The Reading Room

Bookworm

09:11

0

Q: What does "all your ties are bending, breaking" mean in "I Can't Save the World If I'm Not Happy"?

CW: mentions of self-harm. Eliza Grace's song "I Can't Save the World If I'm Not Happy" is quite obviously a song about depression; there are several mentions of self-harm ("you can't calm your wrists with a razor blade") and the whole song has a very depressed feel to it. The outro of the so...

b_jonas

09:33

120

Q: What are the reputation requirements for privileges on sites, and how do they differ per site?

Formerly Reputation requirements compared. What are the reputation requirements for privileges on the various sites in the network? Also, how do reputation requirements for various privileges compare on different Stack Exchange sites? Specifically, the following types of sites: Designed sites...

discussion faq reputation privileges

b_jonas

09:51

@Randal'Thor Ah, like all those classical greek texts, both fiction and non-fiction.

@Alex Some authors work that way, they change their poems after publication so they can differ between different books. I even have an old question about that hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Tudakoz%C3%B3/… . And that's not even a case when the text was changed due to censorship like in "Ha vihar jő a magasból".

@Randal'Thor ^ this, yes

@Randal'Thor Then there's Szabó Lőrinc's translation of "Ulysses" by Tennyson. The copy at magyarulbabelben.net/works/en/Tennyson%2C_Alfred_Lord-1809/… has textual differences from my transcription at math.bme.hu/~ambrus/pu/verst .

I went back to check my photo so I know that the differences aren't errors in my transcription. But I don't know if they're errors in the other transcription, or if the ed. Szerb Antal volume somehow got a different version of the poem from somewhere.

@Tsundoku People will probably mention it in chat.

Gareth Rees

10:51

@Bookworm Much the most likely explanation is that people have misremembered the text of "Stopping by Woods". Anyone who looks at quote-identification and story-identification questions here or on scifi.se will be familiar with the way that memory plays tricks on people, adding, omitting, and substituting details, or mixing up parts of different stories.

Here, for example, a pipe has turned into a cigar and a rope into a sail in the reader's memory, and here "place" has turned into "space" and "deep" into "big". Memory is simply not to be depended on for these kinds of details.

In any case, the original (1923) printing of "Stopping by Woods" is available here on the Internet Archive and you can check it for yourself.

Bookworm

11:05

0

Q: Is this a real Indian fairy tale about a monkey who changes colour and marries a princess?

In R. K. Narayan's short story "A Willing Slave" (which I read as part of his 1982 collection Malgudi Days), the nanny Ayah tells a story to the young girl Radha: The Ayah squatted below the cot and narrated the story of the black monkey which rolled in a sack of chalk powder, became white an...

story-identification short-stories r-k-narayan fairy-tales

Rand al'Thor

12:15

@Tsundoku And withdrawn again ;-) I guess he downvoted a few answers.

Skooba

12:48

or a question or answer of mine got downvoted

but i do believe i downvoted an lqp

Gareth Rees

13:59

After looking into the history of the "double iamb" in this answer, I am not sure the whole business ought not to be a seen as a scandal

The thing that seems to have prevented double iambs from being properly recognized, was a theory that "recession of accent" (a feature of various Indo-European languages including ancient Greek) had also applied to early modern English

The idea was that when Shakespeare wrote "Therefore my verse to constancy confined" (Sonnet 105) he pronounced it "confined" but when he wrote "Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom" (Sonnet 107) the accent "receded" so that the word was pronounced "confined" and did not break the iambic rhythm

The "recession of accent" theory muddied the waters and made it hard to recognise these cases as double iambs. But the main evidence for the "recession of accent" theory was itself the scansion, so the theory always had a circular flavour

Rand al'Thor

17:12

I have 4 flags pending, so probably it'll never be 1000/1000, but still nice.

North Læraðr

nice

Tsundoku

17:47

@Bookworm "a dhobi took pity on him and washed, bleached and ironed him". Ouch!

Rand al'Thor

18:57

Site analytics (5k+ rep link, sorry) show that our posts-per-week has in the last two weeks reached a height not seen since a peak in Jan 2019, and traffic to the site is at a volume never reached since they changed the way that's calculated.

I hope this isn't just a temporary spike caused by election notifications reminding people of the site.

Bookworm

19:29

2

Q: What does Daisy's proverb about being married to the devil mean?

In the second part of R. K. Narayan's novel The Painter of Signs, Raman and Daisy are on their way back from a remote village. They have spent a night on the road, Raman sleeping under a bullock cart and Daisy sleeping in the bullock cart. Or at least, that's where Raman thought Daisy was sleepin...

cultural-context r-k-narayan the-painter-of-signs

Skooba

19:57

@Randal'Thor I'm back in baby!

Tsundoku

Yes, I noticed that too.

@Randal'Thor Looking at the questions from the last few days (and excluding the usual suspects), I noticed that many were posted by people who are not eligible to vote. I think we gained new users, but whether they will stay and remain active is an open question.

North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Unfortunately I suspect that may be the case...?

I mean free silver badge for participating in elections, right?

Rand al'Thor

20:36

@NorthLæraðr Well, for voting. Not for participating in Q&A during elections.

North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor well yes

Tsundoku

Of the 107 people who have voted so far, only 7 have posted a question in the last two weeks: Brahadeesh, Alex, @NorthLæraðr, Gareth Rees, Mithical, Rand and I. So I doubt that the election can explain an increase from 1.6 to 3.9 QPD in the last 14 days.

North Læraðr

oh okay

Bookworm

1

Q: What evidence is there for the "recession of accent" theory?

In the late 19th and early 20th century, there was a theory that certain oddities in the rhythms of Shakespeare and other early modern English poets could best be explained by recession of accent. The history of this theory seems to be as follows. In the 1870s, Alexander Schmidt compiled a colle...

history-of-literature theory meter

Tsundoku

@Bookworm There are definitely more examples of words where the stress varied depending on the line, but I can't remember how many were disyllabic. And it would take a lot of time to dig them up (unless I find a proper list).

Gareth Rees

20:44

Follow the link from my question to Schmidt's Shakespeare-Lexicon for dozens of other examples

Rand al'Thor

@Tsundoku I've stepped up my asking to a full 1 per day, after discovering the Narayan topic challenge and a good short story collection just ten days before it ended. That alone could be part of it.

Gareth Rees

I blame the coronavirus

Rand al'Thor

@Tsundoku Brahadeesh rapidly became one of the year's most active voters. That helps to promote activity (including via HNQ).

Skooba

I saw that meta post were some sites hit a wall because of this, Travel being the worst IIRC.

even with lull in activity I was surprised to see I am still #3 in voting. My goal is to maintain that. in perpetuity now.

Tsundoku

Well, in early March, I also wondered whether Covid-19 would increase activity here. The initial increase seemed to small to be clearly attributable to the pandemic.

@Randal'Thor That definitely helped. But there were questions from users I had never seen before the election, plus, recently, a few by Mithical. We'll see whether activity goes down later this week.

North Læraðr

20:51

@Tsundoku In PSE, the activity and visit went up by some 300%? Lemme double check

How the pandemic changed traffic trends from 400M visitors across 172 Stack Exchange sites

Ben Popper on April 20, 2020

The world has changed a lot in the last three months. As we adjust to this new reality, we are seeing interesting new traffic trends and community efforts across our network of sites.

Mithical

Traffic, not necessarily activity.

Tsundoku

Ah, yes, I read that too, but I had forgotten about the numbers.

Mithical

My Puzzling question was sort of related to the pandemic. ;)

Tsundoku

Our chatroom has definitely become more active since the beginning of the election.

North Læraðr

ITS BC OF MEEEEE (jk)

Tsundoku

20:55

What? The increased activity or the pandemic?

Rand al'Thor

@Tsundoku I'm very pleased not only at the number of questions in the Narayan topic challenge but also the number of answers. Almost every question answered so far, and a few of them even with multiple answers.

It's brought muru out of lurking, and a couple of good new contributors in Journeyman Geek and Brahadeesh.

Tsundoku

Yes, that's very good. And I have at least one more Narayan question coming.

And I'll be posting questions for the next challenge after that. I read L'étranger over the weekend and I have now started on Meursault, contre-enquête.

Rand al'Thor

@Tsundoku I have at least two more: one cultural-context and one quite a bit deeper. If I can formulate them well enough.

Gareth Rees

This question tempted me to read the story ("Lawley Road") as the extracts suggested the story might be satirical—that is, the two Lawleys were in fact the same person, just seen from different points of view.

Tsundoku

21:19

I can't remember reading about the "recession of accent" theory, but then I don't read much about versification anyway.

Bookworm

21:47

0

Q: What is the "uncanny" element of Gothic Literature?

In Wikipedia, the "uncanny" is defined as the psychological experience of something as strangely familiar, rather than simply mysterious. It may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling, eerie, or taboo context. - Wikipedia I don't quite understand...

literary-device gothicism

North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Would it be better to tag the question under "gothicism" or just "gothic-literature" (neither tag exists, by the way. We don't have any tags that start with something like "gothic)

Rand al'Thor

This strikes me as not an answer. I'm surprised that someone upvoted it.

North Læraðr

They did?

Rand al'Thor

@NorthLæraðr We don't usually use genre tags except for questions (like this one) about the genre as a whole. I'd say gothic-literature looks better, but don't have a strong opinion on it.

@NorthLæraðr Yes, it's +1/-1.

North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Well I downvoted it, so it's now +1/-2

Rand al'Thor

21:50

That means I can cast a delete vote.

North Læraðr

I flagged it so

Rand al'Thor

No new votes for two days now.

North Læraðr

Wow...

How active is LSE for a beta site?

Mithical

About standard or slightly above for its age.

I think.

North Læraðr

Eek, 3.9 questions per day?

Mithical

21:53

That's fairly good for three years old.

North Læraðr

Really?

Who are considered avid users? Anyone above 150 rep?

Rand al'Thor

@NorthLæraðr According to Area 51 stats? I think "avid" is defined as 200+ rep.

North Læraðr

Ah, I flipped the numbers

Rand al'Thor

@NorthLæraðr This is a good way to compare with other sites. You can order them by various things (questions, question per day, traffic, etc.)

North Læraðr

What happens to privileges/reputation once a site graduate? For example, would I keep my access to review queues at my current rep, or would I gain reputation to keep that privilege? Or does nothing happen and I lose privileges?

Rand al'Thor

21:57

You lose privileges.

North Læraðr

Oof

So those at 4,000 rep would lose the trusted user privilege? Seems kind of harsh

Rand al'Thor

Graduation is kinda ... chaotic these days anyway. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any given beta site to graduate (although it might then unexpectedly graduate anyway).

North Læraðr

Well that's good for now, since I'm trying to be more active here

Rand al'Thor

I mean, they graduated Windows Phone with 0 questions per day just because it was more than so-many years old.

North Læraðr

Wha-

I didn't- that exists?

Mithical

22:00

That was a one-off incident, though.

Rand al'Thor

Although privilege thresholds stayed the same in those old-enough-to-graduate sites, apparently.

Graduation is really piecemeal now. Sites are getting some bits of it and not others.

Mithical

Privileges are still tied to design IIRC?

North Læraðr

Design?

Rand al'Thor

@NorthLæraðr Site-specific design rather than the bog-standard beta site design.

North Læraðr

Specific examples?

Rand al'Thor

22:03

Compare the background and logo of Puzzling (graduated) to Lit and other beta sites.

North Læraðr

Mhm

Rand al'Thor

It used to be that graduation came with elections, new rep thresholds, design, Community Promotion Ads, and swag.

North Læraðr

Ah

Rand al'Thor

Now swag is indefinitely on hold for everything, elections can happen even for beta sites, and for the other three I don't even know.

Mithical

Puzzling was one of the last to get a design before the theming changes.

Community Ads come with removal of the Beta logo.

Anime was the most recent to get a design, actually, I think? Or PPCG.

North Læraðr

22:05

Is pro-tempore election (this) the same as just an election

Rand al'Thor

@NorthLæraðr Almost, but there are a few differences.

In a full election, it gets cancelled or extended if there's not enough candidates. In a pro-tem election, if the number of candidates isn't more than the number of slots then everyone who runs gets modded.

North Læraðr

ah

Rand al'Thor

In a full election, mods are elected "for life" (they keep their diamonds until they step down or rarely get demodded). In a pro-tem election, mods are still "pro tem" and need to run in the graduation election in order to keep their diamonds.

North Læraðr

Oh, I see

And do you have to get nominated, or is that like an obsolete thing now

To clarify, nominated by someone else

Rand al'Thor

All self-nominations, for either pro-tem or full elections.

North Læraðr

22:12

Mm, I see

Rand al'Thor

The old process for pro-tem mods was that CMs would just pick people, sometimes after an advisory vote on meta where anyone could nominate anyone.

We had one of those on Lit, and I think the three highest-voted there became the original three pro-tems, but the voting was only advisory.

North Læraðr

Ah

Off-tangent, but can the /gothicism/ tag be synonymized (?) with /gothic-literature/. Also, I have no idea what to write for usage guidance for specific genres

Napoleon Wilson

Requiring other people to nominate you would just be odd. Having some dude point at you and saying "this guy should do it"? Either you want the job or you don't. No need for false modesty.

Rand al'Thor

Although apparently now I'm higher voted than either Mith or Hamlet in that old pro-tem nomination thread.

North Læraðr

wait....

lol

Rand al'Thor

22:14

Well, it's just a meta thread. Votes can change over time like on any other meta posts.

Mithical

22:29

@Randal'Thor I thought I had locked that at some point.

Apparently I did. And then unlocked it. Huh.

But yeah, I suspect a combination of more votes over time and removed votes from deleted users is to blame there.

Gallifreyan

23:22

@Mithical I locked it again. For historical significance.

Last 20 hours left in the election

North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor @Tsundoku I've revised the /symbolism/ tag, as well as overhauled the tag wiki.

Mind taking a look at it?

Gallifreyan

23:59

For those interested in creating/updating author tags, we've agreed some time ago on meta not to have tags for literature written in English, with the default absence of any kind of [*-literature] tag meaning the work was written in English.

5

Q: How should we tag questions about English-language literature?

After a lot of different questions about the issue of tags based on languages and/or countries, we eventually came to the conclusion that tags such as russian-literature are useful even on questions about specific works; furthermore, we also clarified that such tags should refer to languages and ...

discussion tags

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