Can you recommend dystopian novels and stories that deal with the topic of fake news, propaganda, and media in general? Also, for a contrast, literature where info sources are portrayed in a more favourable light?

In Jude the Obscure, work that Jude does is masonry - stones and menial labor. His ambition is to become a scholar - books and mental labor. I'm struggling to see how these relate to each other - how is Jude doing masonry related to his ambitions? Is this to provide a contrast, or is there somet...

I am reading The Great Gatsby, and would like to know what "if we had room for him" means in the following sentences: "Biloxi?" He concentrated with an effort. "I didn't know him. He was a friend of Daisy's." "He was not," she denied. "I'd never seen him before. He came down in the privat...

The quote is something like this: "The more enemies a man has, the greater he is". I believe it's from one of the Upanishads, or from the Mahabharata, or maybe from another Hindu/Indian scripture. Does anyone know where it's from? I know it exists in some variations in other non-Indian texts, but...

I got to thinking awhile back: many high-level politicians (such as Paul Ryan, current Speaker of the House in the U.S.), media figures, etc. cite Atlas Shrugged as a major influence. Then I got to thinking: has anyone actually tried to measure exactly how influential it is? Has anyone come up w...