The Reading Room

Q: How is the moon symbolism related to atonement?

3:23 AM

How is the moon symbolism related to atonement? I've been told that the moon represents atonement symbolically, but I haven't found any evidence of it on Google. How are the two related. I found some source saying that the days of fasting and water are symbols of atonement in Jewish culture, but ...

symbolism

3 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

6:29 AM

@Bookworm Both the Dante question ...

@Bookworm ... and the "precious rascals" question ...

... went HNQ.

Q: Why does the Whether Man live in Expectations, and why does he talk like this?

I've just started re-reading The Phantom Tollbooth, a fantastic tale of wit and wordplay. Every place and person that Milo meets through this story is rich in symbolism, and every piece of description seems carefully chosen. That said, I'm struggling to figure out the Whether Man. Aside from the ...

symbolism the-phantom-tollbooth norton-juster

1 hour later…

8:00 AM

@Bookworm How did dictionary-of-the-english-language end up as a tag on a Jules Verne question?

@NorthLæraðr What were people smoking? :-P

6 hours later…

Q: If Alive Today, Would Mark Twain support "Black Lives Matter"?

1:31 PM

I believe that he doubtless would. By exposing the way some white folks thought at the time (mid-1800s) and place (Mississippi River valley), Mark Twain made the point in "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that Black Lives Matter. You might even say that is the whole theme of the book. For one exam...

mark-twain race-issues

Q: What is a central theme in Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking," and how is it revealed in the poem?

1:56 PM

When I read some book and come across a word whose meaning I don’t know, I just use the dictionary on my mobile or use the built-in feature of kindle. But the problem is, after seeing the meaning I get the sense of the sentence but I forget the meaning just after 10 minutes or so and hence when that word comes again after a day or so I have to look up the dictionary again. How do you manage it?

Rand al'Thor

2:22 PM

-3

Poetry: After Apple-Picking Written by: Robert Frost write at least 220 words

british-english poetry literature

This question might be technically on-topic for us, but probably not good enough quality to request migration.

2:37 PM

@Bookworm “Good gracious! anybody hurt?” “No’m. Killed a nigger.” Sounds like black lives did not matter, actually, and I don't see anything in that passage to support the idea that those characters thought otherwise.

Vinoth

2:47 PM

Have any of you tried reading Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest"?

No, neither in earnest nor in jest ;-)

3:32 PM

@Knight Input those words into a space repetition program. See spaced repetition on my language learning website.

@Knight When I was still at school and I didn't have a computer (that was long before Kindle), I just wrote the words and their definitions in a notebook and after finishing a chapter, I reviewed the vocabulary I had added for that chapter. It requires effort but it works.

3:45 PM

@Randal'Thor With a bit of word-smithing to replace the "write at least 220 words", wouldn't it be a valid interpretation question?

Rand al'Thor

3:56 PM

Valid, sure. If it was posted here, it wouldn't get closed. But I wouldn't feel good about asking for it to be migrated. (If someone else would, go ahead - that's partly why I posted here in chat, in case someone saw more potential in it than I.)

I have reworded it. I hope it's better now.

4:23 PM

@Tsundoku As my eyes pain from using computer or other electronic screens, I would rather use that notebook technique.

^^^^^ you can see it :)

@Knight You may also be interested in the goldlist technique.

4:40 PM

@Tsundoku Do you got your new computer?

@Knight Yes, but I still need some time to get it set up the way I like it.

Which one you bought? :)

Is it a laptop or desktop?

A laptop with Linux preinstalled, but there is an issue with the hard-disk encryption that needs to be sorted out.

Oh okay! It seems that you bought it for some computer science purpose instead of normal works.