The Reading Room

Q: Does "Natural Lord" in Frankenstein mean "Father" or something to that effect?

12:17 AM

@Bookworm @Mithrandir "you might [well] ask it"?

b_jonas

12:34 AM

I was just talking to a friend who recommended me two specific Neil Gaiman stories I should read.

@Bookworm That looks liek a homework question.

Ah, I see. "Tomorrow I have an important exam." So it's urgent too.,

The worst kind of homework question, the one that mentions a deadline.

1 hour later…

Bookworm

1:52 AM

In Volume 2, Chapter 3, Page 102 of Penguin Classics Frankenstein, the monster calls Victor his "natural lord." What exactly does this title mean?

6 hours later…

BESW

8:02 AM

Essay: But, but, but — WHY does magic have to make sense? by NK Jemisin. (contains some harsh language)

Icinori's new limited-edition illustrated book incorporates screen-printing, risography and paper pop-ups to tell a story of entropy, industry and the cyclical nature of creation... https://buff.ly/2n2Wzub

Tweeted by grafikmag on January 22, 2018 at 4:51 PM

Help transcribe historical theatre playbills https://www.libcrowds.com/collection/playbills Once in a while, say on a #manuscriptmonday you might even find annotations, like these noting the night’s taking from Dereham Theatre in Norfolk from 1792

Tweeted by LibCrowds on January 22, 2018 at 2:09 PM

This 1491 edition of Pliny’s Natural History is packed with marginal notes from several generations of readers: https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2018/01/19/dont-go-trouble-reading-indexing-note-taking-correction-making-plinys-1491-naturalis-historia/

Tweeted by john_overholt on January 21, 2018 at 3:22 PM

Fabjaja

8:59 AM

@Mithrandir Yep :D The other one was getting a bit meh ;)

Fabjaja

9:26 AM

@Bookworm @Mithrandir @Randal'Thor I think it does mean may/might but the only source I've found is this and it doesn't have a citation (it does mention Jude the Obscure though). All others define it as medicine abbreviated.

2 hours later…

11:40 AM

11:59 AM

@b_jonas Which two?

@Fabjaja user14111's answer there seemed pretty conclusive, but then he deleted it :-/

@Gallifreyan @Riker Want to help undelete this answer?

Long John Silver

12:14 PM

Q: What justifies the anti-Tess interpretation of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles"?

Upon its publication, Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles inspired much debate as to whether Tess should be perceived as an innocent young woman thrust too early into the cruel world of men or as a shameless, immoral woman who deserved everything she got. The author claimed to be surpr...

thomas-hardy tess-of-the-durbervilles

Fabjaja

12:39 PM

@Randal'Thor Oh right, I didn’t see that :/

1:00 PM

@b_jonas Which ones? :3

1 hour later…

b_jonas

2:17 PM

@Randal'Thor "Snow glass apples" and "Murder mysteries"

Meanwhile, at the same meeting, a friend told how after enjoying the Cyberiad he tried to read more of Lem. But he fell into the stupid trap of reading the most popular book, Solaris. He hated it. So I suggested him to read the Pirx Pilot stories instead.

Only problem is that he normally lives in the U.S., although often visits his family here of course, so it's slightly more difficult for him to get that book. He'll manage though.

@Gallifreyan ^

Q: Is Hercule Pariot religious?

3:20 PM

@b_jonas The second one is a killer. It's been adapted by P. Craig Russell to a comic

The first one is great too

Bookworm

3:57 PM

I recently saw an episode of the Hercule Pariot series where he was portrayed as religious. I have recently read the book the episode was based on and there is nothing about religion in the book. In all the other Pariot books I have read (and I've read most of them) I don't remember any specifi...

agatha-christie hercule-poirot

Riker

@Gallifreyan are you like the time lord version of neil gaiman irl or something

4:19 PM

@Bookworm That title though

@Riker I'm not Turkish

Riker

oh, I thought you were

fixed

Q: The mother in C. Hein's play 'Lasalle fragt Herrn Herbert nach Sonja'

And I'm certainly not Neil Gaiman, for that matter

3 hours later…

Bookworm

7:25 PM

Lassalle fragt Herbert nach Sonja. Die Szene ein Salon is a three-act play by the German author Christoph Hein. The play was first performed in 1980 in East Germany and criticizes Marxism. In the 1860s, Ferdinand Lasalle founded the first German labour party (one of the first socialist parties in...

german-literature christoph-hein lassalle-fragt-herrn-herbert-nach-s

Feeds

On #NationalReadingDay, get lost in a good book at your local library! 📚

Tweeted by NYCDDC on January 23, 2018 at 5:00 PM

2 hours later…

Hamlet

9:36 PM

Apparently the question literature.stackexchange.com/questions/1885/… has been viewed by 1000 people

It would be nice if the question could get a better answer rather than one which just quotes two less-than-reliable sources and which doesn't really dive into the why or how of the question.

A: Why does the poem "Naming of Parts" contrast war with nature?

I really hoped that you would write an answer to it.

Hamlet

This question is best answered using a technique called close reading. So unfortunately, if you're just looking for an answer about the poem "Naming of Parts", you're going to have to read about close reading first. But since close reading is a useful and important concept that explains so much a...

Easy enough to do some research on the history of the term, and then link to my answer.

@Hamlet Yes, exactly. Most of that answer would be more applicable to the "What is close reading?" question.

Hamlet

@Mithrandir eh I don't really want to cross post it. But shouldn't be too hard for someone else to write an answer based on mine.

I would consider write an answer if the current answer didn't have a score of 4

If you post an answer, bumping it, that may encourage people to look at it again and perhaps the answer will get some attention as well.

Catija

10:17 PM

Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed for Her Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 88 - The New York Times http://ift.tt/2rxmCyT

Tweeted by warrenellis on January 23, 2018 at 10:13 PM

user61230

10:55 PM

She's a hero. I'm happy for what she gave to the world, and I'm happy for her long and worthwhile life.

11:09 PM

I just learned that Ursula K. Le Guin has died. Her words are always with us. Some of them are written on my soul. I miss her as a glorious funny prickly person, & I miss her as the deepest and smartest of the writers, too. Still honoured I got to do this: https://vimeo.com/112654091

Tweeted by neilhimself on January 23, 2018 at 10:27 PM

skullpatrol

R.I.P.

I've proposed her and her stories for a topic challenge. (Feel free to downvote because she's too well-known or too SFF.)

(But I've seen complaints that we have too few female authors represented on this site, so ...)

user15026

@Randal'Thor what what what the hell

user15026

I mean I know she was old but like....what the hell

See the last three Twitter OBs

user15026

11:22 PM

@Feeds hey, I don't know who runs this but you forgot a word, there

New Topic Challenge Suggestion

@Ash ...ouch

let me delete & repost

A: Suggest your Lit.SE reading challenges here!

Author challenge: Ursula le Guin To commemorate the long life and recent death of this incredibly imaginative and productive writer, one of the giants of 20th-century speculative fiction, I suggest a topic challenge for questions about her and her works. (We've only had two so far, so although s...

@Ash IKR :'(

@Ash there, deleted and reposted

user15026

Awesome :)

user15026

11:26 PM

@Randal'Thor Like sometimes people just feel like they're going to be around forever and then they're not and that's just....not okay

skullpatrol

...who lives forever?

As for who runs it... mostly @Shokhet and me, but anyone can post via this SE chatroom. Shokhet, I, and Zyerah (and technically all people with access to the mod room) have access to the credentials

skullpatrol

(sorry if that sounds insensitive)

I feel like she was the last of the great 'classic' SFF authors.

Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Heinlein, Tolkien, Lewis, Vance ... all gone years or decades ago.

Gene Wolfe is still around, I suppose.

Hmm. Should I edit the title of this meta post? It was accurate at the time of posting, but I can see that title now causing a lot of "whoa, WTF" reactions before people click through and see my comment.