanding is pretty limited on either point but I think that if he really had changed his beliefs, there would not have been as many people in the LGBT community boycotting the film's release. I think I remember recent statements that showed he still believed those things, even if he was kinder in his books.

Hamlet

@Catija shift towards being less kind.

I'm not trying to defend his beliefs.

Catija

I didn't think you were. I'm just stating that I'm not informed but that what information I have seemed not to agree with what you were saying.

Hamlet

@Catija I'm saying that his portrayals of queer characters were kinder/more nuanced when he started writing than his portrayals in his later books.

So I'm not sure how your information contradicts that.

Catija

Oh, I see. I missed that. You said that Tolkein was more tolerant but didn't say which direction Card went, so I assumed you were saying the same thing about both of them.

Hamlet

@Catija no, Card went the opposite direction.

Catija

01:55

You just say "you see a shift"... not in which direction.

Hamlet

This is just in his published fiction, of course, I don't know anything about his personal writings.

@Catija I thought I clarified that in chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/38867293#38867293

Catija

Yes, but I was reading quickly and missed it. Please excuse my egregious blunder, I am only human...

Hamlet

@Catija I was typing quickly :)

2 hours later…

BESW

03:44

#janeausten200 #JaneAusten #emma #illustration An illustration from 'Emma' with @OUPChildrens on the Jane Austen An… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/887305757686984705

Tweeted by BrionyMaySmith on July 18, 2017 at 1:39 PM

4 hours later…

Gallifreyan

07:59

Oooh, Gaiman's Norse Mythology has arrived and is now in the cataloging department.

BESW

Homage to Black Women Poets, 1984, by Elizabeth Catlett #womensart https://t.co/08NA9MdEAI

Tweeted by womensart1 on July 19, 2017 at 6:56 AM

5 hours later…

Bookworm

12:44

Q: The meaning of "The rest is silence" in "Hamlet"

Hamlet's very last words are The rest is silence. What do they actually mean? This being Shakespeare, I reckon the significance of these words cannot be only the banal comparison between death and silence. I wonder if these words have a theological connotation, too, which would not be surp...

Rand al'Thor

@Bookworm Well, @Hamlet, what did you mean? ;-)

Rand al'Thor

13:39

> Books are less likely to be banned. As long as they aren't religious in religion sensitive countries, then very few books are banned. There are probably quite a few transgender books, but a film is different from a book. A film is a visual and some countries may not want these images shown, but very few countries will ban (non-religious) books, because with writing you can imagine it, whereas a film you are given the images.

Is this true?

I'm sure I've heard of more banned books than banned films, but that could just be because I'm a screenophobic bookworm.

Hamlet

13:55

@Randal'Thor what do you think?

Hint: is the argument this post makes persuasive? Or does it lack any actual data, and is it just an assertion followed by some speculation.

Rand al'Thor

@Hamlet I think either it's not true or the religion issue is much bigger than the poster is making it sound.

But I wasn't sure enough to downvote.

Hamlet

14:13

truth isn't independent of argument.

Something to consider when voting on answers.

Shokhet

@Gallifreyan Nice. Enjoy!

A couple of things about your Christie answer, @Randal'Thor, that you might find interesting (but won't necessarily fit in the answer). Complex Jewish last names were often changed on immigration to America through Ellis Island, where the officers didn't always know Yiddish/German/Hebrew/Polish or whatever, and filled in last names to the best of their ability.

Mithrandir

...and first names, sometimes

Shokhet

There's a somewhat famous rabbi named Rabbi Daniel Mechanic. In one of his lectures, he mentions that his grandfather came through Ellis Island. When asked what he did for a living, he said "Mechanech" (מחנך = educator), and now the family is called Mechanic. (Rabbi Daniel Mechanic is still a mechanech)

@Mithrandir Yep. Rand's answer discussed last names, though. Specifically "Cohen."

Mithrandir

Yeah, I see

Blame all the Ellis Island people :)

Shokhet

On the topic of Cohen, there's another famous rabbi named Rabbi Quinn, which I'm sure registers to most people as an Irish last name, but it's actually a mutation of the last name "Cohen" (or so I'm told).

@Mithrandir Always.

A friend of mine with the last name "Gertz" told me that their last name was truncated on Ellis Island from "Gertzenstein" or something equally long and hideous :p

2 hours later…

Bookworm

16:36

Q: Why does O'Brien claim that the party didn't believe in solipsism?

In 1984, O'Brien claims that the party's philosophy is not solipsism. Why does he claim that? Was he telling the truth, and how does the party's philosophy actually differ from solipsism?

george-orwell nineteen-eighty-four

Q: Why wasn't O'Brien considered a thought criminal?

Given that O'Brien shows a high level of awareness of the Party's deceptiveness and malice (e.g. the fact that he admitted to being involved in creating and promoting the Goldstein myth), to what extent does he actually believe in the system himself? Why wasn't he considered a thought criminal? O...

character-analysis george-orwell nineteen-eighty-four

1 hour later…

Mithrandir

17:57

Well, if nothing else, this prompted me to read up on Ezra Pound. Seen plenty of quotes, never knew about the treason & antisemitism. — Shog9 ♦ 1 hour ago

Heh

BESW

18:26

#JaneAusten early #newspapers reviews of her #novels http://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2012/12/16/jane-austen-imitated-by-pd-james-blog-4-by-edmund-king/

Tweeted by embk11 on July 19, 2017 at 3:11 PM

Gallifreyan

19:03

Humble Doctor Who RPG Book Bundle

BESW

19:22

DWAITAS is an interesting game engine. Not the system I've chosen to use (that's Fate Accelerated) but I've lifted some ideas from it for my Doctor Who games.

Actually, I'm using DWAITAS style initiative in my Stargate game too.

(Instead of "Who's fastest?" or "Who has the element of surprise?" turn order in Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space is determined by what you're doing: talkers go first, followed by runners, doers, and fighters.)

Gallifreyan

19:35

I have no idea what any of this means :D

But I like that comics and russian-literature are among top tags.

Oh george-orwell, that guy - he is ahead of neil-gaiman again!

Bookworm

19:56

Q: What motivated the choice of those folk songs for the soundtrack of "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt"?

While writing the answer for What existing songs, if any, was the soundtrack of “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” based on? on SFF, I learned that the songs that had any lyrics were mostly (if not all of them) inspired by existing songs, many of them folk songs. Some of those include "Bonny at Morn", ...

song-lyrics video-games the-witcher

BESW

You know what constantly freaks me out when reading novels of almost any kind? How long dawn and dusk take.

Muddy footprints of a chicken (fowl) lazily meander across one full double page spread in Matthew’s Bible,1537… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/887407649872064512

Tweeted by ticiaverveer on July 18, 2017 at 8:24 PM

Bookworm

20:13

Q: Is there really a nuclear war in the world of The Lord of the Flies

In The Lord of the Flies, it is pretty clear that there is some sort of war going on outside of the island (the dogfight that leads to the dead pilot, the naval ship that rescues the boys at the end, the evvacuation of the wars). The vibe I got was that it was WW2. It wasn't explicit, but the boo...

lord-of-the-flies william-golding

Gallifreyan

20:48

9 questions until we hit 1000 questions.

2 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

22:48

@Shokhet Interesting but probably not relevant to that question. I haven't read the book, but I'd guess it's set in Britain or at least somewhere in Europe, rather than in America.

Mind you, a similar thing happened here with various groups. That's why so many people in Wales have the surname Evans: census takers in the 19th century were like "what's your surname? Llyllwffywll ... oh, soddit, we'll just put down Evans".

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