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Bookworm

3:18 PM

Q: What's the implied meaning of this poem by Russell Edson

My friends are discussing what's the implied meaning of this poem: Fire Is Not a Nice Guest Some people feel like it insinuates a futile effort to save people around. But I think this is not accurate. However , I didn't know how to comprehend this poem.

poetry

Rand al'Thor

3:55 PM

Wow. I just discovered an AWESOME website full of books on religion, mythology and folklore.

Alex

Rand al'Thor

Sacred Texts has the full texts of hundred of books, ranging from actual religious texts like the Bible, to in-depth studies and retellings of mythology, folklore, and spiritual tradition from all around the world.

Alex

@Randal'Thor That is indeed a great site. I've used it dozens of times in answers on Mi Yodeya as it has copy/pastable text of some sources that I often quote.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex That site has a lot of info, but not so many actual books :-P

In particular, Sacred Texts has Crawford's English translation of the Kalevala, in a better format than Project Gutenberg.

(I'm preparing for what will hopefully be September's topic challenge.)

Mithrandir

4:32 PM

@Randal'Thor indeed ;)

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I'll admit that I never actually read that answer.

Mithrandir

I referenced that site at least a dozen times in there

Rand al'Thor

So I see now, on a quick scroll.

You should've mentioned it here before :-P

Mithrandir

heh

Rand al'Thor

I might ask some more questions about mythology and folklore here (and hope we don't piss off the folks from Mythology & Folklore).

Alex

4:57 PM

@Mithrandir I haven't seen the movie, but that seems like an amazing answer!

@Randal'Thor They have very little activity. I answered a question there a couple of months ago, and when I checked back a couple of weeks later it was still on the top of the homepage (with no new edits).

Rand al'Thor

@Alex Yeah, unfortunately. Lit has a lot more questions than M&F now, even though they're 2 years older.

Some have called for merging M&F into Lit, on the grounds that mythology and folklore is literature (even if not written: oral-traditions are on-topic here).

But I doubt the M&F community would be happy about that.

Mithrandir

5:30 PM

@Alex Thanks. Took several hours to research and compile. Went from about 10PM to 3AM.

Christophe Strobbe

Finished reading Proust's Le Cöté de Guermantes yesterday and started reading Hopkinson's Midnight Robber.

Alex

@Mithrandir Unfortunately, I am acquainted with the never-ending answers of the early morning hours.

Mithrandir

6:13 PM

@Alex can make it difficult to get up for shul in the morning

Alex

@Mithrandir I plead the Fifth.

New Topic Challenge Suggestion

A: Suggest your Lit.SE reading challenges here!

Author challenge: R. K. Narayan R. K. Narayan (1906 – 2001) was one of the leading authors on Indian literature in English. He wrote novels, short stories and non-fiction. His fiction focuses on conflicts and tragicomic events, usually in the fictional town Malgudi in south India. His novels inc...

Rand al'Thor

6:40 PM

muru, Japan

4k 1 12 51

meaning poetry short-stories inspiration robert-frost story-identification terminology

Poor @muru, just 1 rep short of Trusted User privs.

Librarian

7:21 PM

Q: Do either/both of these two questions fall under our "recommendations" close reason?

Two recent questions have been flagged for closure as recommendation requests but (at the time of writing) have not actually been closed: Have there been any works of literature featuring the elements from the "After man" series? Are there any Scooby-Doo books for adults? The second of these ...