The Reading Room

verbose

12:41 AM

@Bookworm Millions of literary works, and we keep getting questions about a small handful: Lot[RF], Atlas Shrugged, 1984, SitD have all cracked 40+ questions on here. Given that SFF undoubtedly must get a bunch of LotR questions too, that's really something.

bobble

@verbose that question's deleted

Alex

@verbose scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/the-lord-of-the-rings

Nearly 2,000

verbose

@bobble That's good, it was a really lazy question. But it doesn't displace LotF from its position as one of the highest asked about works on our site.

bobble

@Bookworm it's on the HNQ

verbose

The top ten list continues with Narnia, Holmes, Henry Porter, Macbeth, and, surprisingly, Don Juan. Hamlet is at position 11, with just one question less than the Byron poem. (Since I have a question queued up, or cued up [either one works], there's gonna be a tie for 10th place soon.)

@Alex Wow, that's about one question for every other pages of the tetralogy, yes? 😐 Narnia must have a bunch on SFF too

Alex

12:50 AM

Narnia only has 58.

But Harry Potter has more than 6.5 thousand.

verbose

@Alex Still more than we have on here, though given how much bigger SFF is, I've expected there to be a lot more Narnia questions there

Alex

Significantly more than the entire site here.

verbose

@Alex eek

Alex

@verbose I guess Narnia is not as popular among that crowd,

@verbose I'm guilty of contributing a nice amount of them.

verbose

I used to enjoy the Harry Potter books, until JKR would NOT shut up about them. Let the books speak for themselves, lady. And I loathed that awful play script ....

2

Alex

12:55 AM

I get over that by posting answers that deliberately contradict what she says.

This answer is way better than the one from JKR herself! — Shana Tar Oct 3 '18 at 15:12

verbose

The only real surprise in the top ten is SitD, but those questions were mostly from that durum wheat product aficionado from Korea who kept asking meaning questions until we gently directed them to ELL

@Alex More power to you!

I mean the fact that the others aren't surprising doesn't mean they're not disappointing

Also, Macbeth is the shortest and in some ways most accessible of Shakespeare's plays so that is unsurprising

Alex

@verbose Though the community there often doesn't like that approach.

verbose

Wait, actually, Don Juan is surprising.

@Alex ah, fuck 'em

you keep doing your thing

I'll cheer from the sidelines

Alex

One of my favorite (and longest) ones was languishing with a negative score forever. It just recently made it to zero.

verbose

Did we have a topic challenge on Byron or sth?

@Alex do tell

Alex

1:02 AM

Hm, it actually has a positive score now. +9/-8

1

A: Did Voldemort actually curse the job of Defense Against Dark Arts professor after being denied the position?

The job was probably not cursed. There is no true evidence that Voldemort ever performed such a curse. No one saw him do it. No one heard him do it. No one heard him talk about it. The only piece of evidence ever proffered was the fact that no one held the job for more than a year after Voldemor...

verbose

@Alex oh well never mind then. 😛

Alex

I think it actually sparked a debate in this Chat room about the sif=gnificance of authorial intent.

verbose

@Alex authorial intent is not the determinant of a text's meaning. I would die on that hill except enough actual literary critic celebrities (insofar as one can say "literary critic celebrities" without cracking up) have been making that case for about a century now.

@Alex that is a good answer. I was skeptical until I got to the point about Quirrell's lack of intro

I'm not gonna create an account on there just to upvote, though. Sowwy

Alex

I'd prefer a downvote. Get it back to an even zero.

verbose

Migrate that question here and I'll upvote your answer!

7 mins ago, by verbose

@Alex oh well never mind then. 😛

Actually if a question that's already answered elsewhere gets migrated to a different site, do the answers also get migrated? I presume they would, right?

The question disappears from the original site after some time, doesn't it?

Alex

1:13 AM

I know comments definitely do.

Which is sometimes odd when you see comments that made sense on one site but not on the other, but there is no external indication of migration.

verbose

Ah, I shouldn't speculate and I should simply ask: What actually happens when a question gets migrated to a different site? Does it show up entire, with all comments and answers and comments on answers from the first site? Does it disappear entirely from the original site?

@bobble would know, she Knows All™. (Not to be confused with being a know-it-all, which she isn't.)

Alex

With all that said, all comments and answers are preserved during the migration except for the comments on the question that happen to include a URL to the destination site since in the vast majority of cases those comments just say "you should post it on othersite.stackexchange.com"; or something along those lines.

8

Q: What happens to unregistered users' comments/answers after migration?

Recently a question of mine was migrated from unix.se to SO. After a few hours I noticed that all answers and comments from a given user had disappeared (there were only 3 or 4 users who contributed). I could be wrong but I don't think he is registered on SO. What happens to comments and answers...

More details here.

verbose

@Alex ah that's helpful

bobble

164

A: What is migration and how does it work?

What is migration? Migration allows a question that isn't a good fit for the site it is posted on to be gracefully moved to another site in the Stack Exchange network where it would be a better fit. It preserves the current revision of the question, all its answers, any comments on any post, and ...

Mostly the first part is relevant for you

verbose

1:38 AM

@bobble thanks, that was helpful

bobble

Slight correction: I do not know all the things, but I do know what keywords to use to search for all the things

verbose

bobble

Any other questions about migration?

verbose

@bobble I'm told that flashing lights or caffeine can lead to migration, is that true?

Oh wait, no, that's migraines I'm thinking of

not the same

bobble

If you are a mod and the flashing lights hypnotize you into clicking to migrate, then yes :)

verbose

1:43 AM

@bobble ah

bobble

Migration had caused sites problems, especially migrations from SO

114

Q: Please stop using SoftwareEngineering.SE as your toilet bowl

Stack Overflow users have been using the "off topic - belongs on SoftwareEngineering.SE" close reason as an alternative to all the other close reasons. It'd be helpful if people actually read the FAQ and the six guidelines for subjective questions before voting to migrate questions like: What's...

discussion off-topic softwareengineering-se

etc.

bobble

3:30 AM

italics seem to break the graying out of downvoted answers when on mobile

also quotes for that matter, but to a lesser extent

not bolding, for some reason, but italics and bold break it

for an example with a bunch of these together, see this answer

also, can't figure out how to click on answer to remove graying

not sure if this is a known bug?

can't figure out the right main-meta keywords if so

Mithical

4:37 AM

I've definitely seen it before but I can't find a report.

Bookworm

4:52 AM

0

Q: what is perverse madonna actually?

What is perverse madonna? In the story the boarding house by James Joyce polly is compared to a perverse madonna. I didn't get the point what it tries to mean?

james-joyce

Eng Lit Learner

6:50 AM

0

Q: What does "Guilty!" mean in this context?

I would like to know what "Guilty!" means in the following sentences: ‘Hannah,’ Will says, turning to me with that famous, generous smile of his. ‘You look stunning.’ ‘Thanks.’ I take a big gulp of my champagne, feeling sexy, a little bit reckless. ‘I meant to ask, on the jetty – did we meet at ...

meaning literature

0

Q: What does "Botox in real life" mean here?

I would like to know what "Botox in real life" means in the following sentences: ‘Now,’ Will says, palm on my back as a gentle steer, warm through my dress, ‘let me introduce you to some people. This is Georgina.’ Georgina, thin and chic in a column of fuchsia silk, gives me a wintry smile. She ...

meaning literature

0

Q: What does "it was on a yoga retreat in Ibiza" mean here?

I would like to know what "it was on a yoga retreat in Ibiza" means in the following sentences: ‘Now,’ Will says, palm on my back as a gentle steer, warm through my dress, ‘let me introduce you to some people. This is Georgina.’ Georgina, thin and chic in a column of fuchsia silk, gives me a win...

meaning literature

Eng Lit Learner

7:19 AM

0

Q: What does "tailored jackets that definitely don’t come from Next, like Charlie’s" mean here?

I would like to know what "tailored jackets that definitely don’t come from Next, like Charlie’s" means in the following sentences: This man is Duncan, apparently, and he’s married to Georgina. He’s also one of the ushers, along with the other three guys. Peter – hair slicked back, a party-boy l...

meaning literature

0

Q: What does "sometimes I’ll have the impression" mean here?

I would like to know what "sometimes I’ll have the impression" means in the following sentences: A couple of times my gaze snags with Will’s over her shoulder. I don’t think it’s my fault: sometimes I’ll have the impression that his eyes have been on me for a while. It shouldn’t be, but it’s exc...

meaning literature

Rand al'Thor

I was about to say, how the heck is there a literature tag on those ^^^ questions? Isn't that tag blacklisted here?

Then realised they're from ELL.

@verbose No, but if you check the top askers, 90% of the Don Juan questions were asked by a single user.

Several of our high-ranking work/author tags are like that - just one user asking a lot of questions.

Lord of the Flies was mega popular in the private beta stage; we had a bunch of active users back then who I think were US high schoolers, which might explain it. Hardly any questions on it in the last 4 years.

Bookworm

9:05 AM

0

Q: Where in the New York City are does Ludwik live?

In Tomasz Jedrowski's Swimming in the Dark, the narrator, Ludwik, commutes to downtown New York for work. The text makes clear that he has to cross a river to get there: This morning, like every morning, I took the subway across to Manhattan. (p. 121) Or when is wandering around in his ...

swimming-in-the-dark tomasz-jedrowski setting

verbose

@Bookworm sigh *area. I asked the question to spite myself, since I was just complaining that the weirdest works have >50 questions on here

Rand al'Thor

10:10 AM

@Bookworm Am I the only person who thinks this question isn't too opinion-based for us?

Surely there are evidence-based ways to analyse the reception of a book/series and the reasons therefor.

@verbose +1 because I love real-location questions. Now a mere 5 points separate you from the rug flinger.

Oh, I just went through the recent answers and yours here is better than Spagirl's. Congratulations on breaking into the top 5 highest-rep users!

Mith, watch your back ;-)

Mithical

10:40 AM

I'm just surprised it's taking this long.

@verbose And she keeps proving herself to be a TERF again and again and again.

Tsundoku

1:22 PM

Some pretty advanced tsundoku here: "The good news is that my stack of books to read has gotten tall enough to also act as a small side table." Cailin O'Connor on Twitter

Tsundoku

1:35 PM

"I loved being a book seller. I had to have three additional part time jobs, regularly sell off my music collection, and do the occasional overhire theater tech lighting gig to survive on the brink of financial ruin in the city on a full time book seller's salary." Solivagant Practitioner of that Tsundoku Life on Twitter, two days ago.

^ This is one reason why I buy at local booksellers instead of Amazon.

bobble

1:52 PM

@Randal'Thor I'll admit to starting the close-train; I was interested in whether anyone else would agree with it being opinion-based.

Rand al'Thor

@bobble I used to do that before being a mod too - can't any more.

Tsundoku

The question now has 4 close votes. Unless someone has done research among readers, I don't see how this can be answered without mostly speculation. Am I wrong?

bobble

What do you think of my edits here? It's the first time I dared add in a quote, I think.

Rand al'Thor

@bobble Excellent edit.

@Tsundoku I assume you've already heard of Hay-on-Wye, but I'll throw in a recommendation for Sedbergh if you ever visit Britain with local second-hand bookshops in mind.

Tsundoku

@Randal'Thor Yes, of course I have heard of Hay-on-Wye. I thought that there even was a website where you could search the aggregated catalogues of those bookshops. But either I misremembered something else or it has disappeared.

Rand al'Thor

2:00 PM

I remember when I went there, they claimed to have not only the biggest but also the second biggest second-hand bookshop in the world.

Tsundoku

In Germany, there is a website where you can search the aggregated catalogues of second-hand bookshops in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. (Most booksellers who participated are in Germany, though.)

@Randal'Thor My going there has become much less likely since Brexit :-(

Rand al'Thor

I preferred the second biggest, because it had that old-bookshop vibe, many stories (in both senses of the word) and back rooms full of thousands of books.

The biggest one was more open and airy, and even largely outdoors (I suppose it was covered or they took everything inside when it rained).

Tsundoku

I have never heard of Sedbergh before.

Rand al'Thor

There is/was a wonderful old second-hand bookshop in Inverness too, to complete the set of bibliophile destinations in all parts of Great Britain.

Tsundoku

By the way, Belgium also has a second-hand-bookshop village, namely in Redu.

They also tried the same concept somewhere in Flanders, but I can't even remember where :-/

Rand al'Thor

2:04 PM

(Yes, it really has an open-fire wood stove and a spiral staircase in the middle.)

Tsundoku

Wikipedia to the rescue: it is or was Damme.

@Randal'Thor So if you ever run out of wood...

Rand al'Thor

> Sadly Leakey’s no longer has a cafe, although the owners tell us that leaves even more room for books.

Prioritising!

Tsundoku

The right priorities from my point of view.

Rand al'Thor

"has been run by Charles Leakey since 1979" - I guess that's the bearded guy in the photo, and the same guy I remember from when I was there around 2000.

Tsundoku

That reminds me that the Belgian author Amélie Nothomb once wrote a play entitled Les Combustibles (Human Rites in English) that is set in a besieged city. The characters live in a house with many books and need fuel to keep themselves warm. They've already burnt much of the furniture, so some people want to start burning books ...

That was before there were ebooks, obviously.

Rand al'Thor

2:12 PM

Did the city reach 451 degrees Fahrenheit?

Tsundoku

I suppose the hearth did. I found reading that play torture.

bobble

3:21 PM

Here's something I've been pondering for a bit, and I'd like to get other's input

character-analysis? literature.stackexchange.com/questions/931/…

verbose

5:11 PM

@Randal'Thor Thanks! Now that I've trampled down the chucker-about of floor coverings, the next step is to emulate Olivia Newton-John and get @Mithical.

Just kidding, all Matt needs is one of his questions or answers to go HNQ (and he writes excellent answers) and he'll leave me in the dust. Furthermore, Mith is just too far ahead, like by 3,000 rep or some such ridiculous amount

@Randal'Thor I upvoted her answer when she first posted it (just a few seconds before I posted mine), even though I did think mine was better. Her latest revision, which takes into account the book's plot, is good though.

@Mithical yes, that is the worst part. I mean, her toying with the gay community was bad enough ("Dumbledore is gay," oh shut up, you don't deserve woke points for proclaiming something you didn't put in the books; and then that loathsome play which is CLEARLY intended to let gay babies identify with Albus and Scorpius—those boys have the hots for each other—and then pulls the rug out from under their feet by having them both quarrel over some lady

Like, at least split the difference with a nice MMF, poly kinda resolution. Then all the TERFy stuff. I gave away all my Harry Potter books after all that. Luckily I have tons of Wiccan / new-Pagan friends who were delighted to get them.

verbose

5:31 PM

@Randal'Thor oh I dunno. Not the way that question is asked; it invites an opinion-based response. And providing a non-opinion-based response would require book-length research: What communities was that author popular in in the source language? Are there analogous communities in the target language? What is the set of books that analogous community reads? What is the relationship of this author's books to that set?

Are there already-popular books among the analogous folks' reading that overlap too closely with the newly translated book? How good is the translation? Is the cultural setting too unfamiliar, so that this overwhelms even the commonly attractive tropes?

So either someone will have to write a book about it, or someone has and the asker hasn't researched enough to find it before posting the question. (And don't @ me with "we don't expect askers to google before asking here," please)

@Tsundoku no, you're right

@Tsundoku How about Sidney on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada?

Actually I take that back; it has some good used bookstores but it's not like the whole town's identity is built around them

Sciborg

5:51 PM

I see you share my utter disdain for J.K. Rowling's fake wokeness.

Bobble has previously been subjected to my rants on "you can't claim that a character was secretly gay all along but never show that whatsoever in the text/you can't queerbait people by implying a gay romance and then having them randomly stop and fight over a girl instead"

grumbles

let alone suddenly revealing "oh by the way i was a TERF nutcase all along and now your childhood is ruined"

i have absolutely no problem if an individual book doesn't happen to include gay characters, sometimes books just don't happen to have LGBT characters and that's totally fine and the author doesn't always have to be inclusive in every book. but for the love of goodness, don't claim you have LGBT characters and then pull the rug out from under your readers with some fake woke baloney, that's happened too many times and we're sick of it.

bobble

from her essay, I assume she would see my ambivalence over my gender as a problem caused by society's sexism or something like that

Sciborg

oh absolutely, this is not even including the fact that she has morphed into a batsh*t TERF who writes essays on how you and i shouldn't exist. that's a whole separate load of nonsense.

Prince North Læraðr

Ooh what about JKR are we ranting about

bobble

"Dumbledore was gay all along" and TERFery

Sciborg

there's so much to rant about, feel free to contribute

you could even touch on the whole "Hermione could have been black" when she's clearly described multiple times as having pale skin and curly brown hair

but no, fake woke points

Prince North Læraðr

6:07 PM

@Sciborg But Emma Watson is pretty

Rand al'Thor

@verbose "3,000 rep or some such ridiculous amount", says the guy who's earned 5,600 rep in three and a half months :-)

Prince North Læraðr

@Sciborg Wait what now

Sciborg

the whole thing where she claimed Hermione's skin color was never specified when it absolutely was

it's all just her trying to garner woke points

Prince North Læraðr

Ah

Rand al'Thor

@Sciborg Oh we have a question about that on SFF.

Prince North Læraðr

6:08 PM

Well

Rand al'Thor

22 answers, including deleted ones.

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah, I was under the impression that Hermione was white....

Tsundoku

@verbose It should twin with a booktown called Philip if one existed.

Sciborg

there's a clear line in the book where Hermione is described as "pale"

Rand al'Thor

JKR said: "Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione" Which sounds all well and good, but taking into account all the evidence in the books, past author interviews, etc., it actually seems more like "I imagined her as white, but I don't remember anywhere I explicitly said so, so I'll pretend otherwise now".

Sciborg

6:10 PM

yes, exactly

that's what bothers me - writing in diversity after the fact

Rand al'Thor

As verbose said: "Let the books speak for themselves, lady."

Sciborg

like i said it's totally fine if your authorial vision doesn't have incredibly diverse characters, i.e. historical fiction or whatever, that is fine to me and isn't always worth making a fuss about unless it's very blatant. but if you don't have diversity and then PRETEND you do, that's just outright wrong

Rand al'Thor

She's a walking example of why Word of Author shouldn't trump other levels of "canon", even if you want to model discourse on the idea of "canon".

Tsundoku

JKR = Joanne keeps rolling?

Prince North Læraðr

@Sciborg I love how Dumbledore is gay isn't even like something she probably planned

It was only after a bunch of fan theories

And then she's like "Well he could be gay"

Uh huh, I'm sure

Rand al'Thor

6:13 PM

@Tsundoku JKR = Just Keep Reticent.

Sciborg

"he could be! even though i never wrote him that way whatsoever!"

bobble

JKR = "Just Karen, Right?"

2

Prince North Læraðr

Hehehe

That's a good one

She doesn't even have to say like Hermione is black tbh

It's not like her entire cast is white

She has an Asian Ravenclaw... oh wait that's stereotypical isn't it? :P

I can't remember if Angelina was black or if that was just a movie thing

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr She's black in the books too.

Sciborg

There was also, apparently, a Jewish Hufflepuff? But I don't recall if that was just a tweet or was actually mentioned in the books.

Rand al'Thor

6:19 PM

Lavender and Zabini aren't, I think.

Prince North Læraðr

Okay, so I don't understand why she's all trying to be like Hermione could be black

She has some racial diversity

Rand al'Thor

@Sciborg Anthony Goldstein? Kind of stereotypical Jewish name, but nothing actually about his religion in the books.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Not among the main cast.

Prince North Læraðr

Though one or two isn't something to be like all boohaha about

@Randal'Thor True

Rand al'Thor

Cho is arguably "main"ish, but only for one or two books.

Sciborg

Yeah, the fact that the only canon Asian character is a stereotypical Ravenclaw nerd feels a bit iffy as well.

Rand al'Thor

6:22 PM

Is she ever portrayed as particularly nerdy?

Prince North Læraðr

Not really

Rand al'Thor

Other than just being in Ravenclaw.

Hermione is the nerdy one. And Snape, if we go back to his schooldays.

Prince North Læraðr

But being a Ravenclaw automatically kind of makes you a nerd

Rand al'Thor

So it's you stereotyping Ravenclaws :-P

Prince North Læraðr

Hermione, remember, was almost placed into Ravenclaw

rolls eyes the entire Sorting Hat is a stereotype

Are you: CouRAgEouS (~~main character~~), SMaRt (~~nerdy~~), cArINg (~~boring~~), or CLEVER (~~evil~~)

@Randal'Thor And Luna Lovegood

I never really liked Cho's character

Rand al'Thor

6:26 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Like a lazy way of "labelling" characters according to their role in the story. But potentially harmful if people take that way of thinking into the real world (people from X group all have Y personality type).

Based on real "Houses" in real British public schools, worth noting.

Prince North Læraðr

Oh wow

Rand al'Thor

(Where "public school" in Britain means a top-notch private school.)

Prince North Læraðr

(huh)

Rand al'Thor

(history, go figure)

Prince North Læraðr

(Public schools in US sometimes get a bad rep but public school in US means... well a public school :P)

Rand al'Thor

6:28 PM

Probably what we'd call a state school in Britain.

Prince North Læraðr

Lol

verbose

@Sciborg south Asians are Asian, tyvm. And the Patil twins are split, one in Gryffindor and the other in Ravenclaw

Prince North Læraðr

@verbose Ah true

Sorry -_-;

I completely forgot about the Patel twins

verbose

@Tsundoku that would be delightful indeed

Prince North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Why is it called a public school if it isn't even public

Rand al'Thor

6:30 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I'm not sure of this, but possibly because they mostly take rich boys with fee-paying parents but once in a while they'll let in a poor boy on a scholarship to groom him as a new member of the ruling class.

Sciborg

@verbose Ah, whoops, forgot.

Rand al'Thor

(I use the word "boys" deliberately - most of these schools were/are only for boys.)

Prince North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Ah, the "look we're charity non-profit like COLLEGEBOARD IN THE US"

Rand al'Thor

Never heard of Collegeboard, but that sounds about right.

"We don't want to pay taxes, so we'll take a poor kid occasionally and call ourselves a charity"

Prince North Læraðr

Yup yup

College Board is a "non-profit" organization that has a monopoly over virtually all the major tests taken in high school

SAT? College Board. CLEP? College Board. AP? College Board.

verbose

6:33 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Patil. Not Patel. Completely different name (and language community; Patils are Marathi speaking, Patels Gujarati)

Prince North Læraðr

O_o

My bad

Sciborg

I had honestly forgotten about them too, my bad.

Been a while since I've read the books.

verbose

@Randal'Thor I thought because they’re run by members of the public as opposed to the government

Prince North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor College Board calls themselves "non-profit" because they give away most of their "profit" for scholarships, I guess?? But if they're non-profit, how come they get to charge ridiculous amounts of money to take a test I have to take?

They charge like 55 dollars for the SAT

AND THEN THEY CHARGE YOU MORE TO SEND THOSE SCORES TO COLLEGES

WHAT

Sciborg

I like to call that kind of situation an "insulin situation" - they know you need it and they know they are the only provider, so they can charge as many fees and ridiculous prices as they want.

Re: U.S. healthcare as a whole.

Rand al'Thor

6:37 PM

@verbose Oh TIL. I'd vaguely thought Patil and Patel might've been different transliterations of the same name, like -an and -am which I asked you about a while ago.

verbose

@PrinceNorthLæraðr it’s really difficult when you have to fork over large sums of money TO SEND YOUR SCORES OVER. I was applying from India and the exchange rate made every score request excruciating

Sciborg

"No competition for what we provide" = "nobody can stop us."

Prince North Læraðr

@verbose Oh, but it's okay because you can send your scores to four colleges for free! AS LONG AS YOU REQUEST IT WITHIN NINE DAYS

Oh, sorry that you take the SAT as a junior or early senior when you haven't actually even started to apply to schools sometimes

@Sciborg It's not even what we provide, it's "what we provide that's a necessity"

verbose

@Randal'Thor they’re pronounced very differently. Like a non-rhotic person who’s somewhat under the weather (part ill) and a brewski made to accompany your miniature golf game (putt ale)

bobble

> More than 50 percent of the low-income Black students at elite colleges attended top private schools, according to Anthony Abraham Jack, the author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students.

(source: theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/…)

> To some in education, this is a cause for celebration—the old route to social and professional success has within it some dedicated lanes for Black children from low-income families. To others, it is a cause for concern—if these children want to attend an elite college, their best bet by far is to spend their adolescence in a school where the experience of being Black is, for many, a painful one.

Prince North Læraðr

6:40 PM

Capitalism, baby :)

bobble

the US has problems too! woo! do we get to join your club?

Rand al'Thor

@verbose Good to know that I pronounced Patil correctly when reading the Harry Potter books, before realising how similar it looked to the name Patel that I was already familiar with.

verbose

Patil isn’t nearly as common a last name as Patel. Given JKR’s great touch with non-WASPy names (Cho Chang? Really?) I’m surprised she didn’t go with Patel tbh

Mithical

JKR: "Yes, the name 'Knockturn Alley' is a pun that subconsciously hints that this is a dangerous place..." Also JKR: "heheh stereotypical names go brrrrr"

verbose

Wasn’t Lavender Brown black in one of the early movies and then recast as white for the fourth movie and after? Once she actually has lines, like flirting with Krum?

Mithical

6:51 PM

JKR: "Of course Dumbledore is gay!" Also JKR: "heheh removing rights from queer kids goes brrrrrrr"

verbose

i like nocturnes, they’re soothing and lulling. Not dangerous at all

bobble

@Bookworm Where is this question? On the HNQs

verbose

@bobble whoa, was NOT expecting that

i thought the q about starry cold and the children’s Bach would go HNQ because the question and multiple answers were upvoted

bobble

It is also on the HNQs

literature.stackexchange.com/posts/18340/…

verbose

@bobble oh ah.

b_jonas

7:10 PM

@Randal'Thor I'm glad I'm old enough that you won't find high school homework questions that I asked on the internet.

verbose

@b_jonas Most of the questions I asked on SO were in fact homework related, so you’re not alone

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical Bwqahaha

@verbose CHO CHANG

I mean seriously

You couldn't do a little research before you made up a Chinese name

CHO CHANG

Gosh

b_jonas

(You will find stupid things I wrote on the internet, just not homework questions in particular.)

Mithical

Having been Too Online since I was eleven or so, you will find stupid things I wrote on the internet as well. A bunch in this chatroom.

bobble

you mean to say you are no longer eleven

Mithical

7:23 PM

unfortunately, I am no longer eleven

in fact, this is my last full calendar year where I'm under 20 for the whole thing

bobble

gasp

Rand al'Thor

@verbose Maybe she meant Patel and typoed it :-P

@verbose Yep. Can't blame JKR for that one though.

Mithical

Sure you can, she had direct input on the films

Rand al'Thor

Well, can't necessarily.

That input might not have covered casting choices for minor-ish characters.

verbose

@Tsundoku I’m sure she had creative control over the movies. I mean, she’s still trying to control the entire Henry Porter universe with her tweets and such

Rand al'Thor

7:28 PM

@verbose Pretty sure you replied to the wrong message there.

(mobile bug auto-completing a reply?)

verbose

wait how did that ping the‘document, was meant for Randolph

*’doku stupid auto carrot 🥕

Rand al'Thor

Auto carrot can be lethal.

TheLethalCarrot, United Kingdom

123k 54 682 738

marvel game-of-thrones marvel-cinematic-universe a-song-of-ice-and-fire avengers-endgame star-wars story-identification

bobble

are the tag badges supposed to wrap around the edges and cover each other?

Mithical

No, but I'm assuming you're on mobile.

bobble

I am on desktop

Rand al'Thor

7:31 PM

@bobble Don't you have a chair?

bobble

or, laptop, technically

verbose

@Tsundoku I’m on mobile and those badges overlap

Mithical

bobble

huh

Rand al'Thor

There he goes again pinging Tsundoku :-D

verbose

7:32 PM

Dammit, again! That was meant for mith and/or bobble

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical Wait, why am I green?

b_jonas

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I ignore most of what JKR says in Pottermore and later interviews and The Cursed Child. But her imagining Dumbledore gay was in one of her earlier interviews, so I think that counts.

Mithical

@Randal'Thor userscript

b_jonas

I think she probably didn't invent that one after the fact.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical I don't feel sick ...

Tsundoku

7:33 PM

Huh? What have i just missed?

Mithical

@Randal'Thor That's... a stretch.

b_jonas

There is, of course, a question about this scifi.stackexchange.com/q/41282/4918

Tsundoku

I'm doing some mod stuff on LL SE right now.

bobble

in The Sphinx's Lair, Jan 25 at 18:45, by Mithical

@matt it's called Rainbow ROs

Rand al'Thor

@Tsundoku Some mispings.

Mithical

7:33 PM

@bobble that's a different script :P

verbose

@Tsundoku sorry, I don’t know why I kept pinging you when I meant to be replying to other peeps

bobble

when was the last time you were vanilla, dear Mith?

Prince North Læraðr

@b_jonas Mm

Mithical

...I did have to modify the rainbow script to exclude mods though, after the changes

@bobble 2016 or so

(I do check bugs with userscripts disabled, though.)

Vanilla is my favorite ice cream flavor, but not my preferred way of browsing the internet.

verbose

@b_jonas I think if she didn’t put it in the books it doesn’t count

Prince North Læraðr

7:37 PM

@Mithical Lol

b_jonas

@verbose You can take that slightly more restrictive approach too, sure.

verbose

@Mithical my favorite ice cream flavor is butterscotch. But for some reason it’s impossible to find. So I make do with scotch 🥃

Rand al'Thor

Och aye.

Mithical

I don't drink alcohol, so I've never tried scotch

Side note: If you think the Reading Room looks odd with my scripts, wait till you see how I use The Restaurant.

Rand al'Thor

Unrelated: is the StackLiterature Twitter feed into this room broken? Or did someone remove it from the room feeds?

b_jonas

7:42 PM

@Mithical The Restaurant has an annoying background image that makes the text harder to read, even I modify its style.

verbose

@Mithical oh you don’t actually have to drink good scotch. It just glides effortlessly down your throat on its own

@Randal'Thor or wha hae

Prince North Læraðr

@verbose Are you promoting beer?

Rand al'Thor

in Twitter Control Room, 51 secs ago, by Rand al'Thor

What is the “manhood of a Roman recovery” in John Milton's Areopagitica? Nominated as one of the best Q&A on Literature Stack Exchange from the 1st quarter of 2021: https://literature.stackexchange.com/q/17647/17?stw=2 #JohnMilton #Areopagitica #FreedomOfSpeech

That last hashtag is a bold choice. Controversial topic, uncontroversial question. Call it clickbait if you will :-)

verbose

8:06 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr no?

Prince North Læraðr

nvm

verbose

k

Bookworm

8:19 PM

0

Q: Meaning of the dialog in bold and "sour street light"

This passage is from The Children's Bach by Helen Garner Up there under the leafless vine they were talking. Vicki saw their breath. From the angles of their bodies she could tell they were arguing. Dexter was trying to make Elizabeth do something. ‘It’s not my job,’ she said. ‘Why the hell shou...

meaning the-childrens-bach helen-garner

Tsundoku

8:36 PM

@b_jonas If you know CSS, you can use the Stylus browser extension to completely change the look of that chatroom.

I use it to get rid of videos on some sites and you-must-pay-to-read-this-page overlays on others.

Tsundoku

9:35 PM

Would "Why was Fontane's copy of Thackeray's Vanity Fair confiscated by English customs?" be a valid question?

bobble

This just reminded me to accept one of your Fontane answers

Not that you need the +15 :)

Tsundoku

:-)

It's always welcome.

german-literature needs 19 more questions before anyone can get a tag badge for it.

Anyway, I'll post that Fontane question tomorrow. I now need to zzzzzz...

bobble

sleeeeeeeep

Rand al'Thor

9:54 PM

@Tsundoku Same here, on both counts.

b_jonas

10:23 PM

@Tsundoku Yes, that's the module I'm using.

Spagirl

@Randal'Thor For what it’s worth, I attended two state secondary schools in Scotland and both had House systems. I bring you fraternal greetings from the Houses of Carnegie and Baxter.

@Randal'Thor To nitpick slightly, open fires are open, stoves have doors that are closed. The one in Leakey’s always has its door, and the gate in its little fenced surround, firmly closed.

Alex

11:16 PM

@b_jonas Also here:

29

Q: Is there any textual evidence to support that Dumbledore was gay?

JK Rowling announced in 2007 to an audience at Carnegie Hall that Albus Dumbledore was in fact, gay and always had been... Q: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself? JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation...

character-analysis j-k-rowling harry-potter sexuality

bobble

bobble is a very confused bobble and hopes someone else has meta-fu

where is our "tag with series name, not individual title" policy?

this answer says that it came from the consensus here, but the top answer doesn't support "series name" tags (? or does it?) and it's been closed as a duplicate anyhow in favor of a later discussion

bobble

11:30 PM

Anyways, against my better judgement (with an e!) I've spent a goodly amount of time making a first draft of a tag FAQ. Google Doc link: docs.google.com/document/d/… (request access to edit). Anything else to add, or can someone help me find meta consensuses for the non-sourced stuff?

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