The Reading Room

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Bookworm

02:58

Q: Why does Poe's "Arthur Gordon Pym" become so Technical and Scientific all of the sudden?

I was re-reading Edgar Allen Poe's magnificently disturbing novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, this last month and began to wonder why suddenly, starting with Chapter 14 and going all the way into chapter 18, (chapters 14-17 are almost half-made-up of coordinates and physical...

North Læraðr

03:22

@Tsundoku What's a non-binary "title" in French

Like in English we have Mr./Miss/Ms/Mrs. or sir/madame/ma'am

5 hours later…

Bookworm

08:19

Q: Old Eagle Novel - Was Northbrook Boarding or Day School?

I recently acquired an old novel by Peter Ling, based on the now defunct Eagle comic. Entitled, The Three Js and the Pride of Northbrook, it followed the adventures of three boys whose first names all began with J, and who attended an English private school called Northbrook. I remember these fro...

comics

Rand al'Thor

08:51

> One last bounty, and if that doesn't work, I'm adding the j-r-r-tolkien tag.

:-/

Tsundoku

@NorthLæraðr What is a "non-binary title"? I don't see any examples in your list, unless I misunderstand what you mean by that concept.

Tsundoku

09:14

@Randal'Thor Or perhaps :-) for those who can answer the question.

Gareth Rees

09:25

@Randal'Thor This behaviour (repeated fruitless bounty offers) suggests that the poster has an unrealistic expectation of what bounties are capable of achieving on this site. I wonder if it might be a good idea to add List of bounties with no deadline to the "featured on meta" sidebar? (Not sure how many slots there are, but it could easily go out again if something more important needs featuring.)

Tsundoku

@GarethRees I have added the featured tag to that question again. However, it was also featured at the time when a bounty was added to this question; the OP had simply overlooked that question in the sidebar.

There are at least two "slots" for featured questions, but I think that the space available is also influence by Hot Meta Posts and questions featured on Meta SE. So if we feature three questions, two are shown, possibly in a rotating fashion.

After some time, the Community user removes the featured tag again.

WTF 2020? WTF 1620.

b_jonas

10:15

@GarethRees I don't think that has to be featured on the sidebar. However, if anyone posts such a bounty, I recommend that they also post a comment on the question where the bounty is posted, unless the bounty is mentioned by the question text itself.

Tsundoku

10:29

@b_jonas Most people are not aware of the meta question unless it is visible from the main site.

Tsundoku

10:40

Should dictionaries be on-topic? has been featured for a month now.

Best Questions & Answers from 3rd Quarter of 2020 hasn't received a lot of attention, judging by the number of answers.

b_jonas

@Tsundoku Yes, I know.

Tsundoku

I have added comments to the questions for which I have a "bounty with no deadline" but that does fairly little to promote that meta post.

Bookworm

Q: What is the English name for "Bilbo Secker", and why is Bilbo Baggins apparently "alternatively" called that?

When Frodo is leaving Rivendell for home, Bilbo gives him a bunch of notes which are signed "B. S." (in the Swedish translation), or "B.B." in the English original, for Bilbo... S? I felt a cold sensation down my spine, as if I had missed something crucial about the entire story, and looked it up...

j-r-r-tolkien the-lord-of-the-rings

3 hours later…

Bookworm

13:47

Q: What's meant here by "the Dennington “Velasquez,”"?

In chapter 2 of The Just Men of Cordova by Edgar Wallace, the author was describing a young constable and very rich man in London: “Constable Fellowe, the man of whom I have complained, had the good fortune to render a service to the daughter of Mr. Theodore Sandford—I see you know the gentleman...

edgar-wallace

North Læraðr

@Tsundoku I don't know what they're called. Like instead of "sir", you can call someone "gentleperson" or something or Mx. instead Mr./Miss/Ms./Mrs.

2 hours later…

Tsundoku

15:33

@NorthLæraðr I think you would need to ask a native speaker of French. (I have never seen or heard "gentleperson" or Mx. How do people pronounce Mx?)

North Læraðr

@Tsundoku I don't know. I've only recently discovered this as well. Some people pronounce it as "mix" but Idk

For sure

Tsundoku

Ah, according to the Nonbinary wiki, it's pronounced [mɪks], or [məx] in the UK.

Gareth Rees

15:52

@EddieKal: With regard to your edit here, I recommend being brave and removing Brooks Landon in his entirety — he's almost never relevant to the question

Eddie Kal

@GarethRees Okay I agree.

I did look up Brooks Landon because I wasn't sure OP quoted him correctly. "In a fitting close to our consideration of balance..." doesn't make much sense to me

Is it a close which is fitting? or a fitting which is close to our consideration?

This exact clause seems to have no hits on Google Books, so no context to look at and put it in.

Napoleon Wilson

16:09

@Tsundoku They possibly don't pronounce it. Often these artefacts tend to be internet phenomena.

Eddie Kal

@Tsundoku Like "Latinx" in Spanish

@NapoleonWilson I wouldn't say "Internet phenomena".

The concept of gender neutrality and inclusivity predates the Internet.

Napoleon Wilson

Well, written. Though, writing is usually exchanged over the internet nowadays.

@EddieKal And "Mx" does, too? Granted, it's possible it does.

Eddie Kal

Some of the words are neologisms. Their popularity has been helped by the wide availability of the Internet of course.

@NapoleonWilson Yes.

> The word was first proposed in the late 1970s.

Mx (title)

Mx (usually pronounced MIKS or MUKS and sometimes em-EKS) is an English language neologistic honorific that does not indicate gender. It was developed as an alternative to common gendered honorifics, such as Mr and Ms, in the late 1970s. It is often used by nonbinary people, as well as those who do not wish to reveal or be referred to by their gender. It is a gender-neutral title that is now widely accepted by the Government of the United Kingdom and many businesses in the United Kingdom. It is included in many major English dictionaries. == Etymology == The word was first proposed in the late...

Napoleon Wilson

In my native language, although gender-neutral constructions likely predate the internet, too, people still don't actually pronounce them when they talk, simply because they're naturally extremely clunky. Rather than that they just verbosely list both versions with an "and".

You just can't really pronounce a capital letter or an asterisk.

Eddie Kal

@NapoleonWilson Yeah the same issue in a lot of languages. Gender inclusive language still has a long way to go.

And "x" is not really a good gender neutralizer, IMHO

Bookworm

16:41

Q: What are the impacts or relevance of the play "El Consejo De Los Dioses" written by Jose Rizal in our current or modern age, in your own analysis?

the play uncovered some relative aspects covering the social components of the western humanistic viewpoint, (that human beings have the right, capacity, and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives) into a literary context, and in view of the Philippine culture. A growing outl...

history-of-literature spanish-literature myths allegory

Bookworm

17:06

Q: What does Victor Hugo mean when he mentions the "Red ant heaps of Toulon"?

In his novel "The Last Day of a Condemned Man", Victor Hugo writes the following sequence in reference to poor people who turn to crime out of hunger: Unfortunate beings, whom, by means of a school and a workshop, you might have rendered good, moral, useful; and with whom you now know not what t...

french-literature historical-context victor-hugo

2 hours later…

Bookworm

18:45

Q: Story ID a woman missing the train and living among strangers

I like your help to find a story I read some ears ago. What I remember about the story is that it's set in a western style world in the 1800 century probably in USA. The story begins by following a young woman who is sent away from her close family to stay with a relative who lives across the cou...