The Reading Room

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verbose

00:00

I was once trapped between two mallards. I guess you could say I was stuck in a pair o' ducks.

Alex

How did you ever get out? Please don't tell me you ducked.

verbose

I altered my visual focus slightly so they turned into rabbits. Then they hopped away.

Alex

I couldn't have hoped for a better response than that.

Tsundoku

00:46

@verbose No canard à l'orange for you, then.

verbose

@Tsundoku In keeping with my vegetarian lifestyle B^)

bobble

01:12

@Tsundoku hopefully my illustration question was interesting and not dreadfully boring to research :)

4 hours later…

bobble

04:53

going through the saved meta-se questions, two are duplicates and one is moot :(

two more might be moot, at the very least there two that I wouldn't want to lead off with

Rand al'Thor

05:49

We should get Alex and verbose in a room together more often.

2 hours later…

Tsundoku

08:06

@bobble Pas du tout.

Mithical

09:04

I definitely read that as "pass the trout" but I'm pretty sure that's not what you're going for.

1 hour later…

Tsundoku

10:30

A fishy misreading.

Rand al'Thor

11:22

The trout has already been used.

Rand al'Thor

12:06

Congratulations @Fabjaja on reaching 2k reputation!

That's the most fun beta-site privilege threshold. You get to see deleted posts and access all sorts of stats on the tools page.

Alex

12:21

@Randal'Thor I guess that’s better than suggesting that we’re the same person.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex That conversation would've been even weirder if it was just one person talking to himself.

Alex

Eh, I’ve had some pretty weird conversations in my day.

Rand al'Thor

With yourself?

Alex

With you.

Now imagine if we are also the same person and we are conversing with ourself about how weird it would be that we conversed with ourself?

💥

Rand al'Thor

12:40

Conversception.

1 hour later…

Tsundoku

14:02

@Alex I imagine that's essentially how George R. R. Martin writes dialogues for A Song of Ice and Fire. Those conversations have to come from somewhere.

@Randal'Thor Not Seamus Heaney's Trout, though.

bobble

14:43

Can someone put a space after the comma in reginald?

Mithical

done

bobble

It was the 'doku who originally did not give the comma its due space

Bookworm

Q: Can we use past tense in fiction works to refer to an unreal situations without using "if"?

This passage is from The Children's Bach by Helen Garner She stood at the tramstop opposite the long railed side of the cemetery. Someone had written in black texta on the lamp-post DARREN WAR LOURD. No tram was in sight, but she saw an orange campervan coming fast down the street, heading south...

4 hours later…

Bookworm

19:10

Q: How does Ahmad Khani's Mem and Zin differ from the pre-existing oral tradition of the story?

Mem and Zin is a classic tale of traditional Kurdish storytelling, passed down through oral tradition for centuries, but also written down in 1692 by the Kurdish poet Ahmad Khani. In the process of fixing and recording the story, it's quite possible that Khani included some elements which are rec...

textual-history oral-tradition ahmad-khani kurmanji-kurdish-literature mem-and-zin

Bookworm

19:34

Q: Who is the English translator of "The Man Who Wanted to Know" by Dror Mishani if it is a work of translation?

I am under the impression Mishani doesn't write in English. Wikipedia: Haish sheratza ladaat hakol (2015; To be published in English during 2016: The Man who wanted to know) This source claims: Two of his three Inspector Avraham novels have been translated into English: The Missing File (2013)...

translation hebrew-literature dror-mishani the-man-who-wanted-to-know

Bookworm

19:58

Q: How does Dickens present the struggles of the poor through Ignorance and Want but also the novella as a whole?

How does Dickens present the struggles of the poor through Ignorance and Want but also the novella as a whole? My current answer is: In the extract, Dickens presents the suffering of the poor through Ignorance and Want. The Ghost of Christmas Present says “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Wan...

charles-dickens a-christmas-carol

Alex

20:21

@Tsundoku Aha, so I have bestselling author in my future.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex You can take over writing A Song of Ice and Fire if GRRM kicks the bucket before finishing it.

Tsundoku

@Alex If your future involves writing.

bobble

So is it written

Alex

@Randal'Thor I feel like I’d take it in a very different direction. We’d probably have lots of upset fans.

bobble

You can't possibly end it worse than the TV show

Hopefully my meta question gets on HMP soon so more people see it...

Alex

20:32

I haven’t actually read any of the books or watched any of the show.

bobble

don' worry, neither 'ave I

Rand al'Thor

@bobble Heh, you just picked up on the show finale hate from the fans?

bobble

bit hard not to when you follow some general nerd-news sites

Rand al'Thor

Same story for me with various things, notably Star Wars.

I'm somewhat notorious on SFF for never having watched any Star Wars, but I still know quite a bit about the characters, plot points, and fandom reception, just from SFF.SE osmosis.

(despite this)

Alex

20:55

@Randal'Thor Classic Science Fiction & Fantasy. I have a tag score there higher than any I have here (besides Harry Potter) in something I’ve never read/watched.

Tsundoku

So it's easier to get a star-wars badge without having seen the films than getting a Shakespeare badge without having read Shakespeare.

Alex

With having read Shakespeare.

Though I can’t imagine Rand would ignore a tag like stat-wars.

You better fix the typo stat before someone gives it a star.

Tsundoku

@Alex Done. That would have been a kind of star war that I didn't want to get involved in.

Alex

I predict some readers will see stars trying to make sense of the redacted transcript.

But I expect nothing less from a star moderator.

Truly a guiding star for this room.

Bookworm

21:59

Q: was the "doctor marigold" simply the nickname of cheap jack, or marigold was his real name?

actually, Doctor Marigold, one of the heart-wrenching stories of dickens, but i want to make sure, Marigold is the real name right, only doctor is additional?