The Reading Room

According to Oxford University Press, the original edition of Jonathan Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction sold over 114,000 copies.

verbose

10:52 AM

@Tsundoku 🎈

TRiG

11:16 AM

Not a question for the main site, probably. Why is fandom, as a phenomenon, associated only with SFF authors ... and Jane Austin?

Tsundoku

11:27 AM

@TRiG Jane Austin Motor Company? Jane Austin, Texas? Jane Austin, Ontario? Or Jane Austen? ;-)

@TRiG To be honest, I've never been aware of Jane Austen fandom.

@TRiG I believe Charles Bukowski has/had fans, and he wrote neither science fiction, nor fantasy, let alone Jane Austen novels.

Umberto Eco also had fans.

Gareth Rees

12:09 PM

@TRiG A quick browse of AO3 literature fan-fiction shows that people are fans of all kinds of books

2 hours later…

Bookworm

2:26 PM

Q: Translation Recommendation

I’m about to reread The Brothers Karamazov as I haven’t in yearssss. Can anyone recommend a translation they find to be good?

TRiG

2:55 PM

@Tsundoku Fans are one thing; fandom is another.

@Tsundoku Oops!

@GarethRees That's maybe more directly relevant.

bobble

3:32 PM

I bookmarked that "Streets of Gold" question - if no one else can figure out how to put words to an answer by the time it falls off the front page, I'll start trying.

(also, first bookmark ever for me)

2 hours later…

Tsundoku

5:56 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr The Faerie Queene: a collection of poems? The queene was not amused! You are obviously no son of hers.

Napoleon Wilson

6:33 PM

Isn't an epic poem also a collection of poems once you make up arbitrary designations of what an individual poem is?

Rand al'Thor

6:59 PM

It's a collection of size 1 ;-)

Napoleon Wilson

7:14 PM

Or that.

1 hour later…

b_jonas

8:37 PM

@Tsundoku I have been aware that modern fan fic for Jane Austen exists, but I don't know any details.

@TRiG Also there's a lot of Sherlock Holmes fan fiction, and I don't think that counts as SFF.

Bookworm

8:49 PM

Q: What are the developments of the dystopian literary genre. Especially what does the dystopian aspect have on Kazuo Ishiguro' "Never Let Me Go"?

Is the dystopian sci-fi novel the best way to portray world problems of the 21st century. Most novels cover the topic but in an optimistic approach any genre that has been invented or to be invented?

post-modernism

Prince North Læraðr

9:03 PM

@Tsundoku Whoops. My bad

1 hour later…

Librarian

10:12 PM

Q: Are there literature forums for discussing literature in general?

Are there literature forums for discussing literature in general, rather than ones focused on questions and answer? I like asking questions a lot, but don't expect the answers to come with the authority one may want. I specifically want to know of any forums or alternative, which are focused on p...

discussion

1 hour later…

Bookworm

11:23 PM

Q: Mystifying reference in "Anna Karenina"

I encountered this mystifying aside (bolded) in the text of Anna Karenina. I assumed it might be a biblical reference, but upon checking, it doesn't seem that Rebecca was a slave. A quick search doesn't show any other potential references in English literature. I'm not well-read in Russian litera...