The Reading Room

2:23 AM

@Randal'Thor I agree, even if earlier versions of the question were a drop unclear

7 hours ago, by Shokhet

FTR I VTC'ed as "Unclear," because I didn't understand if he wanted a list for just those authors (and maybe just those books), or a general request. ...I think the general request for a ranking of book sales would be fine

....see my suggested edit which tries to make the question a little clearer

...since I originally voted to close as unclear, I'll wait until my edit (or something similar) happens to VTRO

Not sure where I stand on resource requests. I don't think that meta question really has gotten enough attention to accurately reflect any sort of community consensus.

It is very annoying not to be able to edit without approval :P ...on the plus side, I only need 42 more points to get there, so it shouldn't be too long to wait

@Hamlet Either way, this @Randal'Thor makes a good point that this particular resource request isn't very subjective. Either there is a resource that satisfies the OP's criteria, or there isn't. No opinion involved.

That criteria is pretty clear, IMO:

> Is there an online site that would show, filtered by author, how many copies of each of an author's works have sold?

@Shokhet I agree. The one thing holding me back is that in 99% of cases, resource request questions can be rewritten as non-resource-request questions

This doesn't have to be a test case for all resource requests. There is very little subjectivity involved in this question

@Hamlet ^^^ written at the same time as your comment, functions well as a response to your comment anyway. The closure or opening of this question need not go any further than just this question

@Shokhet "The closure or opening of this question need not go any further than just this question" ??????

2:39 AM

I'm sorry if I'm being unclear. I'm a little tired, and probably should log off soon. Let me try to reword that

@Shokhet don't reword it, log off and go to bed :)

I'm basically trying to say that the discussion around closing or reopening literature.stackexchange.com/questions/2154/… doesn't have to be about whether resource requests in general are on topic. There is no subjectivity involved in this question

@Hamlet Oh, you think I'm going to bed? Then you haven't met my chemistry homework :P

@Shokhet lol completely sympathize!

Anyway, I'd better go. You're right, we can continue this tomorrow

Night, everyone :)

Rand al'Thor

@Shokhet Agreed. There are two kinds of meta questions: general policy-setting ones and specific "what should we do with this situation?" ones. If we can't come to a consensus about resource requests in general, we may still be able to come to one about this particular question.

2:43 AM

@Randal'Thor 👍

Rand al'Thor

@Hamlet Can you approve Shokhet's edit to that question? It just bugs me to see the little "edit (1)" and be unable to do anything more about it :-P

And with that, I'm signing off too. Goodnight all.

Good night.

@Randal'Thor lol you're talking to the moderator who has handled the least amount of flags

1 hour later…

4:10 AM

Today I'm studying symbolism in The Laramie Project.

4:43 AM

Submission call for Mad Scientist Journal's Utter Fabrication: Historical Accounts of Unusual Buildings and Structures, a collection of fictional stories about haunted houses and other weird places.

3 hours later…

8:02 AM

@Shokhet 6 pings :)

Q: How do I keep my slaves happy?

8:19 AM

A year ago, feline mammalian space pirates, a remnant of a collapsed civilization, conquered earth with their advanced technology (their civilization was Kardashev type I) and built a megacity on the continent of North America. The pirates killed 90% of human population but spared the lives of th...

Shouldn't this be on workplace.se? — isanae 1 hour ago

1 hour later…

VicAche

9:46 AM

@Hamlet aligned on that. Thanks for your comments!

1 hour later…

Standback

11:00 AM

@Gallifreyan @BeastlyGerbil Didn't quite follow the flow of the transcript -- I am not clear on what it is I did or didn't defend in my post there. But, more to the point, that post of mine might be highest-voted, but it's still pretty darn contentious -- +12, -6. I think the answer here is a very firm "no consensus yet."

OTOH, people who want to tag with author+title have an easy tagging system, and those who don't, kind of don't. So I have some suspicions about how that might pan out :P

@Standback Easy wins...

3 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

2:25 PM

@Hamlet I don't care who's handled how many flags here. All three of you are engaging with the community in meta and chat, and taking part in useful discussions, and that's more important (IMO) than the quantitative measure of flags handled.

3:10 PM

peterchrisp.blogspot.com/2017/03/…

2 hours later…

4:48 PM

5:02 PM

52 rep until I have "mod privileges"

Someone please post a _Sandmand, or Strugatsky brothers question

@Shokhet ^^^

5:27 PM

@Gallifreyan Does Dream have free will?

@Shokhet That's cheating

But, if you accept Overture for an answer I'll post it

@Gallifreyan Hey, you did pretty well with my other comic free will question ;-)

@Shokhet ironic that this question will require me to dip to prequels as well :)

@Gallifreyan Say what? I thought it's pretty clear that he does. In P&L at least he seems to be pretty much in control of what he does

@Shokhet but in Overture it's... ah, I shouldn't spoil it

5:32 PM

I'll see if I can find a good question for you later. I probably won't ask that one

@Shokhet Don't forget to message me first so I can prepare an answer and be the Fastest Gun in the West :D

6:06 PM

@Gallifreyan I'll try :)

You may be asleep by the time I post. I need to get thru a bunch of classes and a chemistry lab tonight

@Shokhet I feel ya - I have physics tomorrow

@Gallifreyan Good luck

I'm not finished with the pre-lab work yet... :0

@Shokhet thanks! What are you doing in this lab?

Not sure. Didn't start it yet...was too busy with last week's post-lab

We did an iodine clock reaction

Hm. We did "A penny's worth of chemistry"

6:19 PM

@Gallifreyan It's time for me to go to class, but what do you think about they symbology of Dream's articles of power? I haven't found much on Google, but there was this one thing I found about "'Being' Decentered in Sandman: History, Dreams, Gender, and the 'Prince of Metaphor and Allusion'." Do you have anything on that?

@Shokhet Articles of power?

@Gallifreyan Ruby, pouch of sand, helm. The things he lost when he was captured and spends the entire P&L trying to recover

@Shokhet You mean P&N, right? I see what you're talking about. I'll have to think of it. The Ruby and Helmet may be easy, but the Pouch I'm not sure of.

@Gallifreyan yes, that. I don't know how that L got there :p

Q: What does Sedgemoor trade-mark, white sleeve badge mean?

@Shokhet I'll read what you linked tomorrow

Sounds very interesting, and not a trivial question at all.

2 hours later…

Bookworm

9:01 PM

Can somebody please explain this expression from a Mark Twain story, A Double Barrelled Detective Story: 'Sedgemoor trade-mark, white sleeve badge'? Here is the context: Among other things he said that my character was written in my face; that I was treacherous, a dissembler, a coward, and a...

mark-twain american-literature

Standback

9:44 PM

@Randal'Thor : Great answer on the Greatness of Gatsby! I really enjoyed :)

BTW, @Standback, pinging works with punctuation after the name without a space.

If you're interested in writing challenges, please consider committing to the trial run for this suggestion over at meta.writers, under Standback's answer.

Seems like a great idea...but an, at least weird, idea for meta.

Although, relieving that 10-minutes time pressure is a nice idea, I'm not sure meta is really the appropriate place for shenanigans like that rather than chat.

Why?

It might liven up their meta ;)

9:59 PM

I presume Literature wouldn't like this? Just making sure. ;-)

It's technically on topic, I think, but it would need a lot of cleanup.

Also, they don't say why they think it's from a poem, so....

Anyway, already resolved, apparently it was from some movie and the user was really confused.

Urg, @NapoleonWilson,you made that edit, which is exactly the same as my suggested edit, after I submitted it :/

movies.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/57701

@Mithrandir Tough luck. ;-)

Besides that, mine was better. ;-P

Riker

"A chrystal forest"

I too like chrystal forests

10:12 PM

Whatever :P

11:06 PM

The PBS Idea Channel asks, "What type of popular work might survive as the archetypal form of the early 21st century?"

(Their historical example of the three-part novel and penny dreadful is understandably incomplete, but a decent introduction to a fascinating subject.)