The Reading Room

8:36 AM

@Bookworm This question came here after two failed attempts on SFF: firstly as a list/recommendation question (off-topic both there and here), secondly as a genre-history question (which got closed there but might fare better here). This third attempt on Lit looks more like the first attempt, but I've encouraged the OP to make it more like the second attempt, linking Fabjaja's "history of tragedy" question as an example where asking about reception over time worked well here.

3 hours later…

11:42 AM

@Alex I assume you've already seen https://literature.stackexchange.com/q/19867/139 "
Why does Hermione say she has not made a Memory Charm in the café, when she did one on her parents?"

@Randal'Thor Now I wonder if we should have scifi.stackexchange.com/q/35956/4918 "How can JKR's rules for Secret Keeper be reconciled between Deathly Hallows and FAQ?" too as such a question, because that's one of the earliest big inconsistencies that JKR got herself into, not counting the one about the order of ghosts in the end of Goblet that she fixed in non-early editions.

This answer is spot-on. The detail I would add for interest is that the typical configuration of a quad/court has multiple staircases (accessed through an open gateway), each of which leads to usually two rooms on each level. Unlike modern buildings there are often no internal corridors, so to reach a room you go to the correct staircase and then the correct door from that staircase. (Where students in modern halls of residence often form social groups based around corridors, Oxbridge students are likely to associate with those on their staircase.) — dbmag9 Oct 27 at 18:41

^ Interesting. I didn't know that existed to such a large amount. There are university buildings here where some of the storeys have multiple sections that aren't connected and are reached by different staircases. BME K building has the top floor split to three sections; I has I think all above the groundfloor split to two sections (due to historically half of the building being owned by ELTE).

in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, 4 hours ago, by Aaargh Zombies

I'm trying to ask a question that covers literary criticism books that other people might know about, but which I've not yet heard of, but my question keeps getting taken down. How do I "narrow the scope" to cover books that I don't know the titles of?

F is entirely split to four or five sections with separate entrances, one of which is a staircase going up two storeys and then a big lecture hall with balconies plus two toilets, with nothing on the two storeys below. But the arrangement of that building in the Doyle story as you describe still seems odd to me.

And my responses therein

A suite for a single student must be smaller than a big lecture hall.

@Randal'Thor re literature.stackexchange.com/a/4538/139 "Does it fit in with Hermione's character for her to be tipsy?" scifi.stackexchange.com/a/17703/4918 has a quote that's relevant if it's real. It doesn't have a chapter number though and I won't search the whole book for it.

12:05 PM

@AncientSwordRage I almost recommended the OP to Lit when I saw the second version on SFF. Recenter years and newer high-rep users have pushed SFF's scope largely away from Q&A that require actual genre expertise rather than just fandom of a single work or franchise.

2 hours later…

1:38 PM

@Randal'Thor I really resent that is what's happened to our stack

@AncientSwordRage Me too :-( I feel like this meta really embodies that issue: we've got some commenters blithely insisting that there's already a rule against such questions, and others saying they've largely stopped participating because of the closure of such questions.

Q: What is the significance of the tale narrated by Nadir to the muezzin Marwan in the short story 'Time, as It Evaporates…'?

2:03 PM

@Randal'Thor reminding me of that has really put a bee in my bonnet, except the bee is immortal, on fire and screaming for vengeance

Insha'Allah I'm going to make a meta asking to revisit, self answer and reference good vs. bad questions, as well as good vs. bad answers. Examples of how we handle similar questions that attract poor quality answers and how other stacks have benefited from trusting experts. Also new tags and suggested policies to help smooth out the change.

bobble

2:25 PM

In my building, there is an open-air corridor which has doors along it, each leading to a suite with amenities and bedrooms. I hardly know the people from the suites on either side, but know very well the people in my "home" suite.

This is a way to say that our corridor doesn't mean anything to me :)

Bookworm

3:14 PM

In the French science fiction short story "Le temps, en s'évaporant…" by Jean-Claude Dunyach, translated into English by Jean-Louis Trudel as "Time, as It Evaporates…", there is a conversation between the sponge-fisher Nadir and the muezzin Marwan. Since Nadir can no longer leave the bubble of ti...

short-stories french-literature jean-claude-dunyach

Alex

@b_jonas I think that's a prime example of creating a concept for a specific purpose but failing to work out all the ramifications.

@b_jonas Yes. I'm deciding whether to post an answer.

3:48 PM

Part of the problem is that JKR has obsessive fans who demand answers to all kinds of irrelevant worldbuilding questions, and then make notes of every word that she says to find the contradictions later.

That seems to be common among sci-fi and fantasy fans, not only HP fans.

Probably why the Science Fiction & Fantasy site tends to take a more "Word of God" oriented approach while here on Literature we have more answers that actually dissect author quotes to figure out if they're consistent with the text or not.

Mithical

Or just ignore author quotes out of the start gate.

bobble

4:22 PM

If I want to ask a general question about printing numbers to help with this, what time period and location should I restrict it to?

bobble

4:58 PM

I just got my Yearling

@bobble 🙌🏻

@bobble that's interesting

@b_jonas definitely from what I've seen

It's the magical xylophone problem

5:38 PM

@bobble Happy site birthday!

@AncientSwordRage ?

@Bookworm Great question @Namaskaram - also congrats on 500 rep even before that bounty comes in :-)

Q: Announcing the December 2021 – January 2022 topic challenge: Maltese literature

Namaskaram

@Randal'Thor Thank you very much! Your question hitting the HNQ helped me reach there quickly :)

1 hour later…

Librarian

7:13 PM

In accordance with our meta agreement to have topic challenges and a later meta agreement to have topic challenges lasting for two months and overlapping by one month, it is time to announce the December 2021 – January 2022 topic challenge. Based on the number of votes (+6/-1), the first topic ch...

discussion topic-challenge

3 hours later…

Bookworm

10:36 PM

Q: "Even though he was a Sikh, he had no liking for sports."

In the short story "Sorrow's Reward" by Premchand (originally published in Urdu as "Sila-e Maatam"), the protagonist abandons all thought of his promised wife Kumudini and mourns his lost love Lilawati, before meeting a young man named Mehar Singh and beginning to spend time with him. He notes of...

short-stories cultural-context premchand urdu-literature