The Reading Room

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4:05 AM

@Randal'Thor No

@Tsundoku both those books were on the curriculum of my 20th-C English literature class as a college sophomore. 2 novels, 2 plays, and a really exciting book of poems—[English Poetry 1918–1960](amazon.com/Penguin-Book-English-Poetry-1918-1960/dp/0140585451/… ed. Kenneth Allott.

The plays were Angkooler by John Osborne and Murder in the Cathedral by Eliot. The novels were so, so very not in the same league as the plays and the poems.

(Angkooler = Look Back in Anger)

I think that's why I tend to enjoy drama and poetry more than I do novels. Plus, the novel wasn't really a thing during the English Renaissance anyway, which was my focus in grad school

@Randal'Thor you'd perhaps be interested to know that the 19th-C English literature class I had as a college frosh included Hardy's Selected Stories ed. John Wain. That's where I first read "The Withered Arm"

@Tsundoku Why?

I had actually read LotF (just for fun) even before the sophomore class; the fact that it was a set text was coincidence.

1 hour later…

bobble

5:34 AM

I had introduced a variable (c) for another unknown length of time in the main-group plotline (while travelling from Efrafa), but now if you do some complicated timeline math using Efrafra patrols that variable can be removed! woohoo!! This is so cool!

bobble

5:57 AM

Page 426. Day 40 + a + b + c (different c than the one I got rid of). Woundwort has started the attack on the Honeycomb in earnest.

verbose

6:15 AM

@bobble Fantabulous!

2 hours later…

Tsundoku

8:37 AM

@verbose To be honest, I can't remember why I put Lord of the Flies on my rereading list, but I think I bought it also after the 2016 election.

@verbose We read Look Back in Anger at school and watched (much of) the adaptation with Richard Burton.

We also read part of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and watch a few excerpts of the adaptation with Burl Ives and Paul Newman.

@verbose I see that you're one of those people who knows which part of an Amazon link can be safely removed :-)

@verbose I think I was the only one reading "Elizabethan novels" during the Elizabethan prose reading challenge.

Fortunately, I already knew those weren't like modern novels before I suggested that challenge.

verbose

8:55 AM

@Tsundoku LotF doesn’t really repay rereading. Like 1984, I started off liking it but liked it less with each re-read.

Angkooler is great fun but sexist as hell

Tsundoku

Well, I read LotF 30 years ago; I don't remember much beyond the basic elements.

verbose

I didn’t know there’s a Burton adaptation. I’d’ve thought he would be too old to play Jimmy Porter

I’ve watched the Liz Taylor 🐈 on a 🥵 pb roof too

Tsundoku

I watched both the adaptation with Richard Burton and one with Kenneth Branagh. Branagh is a milksop compared to Burton.

verbose

I’ven’t ever seen any performance of LBiA

Tsundoku

@verbose That's the one with Burl Ives and Paul Newman, isn't it?

verbose

9:00 AM

Yes, hence the “too,” I was agreeing with you. And since Liz is the 🐈‍⬛ in question....

Rand al'Thor

@verbose I can't quite make out those emojis. Cat on a rage pb roof?

Tsundoku

At some point the entire production of Look Back in Anger with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson was available on YouTube, but it must have been taken down due to a copyright violation.

verbose

@Randal'Thor cat on a hot sn roof. Sorry I got my chemical symbols mixed up. Pb is lead

@Tsundoku Too bad

8 hours later…

Tsundoku

5:18 PM

"Henry rests in peace, but Eleanor still has a good book to finish".

Bookworm

6:08 PM

Q: Which figure of speech is used in this line from Dust of snow? A change of mood

Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued Which figure of speech has been used in this line "A change of mood"? Poem : Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

poetry

2 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

7:43 PM

Congratulations to @muru on finally giving me some company in the Pundit badge!

I've no idea why that, of all badges, has been so hard to earn here. I'd've expected one of the former mods to have had it at least, but I'm pretty sure even the ones who deleted their accounts never got it on main (one of them got it on meta).

Bookworm

8:14 PM

Q: In what way does Sun Tzu square "put your opponent in desparate straits" with his earlier chapter

I would love your take on a section I am currently reading about, Sun Tzu’s description of grounds. He says: Place your army in deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straits, and it will come off in safety. He does this, as I understand it, at just the right moment. Howeve...

sun-tzu the-art-of-war-sun-tzu

3 hours later…

Bookworm

11:38 PM

Q: What literary device is Walter de la Mare's "It is I" in "Napoleon"?

Walter de la Mare's short poem "Napoleon" goes like this: What is the world, O soldiers? It is I: I, this incessant snow, This northern sky; Soldiers, this solitude Through which we go Is I. What is the literary device which identifies the world, snow, sky, and solitude with the speaker? Given ...