The Reading Room

12:00 AM

Sure... but I'd argue that there are probably a lot of people who think they understand why they do something a certain way but they've just come up with rules after the fact that don't necessarily explain the origin of that process... Like the guy who edits film based on characters on screen blinking... while there are a lot of other explanations, him realizing that a blink was a good place for a scene change is (probably) sort of secondary.

BESW

Basically "the text" is "the work we're studying," whether it's a novel or a letter or a film or a radio drama or everything Tolkien ever wrote including his letters.

Catija

And, yes, I'm going to assume that, when analyzing one of the films he's edited, using his book on editing (In the Blink of an Eye) would be fair game as a source in that analysis.

BESW

> No one will listen to a word you say if you don’t gin up a System of some sort. Everyone loves a System. Laws, Rules, Keys. You can sell Laws. You can’t sell, “Just be good at this for God’s sake; I’ll need a drink if you’re going to keep on like that.” If there’s a System to follow, that means it’s easy—why, patting up a good strawberry tart is a harder job than acting! If only we had known all along! Jolly good we’ve got you to set us straight, Mary. Offer up a System and everyone relaxes.
- Catherynne M. Valente. "Radiance"

Rand al'Thor

Here's an example where I included a direct quote from an author and then took a critical look at it to decide whether that was likely to be reliable information.

BESW

@Catija Absolutely. Depending on the critical lens one uses, it'd also be valid to point at something he's never mentioned or even disavowed knowing about but which you can draw parallels to.

Catija

12:03 AM

@BESW Yeah, this is why some people think Atheists can't possibly be good people... if they don't have a list of rules to follow, clearly, they're shit people.

BESW

Stephanie Meyer insisted she never read or saw any vampire media prior to writing Twilight, that her knowledge of the monster was purely cultural osmosis. Which is curious because she's drawing on some very old vampire tropes which modern pop culture has largely forgotten.

Rand al'Thor

In this answer, I even took a critical look at what the author was telling us in the story itself and then decided that, in light of the circumstances surrounding that story, it should be taken to be less reliable than other, later evidence.

Catija

@BESW That they sparkle in the sunlight?

BESW

@Catija Rather. Prior to film, vampires were not harmed by daylight, and at worst had a slight drop in their mystical talents.

Catija

People always need to give the boogeyman a week point.

BESW

12:06 AM

Eh, more like it was a great visual setpiece.

Rand al'Thor

@BESW J.K. Rowling insisted that she wasn't trying to genrify her work, but just realised when she was most of the way through the first HP book that "oh, hey, this has got unicorns in it! I'm writing fantasy!"

I've called bullshit on that ever since I first heard it.

BESW

(Similarly, vampires tended to be hideous but possessing of great animal magnetism which attracted people to them--this changed when film used "handsome" as shorthand for animal magnetism.)

Catija

@BESW Sparkling or bursting into flame?

BESW

So I'd be quite content writing a piece about how Twilight draws on The Vampyre and Carmilla and Varney the Vampire (if I could ever muster up the intestinal fortitude to read Varney, urrrgh) despite Meyer insisting (and I really do believe her) that she'd never read 'em.

@Catija Both.

Catija

@Randal'Thor "genrify"?

Rand al'Thor

12:09 AM

@Catija A word I made up on the spur of the moment, hoping it'd be clear what it meant :-P

Catija

Have you read the Night Watch books?

Rand al'Thor

I.e. she claims she wasn't trying to write for any particular genre.

@Catija Lukyanenko?

Love 'em.

Wow, I thought @DVK and I were the only people on SFF who knew those books!

2

BESW

I... saw the films? [grin]

Catija

@Randal'Thor HA HA I kept reading it with the same emphasis as "Gentrify"... gen-ri-fy... so I was missing the genre connection.

Rand al'Thor

@BESW kicks BESW out to the Screening Room

Catija

12:11 AM

@Randal'Thor I've actually read the entire series... much better than the films. The films don't do the books justice at all.

Rand al'Thor

^

BESW

Hey, at least I read Metro 2033 instead of playing the game.

Catija

I ask because they have an interesting take on "vampires" in the books.

Rand al'Thor

@Catija I've read enough about the films not to even bother trying to watch them. (I'm only halfway through the series though, so please mind the spoilers!)

Catija

Though, we did have the director come and talk to us at school... really nice guy.

@Randal'Thor Sure. I don't think I've said anything. I haven't read them in a while, anyway and the first two are much more ingrained in my mind than the later ones.

BESW

12:14 AM

Speaking of films and denying inspiration, the writer/director of Equilibrium claims to have never heard of 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 until after the film was completed.

Catija

I don't actually dislike the films... they really just don't connect to the books. As a standalone product, I like them quite well.

The director also did the movie with curved bullet trajectories... he's not much with plot but a great one for visuals.

BESW

I have no problem with Meyer's version of vampires. They're a logical progression in a 200-year history of the monster adapting to reflect the subconscious fears of the culture they're portrayed in. Vampires have never been static or had any single coherent quality throughout their history. And there are many better things to have a problem with in Twilight.

Catija

I haven't actually read any of them. I am under the impression that her writing style is... poor... particularly if you're used to better.

BESW

(Heck, I like the idea that vampires are glittering marble statues of frozen youth. It's a bit literal, but it works on a lot of levels.)

Rand al'Thor

(Wow, that 1984 question is still doing well on the HNQ list.)

BESW

12:20 AM

Yes, Meyer could've used a better editor. Or, sometimes, one suspects she had no editor at all.

Rand al'Thor

@Catija I can't actually understand all the hate for those books. The writing style is no worse than various other "US high school" fiction I've read.

Catija

Though, I am more than happy to admit that I often read teenage-bait schlock... I read the entire series of The Selection... a sort of crossover story between The Bachelor set in a kingdom undergoing some upheaval.

@Randal'Thor But I like being able to say I've not read them :P

BESW

Personally I find the Twilight series most reprehensible for its themes and messages--but also quite fascinating for how it communicates them.

Rand al'Thor

@Catija Fair enough (says the guy who hasn't seen Star Wars) :-)

BESW

It's especially intriguing to read Breaking Dawn alongside Twilight and see how Meyer has changed her opinion of the characters and their actions in the intervening years--BD is almost a rebuttal and condemnation of Twilight.

Rand al'Thor

12:24 AM

Ah, Breaking Dawn is the only one I haven't even semi-read.

BESW

Wait, bah, wrong one.

Catija

I don't even know enough about the series to understand why there are chess pieces all over the cover art.

BESW

It's been so long.... I mean Midnight Sun.

Midnight Sun is a re-telling of Twilight, from Edward's PoV instead of Bella's.

Catija

... How many of them are there? I've never even heard of that one.

Oh, so it's the Twilight equivalent of the retelling of Ender's Game from Bean's perspective?

BESW

It's an unfinished draft available on her website, which she stopped writing because, "If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die."

Catija

12:26 AM

James? I thought it was Edward or Jacob....

BESW

James is the vampire villain of the first novel.

It's okay, he's very forgettable even by Twilight standards.

Catija

Hmmm. I think the closest I got to reading it was seeing two of them in Master Pancake versions... I think the first one and the one where they go to some island and she gets knocked up?

BESW

But yeah, Midnight Sun is... savage. It rips apart Bella's fairy-tale narrative by exposing Edward for the creepy stalker every discerning reader already knew he was, but which Twilight never admitted.

Catija

... btw, Master Pancake is a Texas version of MST3K.

drafthouse.com/series/master-pancake

Rand al'Thor

@Catija Come to think of it, neither do I. That might make a good question for one of the sites.

BESW

12:30 AM

Personally I think the whole saga could've been salvaged by a good editor and a theme shift: it's a horror story about two deeply dysfunctional sociopaths who can't function on their own, and how together their neuroses complement each other so they can inflict themselves on the world as a terrifying power couple.

Nothing in the plot has to change, just the presentation.

Catija

Considering the popularity of 50 Shades, it'd probably actually have performed better.

BESW

Well, different audience.

Rand al'Thor

@Catija Bleurgh.

BESW

The success of Twilight hinges largely on Bella's role as an audience surrogate.

Catija

@BESW Wanting a super rich, eternal, sparkly man to fight over them with a werewolf?

2

BESW

12:33 AM

You'll find similar characters in lots of books, especially for the same ostensible target demographic, but Meyer's brilliance lies in the skill with which she crafted Bella as an empty shell for the reader to fill.

Catija

@BESW Well, I guess that explains the casting in the films.

BESW

Bella is a cipher, given just enough personality and qualities to be recognisable but not enough to be herself. Her flaws are trivial, her desires are generic, her challenges are petty.

Catija

I like books with strong women... I want a book about a girl who's going to take charge, not let things happen to them.

BESW

in Not a bar, but plays one on TV, Oct 5 '15 at 12:50, by BESW

Bella's got enough personality to move the story forward, but it's a generic sort of "spunky but nervous, put-upon but privileged" middle class American kind of personality that can be nudged around to fit the needs of the plot without conflicting too much with the sense of the target readership that they're her.

I consider Twilight to be a savage but unintentional satire on the American middle class.

4

And of course all of this circles back 'round to authorial intent: I don't think Meyer ever consciously intended any of the stuff I'm saying.

It's there, though, and it's glorious.

(And these themes are also why I'd go back to The Vampyre and Carmilla and Varney for comparisons and contrasts.)

Catija

Sorry. Getting out of work now. If the baby complies, I might be back in an hour or so. :)

user15026

12:42 AM

@Catija I read this as "if the baby compiles", was momentarily confused

5

Riker

babbys always compile

Hamlet

@Randal'Thor @BESW to be honest, I asked that question less because it was a good question for the site, and more because I wanted to get people thinking about questions like that.

BESW

I can get behind that.

I think it's a good "very few people can answer this but doesn't mean it's a bad question" question.

Hamlet

If I had a day or two to hunt down a bunch of sources, I could probably put together a decent answer to that question.

I just don't have that kind of time right now

Bookworm

12:57 AM

0

Q: Was Odysseus considered unfaithful to his wife in the Odyssey?

Penelope is portrayed throughout the story to be virtuous when it comes to men, meaning that she holds out hope for her husband's safety 20 years after she saw him and had no other relationships in that time. Odysseus on the other hand has romantic relationships with 2 people over his journey. ...

amaranth

1:42 AM

@BESW weren't the vampires in The Vampyre and Carmilla both physically attractive?

BESW

Yes, but Varney and Dracula were not.

Carmilla and Lord Ruthven offer other, more thematic parallels with Twilight.

amaranth

but The Vampyre is close to the oldest you can get in vampire fiction, so I don't see why you mention film

since film didn't invent the physically attractive vampire

BESW

I mention film as an example of how portrayals change; Dracula in particular.

The history of vampires in popular media is a hot mess.

amaranth

it's one that I was trying to untangle, but now I'm reading Mycroft Holmes instead

I should probably fix my one and only question on this site though, which has to do with vampires. The problem is, the question is not clear even to me in my head, so no one else stands a chance. And I can't delete it anymore.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

3:22 AM

@Catija there's only one thing to say in response to that.

@Bookworm How's this question not on HNQ?

BESW

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I recommend Ursula Vernon's novels in that regard.

Her specialty stock-in-trade is sensible, practical female protagonists who roll their sleeves up and get to work without disregarding others or the importance of positive social structures (eg, they don't just go careening around fixing their own problems at the expense of everyone else).

When Harriet is given a quest to save the princesses from a curse, she first asks the princesses if that's what they want. Then she rips apart the castle and finds the antagonist a better hobby.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@BESW I want all my childrens' books writers to look that cool! Admittedly, I've got no idea what Dr. Seuss or whoever wrote Goodnight, Moon had for a sense of fashion.

BESW

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Heh. She's got a special "respectable childrens' author" outfit for book tours.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@BESW Don't go busting my fantasy!

BESW

Oh, I'm not. There's a reason she has to designate a wardrobe for that purpose.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

3:35 AM

Damn. Now i have ANOTHER webcomic to add to the queue. I'm drowning in "wanna read" webcomics :(

Chatroom rule #3. Starboard has to have a message containing pedantry.

BESW

Digger? Yeah, I highly recommend Digger.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@BESW OK, added her to the list (the reading one, as well as webcomic). Thanks!

BESW

Her books under T Kingfisher are also a delight--not that Castle Hangnail and Hamster Princess aren't.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

Can't wait for retirement

BESW

(She writes children's/YA books under Vernon, so for things that parents wouldn't necessarily be thrilled for their kids to pick up unexpectedly she also publishes as Kingfisher.)

DVK-on-Ahch-To

3:40 AM

@BESW Her kid author name Googles as a link to DeviantArt account. Not much of a disguise, to misquote MIB.

BESW

It's not a disguise, more of a... signal.

Her DevArt account (and Digger) pre-date her life as a kids' author, and DA allows "maturity" filters anyway.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@BESW Hm. I can't for the life of me imagine anyone who goes to DA and turns the filter on. Perhaps that's a failure of my imagination.

BESW

It defaults to on.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@BESW How bourgeois of them :)

BESW

Artists can mark individual posts as mature content, and then anyone who isn't signed in AND has indicated they want to see mature content still can, but has to enter their birthdate first.

Bookworm

3:45 AM

0

Q: Does Dr. Manhattan have free will?

In Alan Moore's Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan is a superhero with godlike powers, including the ability to view his past, present, and future simultaneously. Manhattan believes that everything that happens and everything that will happen has been predetermined, and cannot be changed. My memories of...

comics alan-moore watchmen

BESW

Vernon's not trying to hide anything, just put a couple gates between Danny Dragonbreath and Celadon Toadstool so parents can be told "Hey, it's your problem."

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Catija Entire as in entire, or as in what was translated? There's 25 total books and short stories in the entire shared Universe. I think I read all but last 1 or 2.

The latter books are way way better, idea wise. More gray (not the 50 shades kind).

Speaking of 50 shades (or rather refusing to), I should ask some Kushiel questions on main site when I have time.

user15026

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I've read a few of those, I liked them well enough

user15026

@BESW I loved that. All of the Hamster Princess books are so goooooood

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Ash Yeah, Carey has a knack for combining bloody good yarn with somewhat believable kink psychology.

BESW

3:57 AM

@Ash Have you read The Seventh Bride?

Catija

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Hmmm, no. The first four books, then, I guess. I thought that was it.

user61230

You know what seems like it could be really fun? A Lit.SE Book Exchange.

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@Catija If you got any questions, feel free to ask here or on SFF. I'm somewhat of a big fan, and so far @Randal'Thor seems to have had all his questions addressed.

user15026

@BESW I haven't read anything of hers as T. Kingfisher, I need to rectify that when I have book money

BESW

A number of her Kingfisher short stories are available for free online in various places.

Some of them are early drafts she published on her blog before polishing them up for an anthology, others are published through online magazines.

Catija

4:03 AM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

user15026

@BESW I'll have to look for them :)

DVK-on-Ahch-To

I wish more of Lukyanenko's stuff got translated. He's pretty good.

BESW

@Ash Ahah, she's made a list!

user15026

@BESW Yay! That makes the hunting that much easier :D

BESW

Most of them are revisiting common fairy tales through a distinctly Vernonesque lens.

user15026

4:09 AM

Excellent

DVK-on-Ahch-To

@HDE226868 - did you ever read Flint's "Pyramid Scheme" series? Thoughts? (as far being a mythology and literature expert, both)

HDE 226868

4:37 AM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I actually haven't. My interests are primarily Welsh and Celtic (including early Arthurian pieces) and some Norse mythology, so I'm less in tune with things relating to Egyptian mythology, this included.

What do you think of the series? It looks somewhat interesting, though not something I'd necessarily pick off the shelf at a bookstore.

Note to self: Ask question about the Domesday Book.

Mithrandir

9:09 AM

O_O I'm close to gold...

Bookworm

9:27 AM

0

Q: How much of The Song of Wandering Aengus by Yeats is based on Irish folklore?

Yeats was a keen student of Irish folklore and it is clear that the titular character in his poem The Song of Wandering Aengus is based on the pre-Christian Celtic god of love, youth and poetry. However, little of what happens on the poem can be directly linked to surviving stories about the dee...

poetry myths y-b-yeats irish-literature

Mithrandir

10:27 AM

@MatrimCauthon congratulations on Lit's first gold badge!

Benjamin

@Mithrandir Yes, good job.

Matrim Cauthon

11:02 AM

@Mithrandir thanks!

Mithrandir

And one more vote on that answer and I'll have the top voted answer on the site again o_O

Benjamin

11:31 AM

How are we going to handle conflicting consensuses? I see a good number emerging.

Mithrandir

@Benjamin We wait.

And see how the voting is after a month or so... ;)

Standback

11:43 AM

@Benjamin : Any answer post on meta with +10/-10 causes the site to bifurcate in two; two instances existing in parallel, each with their own rules and conventions.

Eventually, the one which chose the unwise policy dies a gory death.

(Rumors of pit fights between parallel SE beta sites are absolutely unfounded)

Benjamin

@Standback I don't mean those I mean two answers to two different questions, which conflict, but have the same vote.

Standback

@Benjamin "Ask a new, superseding meta question about the clash" is what I'd advise.

It calls attention to the contradiction, and forces a resolution, using the current user-base.

Benjamin

@Standback How long afterwards should that be done?

BESW

I'd wait three to seven days for full citizen exposure, provided it can keep that long.

Not everybody logs in multiple times every day.

doppelgreener

12:15 PM

On RPG.SE there was a period where a lot of user-moderation work (like improving questions) was being made in chat at a fast pace, and multiple decision points were covered in hours & results were arrived at within the day.

This frustrated users who didn't enter chat and who were around less frequently (because, say, they were away at work & taking care of family). They were unable to keep track of or participate in what was going on, because it all occurred on a timescale shorter than their participation visits, and the users engaged didn't provide links to keep them in the loop.

Now, visiting just once for a short while each day is pretty reasonable. Resolving situations of broad community concern rapidly within a single day or two denies them the ability to meaningfully participate in site moderation and curation; it's preferable to empower all regular visitors to participate.

Well, improving questions is a bad example come to think of it, because the main problem there was just improvements were being discussed in chat and not on main site, and then the question would suddenly drastically change and nobody had any idea why -- so the diamond moderators said "ok, stop workshopping this stuff in chat so much, do it in comments, and if you do do it in chat, link to the conversation from comments so we understand what's happening."

Rand al'Thor

@Mat Congrats on 2k rep and on Lit's first gold badge! :-D

Rand al'Thor

12:47 PM

Ooh ooh ooh.

@Benjamin, amaranth, Standback: I just realised that there's already a system for distinguishing between 'long' and 'short' works in this way: whether their titles appear in italics or quotation marks. We can apply the same rule when deciding where to draw the line: long works such as novels or series whose titles are in italics get tags; short works such as poems or short stories whose titles are in quotation marks don't. — Rand al'Thor 2 mins ago

If I wasn't already convinced that this proposal is workable, I would've just convinced myself with that.

It's a distinction that's already being made.

Benjamin

@Randal'Thor That makes sense

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor I always put them in italics... Because I don't know when to which...

DVK-on-Ahch-To

1:43 PM

@HDE226868 Actually, the sequel was nearly 100% Norse :)

@HDE226868 I really like it. It's vintage Flint - humorous, irreverent, fun characters, interesting plot. Plus, I am in general a guilty-pleasure fan of mixing assorted mythology and conspiracies into a big stir fry (this series, or Doherty's Area 51).

DForck42

2:03 PM

mornin

Mithrandir

@DForck42 afternoon

@DVK-on-Ahch-To like The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel?

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Oh hey, you read those too?

For the record, while I did enjoy this series, I thought it never really achieved the potential it had at the start. The author clearly didn't have all the books planned out when he wrote the first one, which led to some slightly bewildering things later on involving the allegiances of certain characters. It was a very fun read but not a terribly consistent one. — Rand al'Thor ♦ Feb 3 at 2:07

DForck42

@Mithrandir how goes it?

Mithrandir

Feb 9 at 14:39, by Mithrandir

20 hours ago, by Mithrandir

2 days ago, by Mithrandir

Feb 1 at 14:11, by Mithrandir

It is a giant immobile brain

@Randal'Thor Only got the first because I don't get new books often, the rest are on my list

HDE 226868

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Really? That's interesting.

DForck42

2:18 PM

@Mithrandir you're not a giant immobile brain though

Mithrandir

@DForck42 ...That's what you think....

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Aww. You need more books, and faster.

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor Yes. Exactly.

I have to bug my mother to browse the free Kindle books again.

DForck42

@Mithrandir have you tried project Gutenberg?

Mithrandir

@DForck42 n'yet

(Russian intended)

DForck42

2:22 PM

heh

Bookworm

2:42 PM

0

Q: When did Robert Frost write "Two Tramps in Mud Time"?

Googling the poem, and utilizing Wikipedia, I could not find the answer to my question. The book I own ("101 Great American Poems") which contains the poem also does not give the year of its creation - it gives the birth and death years of the featured poets, but not the "birth year" of the poems...

poetry publication robert-frost

Mithrandir

2:56 PM

Wow, over 12000 views...

Shokhet

4:53 PM

@Mithrandir Nice. Mine just hit 1200 :)

Congrats on the HNQ! — Rand al'Thor 33 mins ago

Thank you @Randal'Thor :)

I like it when my questions become HNQs. It's good for the repz... ;-)

@Gallifreyan To answer your (now deleted) comment: I don't mind if your answer comes from Before Watchmen. I would prefer only Moore stuff, if possible, but if BW can shed some light on Manhattan, that's fine too

Reading your answer now

I haven't read Before Watchmen yet, but that's fine...

@Gallifreyan Very nice answer, +1. The only point I'd make is kinda semantic, and was made already...

"No by his own design", means "yes". It's not that he couldn't choose, he did choose, by his own free will he chose a specific path, make all his decisions at once, and now lives only with the consequences. Rather than giving up his free will, he made a plan that he follows to the letter with no deviation. — Separatrix 2 hours ago

@Shokhet Now 1300 :)

Gallifreyan

5:19 PM

@Shokhet thanks! I'm skimming through Moore's Watchmen right now; the main reason why I didn't choose it in the first place is because it's harder to navigate than Before Watchmen :P

Bookworm

2

Q: How did real historical Igbo society differ to its portrayal in Things Fall Apart?

I recently read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and found its detailed portrayal of historical Igbo (aka Ibo) culture very interesting. My understanding is that it's a reasonably close approximation of actual Igbo culture, but does mix in elements of other similar cultures plus a little artis...

historical-context

Shokhet

@Gallifreyan You're telling me :) ...I couldn't find the puppet quote by skimming. I needed to Google for it to find where it was ;)

Riker

@Shokhet sorry accidentally rejected your edit, though I made the exact same changes you did

I didn't reject it, but community did, because I edited a split second before

Shokhet

@Riker That's all right. As long as the question is the way it's supposed to be

Riker

yep

I also italicized the book title, but that's the only diff

Shokhet

5:24 PM

You did one thing that I didn't, which was italicizing the title in the question body, so there's that

@Riker Jinx! :)

Riker

lol

Mithrandir

6:08 PM

@Shokhet not my question, just my answer :P

Shokhet

6:19 PM

@Mithrandir Hey, an answer with a score of 54 is not too shabby... ;-)

Shokhet

7:18 PM

I don't mean to single you out, @Gallifreyan, but your answer was my reason for posting meta.literature.stackexchange.com/q/489/481

Mithrandir

7:29 PM

I've just added a few now. One I had provided a transcript,but perhaps it wasn't clear, so... And the other was an answer on my question.

@Shokhet but I don't deserve it... All I did was 8 minutes of web searching and gave a Wikipedia quote...

Shokhet

@Mithrandir I saw that. כל הכבוד :)

DForck42

7:49 PM

just gonna leave this here

amazon.com/Bards-Dispense-Profanity-William-Shakespeare/dp/…

2

Catija

So... a Shakespearean version of Cards Against Humanity?

DForck42

@Catija yup

Mithrandir

8:13 PM

O_O

Riker

8:27 PM

@DForck42 that's freaking amazing

I need this in my life

BESW

Yes, but which folio are they using? [asks the important questions]

DForck42

@Riker lol, my fiancée found it

Mithrandir

8:43 PM

O_o

Librarian

4

Q: Please include descriptions of your images

One Stack Exchange website on which I'm active has an ongoing project to fix the alt text all over the site to increase accessibility for vision-impaired users. I'd just like to ask all of you to fix this before it becomes an issue, and include the alt text in any posts with pictures so that our...

discussion pictures accessibility

Mithrandir

9:05 PM

@Librarian Thou art slow.

DForck42

@Mithrandir still

Mithrandir

0

A: A reminder to those with 500+ reputation: please remember your close/reopen votes!

In addition to the 32 users who can VTC, all users with 15 or more can flag for closure. This will put the post in the Close Votes queue, where more users with the Close privilege will be able to see that it needs to be closed.

i figured it was worth mentioning and getting it out of the Unanswered :P

Benjamin

9:49 PM

0

Q: Do the names in To Kill A Mockingbird have significance?

I am currently at the beginning of reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, so I haven't done a significant amount of research, but I have talked to some people who have read the whole thing and they said that there was some significance to the names. Do the names in To Kill A Mockingbird hav...

symbolism harper-lee to-kill-a-mockingbird

Just posting this because Bookworm is so slow.

Bookworm

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Q: Do the names in To Kill A Mockingbird have significance?

I am currently at the beginning of reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, so I haven't done a significant amount of research, but I have talked to some people who have read the whole thing and they said that there was some significance to the names. Do the names in To Kill A Mockingbird hav...

symbolism harper-lee to-kill-a-mockingbird

Riker

> bookworm is so slow

> 5 minutes

such slow

Mithrandir

10:07 PM

@Standback:

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A: Accepting nominations — Who should moderate this site?

Notes: This nominee would be a good choice because he has shown himself to be interested in the health of the site, as evidenced by his extensive Meta participation, and has good knowledge of the subject matter, as shown by his main site participation. In addition, he also moderates Write...

Oh look

A discussion tag badge

HDE 226868

@Mithrandir You sound like you magically caught it in a butterfly net.

5

DForck42

@HDE226868 lol

HDE 226868

I still need more meta answers to get it.

Mithrandir

@HDE226868 I did

Standback

10:53 PM

@Mithrandir : Oh! Thank you :D

I'm afraid I'm going to decline, though. I don't have the bandwidth at the moment,

and I also just don't feel like I grok the site, or its potential, well enough to moderate. I'll be better as a participant, I think.

(Also a lesson from Writers. Don't turn too many participants into mods; it can make the balance weird. :P )

...I don't seem to be able to propose edits on Meta. Hmmm.

Gilles

11:13 PM

@Standback Pity. I feel you and @BESW are the only two meta/chat participants who understand what a Literature site is about.

Standback

@Gilles If you have a coherent idea, I would love to hear it :D

(I think my current claim to fame is "eulogized previous Lit.SE really well." :P )

Rand al'Thor

11:32 PM

@Mithrandir Congrats ... but ... did you just post four short answers on discussion questions today so that you could get a badge? ;-)

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