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2:07 AM
Oooh new tags!
 
@Tsundoku I thought rep per day was capped at 200? That cost me a fair bit of rep on SO when I wrote an answer that got a whole bunch of upvotes in a single day.
@Tsundoku I am the verbose, let's have no confusion about that 😐
On a completely irrelevant note, I wanna state ftr that I manfully resisted the temptation to work a Bee Gees reference into this answer
 
2:32 AM
🎶 When you want to 😢 and you don't know why it's hard to 🧸
With no-one to ❤️ you, you're nowhere nowhere 🎵
 
2:58 AM
We need a tag, such as for this q
 
 
2 hours later…
5:06 AM
0
Q: Charles Bukowski's poem

hodI tried to google it, I searched in libraries and can't find it. 15 years ago a read a poem by Charles Bukowski where he describes how every morning he wakes up and tries to be a poet/writer. Any Bukowski's fans that can help me find it? Thank you!

 
 
3 hours later…
8:33 AM
@verbose Rep per day from upvotes is capped at 200. The +2s and +15s from acceptances, and bounty rep, isn't subject to the cap.
I remember on SFF, soon after a new Star Wars film came out, when DVK got almost 500 in a single day, just from the usual 200 plus so many accepted answers.
Btw, congrats on 7k :-) Let's see if you can exceed my prediction and overtake Spagirl/Gallifreyan before the end of the year ...
 
@Randal'Thor ah
@Randal'Thor thanks!
 
9:18 AM
-1
Q: What does "I pressed her against me" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "I pressed her against me" means in the following sentences: We had another drink and had just started to move to the music when an arm snaked itself around my waist from behind, orange fingernails and dangling bracelets. ‘I almost didn’t recognise you with that hair, h...

0
Q: What does "quick, light beats prepared the room, gathered our attention, ecstatic, simple and single-minded." mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "At once a string of quick, light beats prepared the room, gathered our attention, ecstatic, simple and single-minded." means in the following sentences: And then the music stopped. The record had come to an end; the low crackle of the speakers could be heard between th...

0
Q: What does "I wished it could be us out there." mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "I wished it could be us out there." means in the following sentences: ‘Goodness,’ sighed Karolina, rolling her eyes, ‘doesn’t he tell you anything? Maksio and Hania are siblings.’ I was taken aback, without quite knowing why. ‘That makes sense, I suppose.’ ‘Yes, it doe...

 
9:44 AM
0
Q: What does "look a little … something." mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "You look a little … something." means in the following sentences: You and Maksio reached her just as the song came to an end, a storm of cheers and congratulations raging through the air, boys whistling with fingers in their mouths. Hania bent over the cake. In the dar...

0
Q: What does "And it won’t be weird with Hania? Coming on to" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "And it won’t be weird with Hania? Coming on to you?" means in the following sentences: You stopped and looked at me with a consolatory smile. ‘Don’t worry, this one is easy. You can ask Hania this weekend. At her house.’ A flash of opportunity raced through me. After t...

 
10:01 AM
I'm considering leaving a comment for Pasta Lover that would go something like this:
>Please consider asking question like this on English Language Learners rather than here. If your question is about what a character is thinking, or how to interpret something ambiguous that a character says, that does belong here. But a question like this one, which involves simply How do I parse this sentence?, is really an ELL question, not a Lit SE one.
2
On the other hand, I don't know whether they could even make that distinction ... and I know the powers that be here get mad if someone says "ask this somewhere else". So maybe I shouldn't?
 
0
Q: What does "the gigantic gates and lines of soldiers that protected the castle that was the Soviet embassy" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "the gigantic gates and lines of soldiers that protected the castle that was the Soviet embassy" means in the following sentences: We whizzed off, speeding seamlessly and effortlessly along Ujazdowskie Avenue. We passed the run-down palaces of the long-forgotten aristoc...

 
10:18 AM
@verbose I'm normally against people trying to migrate questions to ELL/ELU, but this is a pretty unusual case.
Gareth did a nice analysis on meta last year showing that most of our questions do have some literary content rather than just explaining the meaning of an English word or phrase. Several of the Swimming in the Dark questions, though, do seem to be answerable just from a native/fluent knowledge of English, without need for much literary context. (I've been downvoting a few of those.)
So yeah, maybe in this case it is appropriate to recommend ELU for some of their questions. I like the fact that your comment explains which type of questions are for Lit and which are for ELL, rather than just "this belongs on ELL" like some comments I've seen here. I've tried to do a similar thing in my comments on ELU recommending Lit:
FWIW, although this site is the best place for understanding the meaning and nuance of English words and phrases, there's also Literature SE which specialises in interpreting words and phrases in the context of a story. If you're doing a translation, I'd guess the contextual literary meaning and significance is more important than in other cases where you might just want to understand the words directly. — Rand al'Thor Nov 12 at 19:06
FYI, questions like this can also be asked on Literature, with the meaning tag. If you just want the plain meaning of an English phrase, this site (ELU) is better, but if you want some analysis of the quote in context, Literature would be better. — Rand al'Thor Nov 11 at 6:41
 
11:02 AM
@Tsundoku EU as in European Union, or as in États-Unis?
 
@verbose The blog author would agree with the interpretation "better than the États Unis" ;-)
 
11:20 AM
... that's why I asked. I literally did not know which way you meant the acronym
sometimes when I'm reading french sources as well as english ones and they reference "EU" I have to double check to make sure I know what they're talking about
 
I did have the European Union in mind, and the neverending Brexit process..
@verbose We now have a tag, but without the diacritics.
 
0
Q: How did Culler define the relationship between literary studies and cultural studies after ‘Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction’?

TsundokuYesterday, EJoshuaS - Reinstate Monica asked Is Jonathan Culler saying that literary theory is effectively the same subject as cultural studies? The question was based on the second edition of Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. My answer was based on the book's first edition and...

 
11:37 AM
@Tsundoku why no diacritics? 😢
 
Diacritics are not supported in tags on LIt SE, unlike French Language SE, which has littérature, for example.
 
"Non-ASCII characters are enabled in tags on a per-site basis. On most sites, they're disabled" on Meta SE. That's why we don't have diacritics in tags.
 
11:52 AM
@Tsundoku I reiterate:
 
12:03 PM
rofl
 
12:40 PM
-1
Q: What does "oblong and wide like several sports fields and bordering the forest" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "oblong and wide like several sports fields and bordering the forest" means in the following sentences: ‘Isn’t this house something?’ you said as we put down our things and unpacked. ‘It’s practically a castle.’ I nodded. I wanted to be alone, to have the place all to m...

0
Q: What does "the same faces" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "the same faces" means in the following sentences: That afternoon Hania said she was preparing a surprise for us; after lunch she and Agata went out with two empty baskets. The three of us stayed behind in the house. You and Maksio played billiards downstairs and I went...

 
1:06 PM
-2
Q: What does "I’d lost" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "I’d lost you" means in the following sentences: We walked back to the veranda, and I couldn’t look at you, only at the ground, not sure what had just happened. I was hot. I was burning. I was entirely aflame. Then it was the next round, and my turn to be blindfolded. I...

 
@Randal'Thor ROTFLASST
 
1:40 PM
At least people are starting to get sick of it and I'm not crazy anymore.
 
1:54 PM
0
Q: What does "slung together" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "slung together" means in the following sentences: I saw you and Hania slung together, dancing, oblivious to me on the other side of the window. My stomach began to burn, secreting pain like arrowheads, and then the two of you as a four-legged creature, struggling on th...

 
0
Q: What does "an appeal, a right violated and invoked" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "an appeal, a right violated and invoked" means in the following sentences: I stood. ‘I need to go,’ I said, knowing it was true. Your face, your limbs – it was as if your entire being was trying to hold itself together, almost shaking from the effort of it. I couldn’t ...

 
2:18 PM
@EngLitLearner @verbose Looks like you succeeded in sending some of the Swimming in the Dark questions to ELL.
 
 
1 hour later…
3:35 PM
1
Q: What does "My back reached for soreness" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "My back reached for soreness" means in the following sentences: I saw you and Hania slung together, dancing, oblivious to me on the other side of the window. My stomach began to burn, secreting pain like arrowheads, and then the two of you as a four-legged creature, st...

 
4:23 PM
@Mithical For your collection of multilingual puns: In French forests, it sometimes gets so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
 
1
Q: What does "until the pain began to prickle and I was out of options, out of breath" mean in this context?

Pasta AddictI would like to know what "until the pain began to prickle and I was out of options, out of breath" means in the following sentences: The night had grown colder. The street was empty. The light of the street lamps was dim and the cursing of invisible drunk men and women pierced the air. I knew y...

 
@PrinceNorthLæraðr I got another reviewer badge.
 
Nice!
@Bookworm @Tsundoku Someone seems to be serially voting to close these questions, maybe look into it?
I got like... some 8 in a row?
 
It's because most of those questions are purely linguistic, not literary.
 
then shouldn't it be migrated, not closed?
 
4:33 PM
I haven't checked the close reason. Does it say "migrate..."?
 
No
It says "Needs details and clarification" for all of them
Which... isn't the right close reason
 
I agree.
 
Also, "He (subject), him (direct object, indirect object or following a preposition)."
Hehe
 
@PrinceNorthLæraðr If you write guidance, you should do it right, not just the ambiguous "he/him".
 
4:38 PM
I did "Leave Open" for all of them, since I think they're bad questions which are technically on-topic
 
^
Except i was stupid and forgot there was a leave open button, so i skipped all of them ;-;
Nooooo my reviewer badge >:<
 
You can go back to the ones you skipped
 
You're amazing
 
4:46 PM
That isn't news, North
 
I know
Still <3
Huh, I've done as many "close vote" reviews as Gareth Rees
 
@PrinceNorthLæraðr See one of Gareth's earlier chat messages, from the time when people could nominate themselves for the moderator elections.
Do you have the Bouncer hat now?
 
I do!
 
It looks ridiculous on my avatar, though.
 
A lot of the hats don't work on a crown, which is why I'm clutching to this Disciple hat
 
4:58 PM
@bobble Yeah, I lost mine at some point. I have no idea how to get it back. So hold on to it.
There is no hat for pinning puns about pins. There is simply no pinterest.
 
5:27 PM
Ha!
 
5:38 PM
@Tsundoku Yes, but there's no SE site that works for some of those questions, and they usually work here, so I'd keep them, at least when they ask about language used in an existing literary work.
 
@b_jonas Those questions have one close vote and three leave-open votes (if they entered the close-vote queue at all), so it does not look like they will be closed or migrated any time soon.
 
@Randal'Thor Hmm. I still think we should allow such questions.
 
6:40 PM
@b_jonas I'm not arguing to close them here, just to make the OP aware of different options for different types of questions.
Basic linguistic questions about a word or phrase in the context of a particular piece of literature are on-topic here. But when we get 50 of them in a week about a single book, it might be worth encouraging the OP to distinguish between the more literature-related (e.g. context-dependent) ones and the purely linguistic ones, and choose a site accordingly.
@Tsundoku I think the Bouncer "hat" looks ridiculous anywhere.
You could wear it on French SE and call it a baguette, though.
 
6:58 PM
@Randal'Thor A painful hat...
 
7:24 PM
@Tsundoku Speaking of bouncers (and puns):
 
7:37 PM
@Randal'Thor Yes, that's the part that bothered me too. Are there really 50 now? I stopped at 35... let me check
55. Heck.
 
8:06 PM
Kyle Arnold: The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick. Oxford University Press, 2016.
 
8:21 PM
@Tsundoku the only “migrate” choice appears to be to meta. There isn’t any choice that says migrate to ELL. (I downvoted a couple of questions but didn’t vote to close)
 
@verbose Ah, right, that's different from the moderator's view.
 
1
Q: Promote our site and earn a Booster badge or a Publicist badge!

TsundokuStack Exchange awards badges to people who promote our site. The Announcer badge is awarded to anyone who shares a link to a question that is later visited by 25 unique IP addresses. The Booster badge is awarded to anyone who shares a link to a question later visited by 300 unique IP addresses. ...

 
8:40 PM
E.J. White: A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet. Stanford University Press, 2020.
 
 
2 hours later…
@verbose Almost there now :-)
 
Would a reading challenge about Ramanujan work here?
 
Did he write anything that could count as "literature"?
 
Haha, I didn't mean the mathematician C. P. Ramanujam but the poet and scholar A. K. Ramanujan.
 
Oh, you got me :-)
I don't know C. P. Ramanujam though - the famous mathematician is S. Ramanujan.
 
10:27 PM
I have more rep here than on Stack Overflow, seeing as I don't have an account on SO
 
And I didn't mean Srinivasa Ramanujan either, obviously :-P
 
I also know of mathematicians called Balasubramanian and Balasubramaniam.
 
@bobble If you don't work with any popular programming languages, gaining rep on SO is not easy.
 
I wonder if there's an Indian language (Hindi?) in which the suffixes -an and -am are interchangeable, or more similar than they seem in English.
So many Indian names which are almost identical except for that -an/-am difference.
 
I like how I can see every single question here and on Puzzling - SO would be far too stressful for me
(well, I've ignored a tag on both sites. so not all.)
 
10:31 PM
I don't ignore tags, but if I did, it'd be [computer-puzzle] on Puzzling.
 
I ignored [affix-riddle]
 
> Seeing too many affix riddles? We have a fix for that!
 
I have some more Watership Down questions to ask but I'm afraid of having them drowned out in the wave of Swimming in the Dark
"wave of Swimming in the Dark"
there's a pun to be had there
 
I made an effort to ask a Watership Down question in the middle of the SitD flood, and upvote other non-SitD questions in that period, just to make sure we do have something other than SitD on the front page.
 
By the way, why is it that every answer I've accepted has been yours?
 
10:39 PM
Because we've read lots of the same books?
I haven't even been the most active answerer here in recent weeks/months.
 
After my Watership Down questions are done I have two about the Insignia trilogy (Insignia, Vortex, Catalyst, S. J. Kincaid) - have you read those?
 
I guess some of the most active answerers in recent days were answering questions about you-know-what-book.
 
@bobble Nope. More fantasy, right?
 
Sci-fi
I usually summarize it as "kids get computers in their brains to fight space wars and then there are evil corporations"
My dad made sure I grew up with good access to sci-fi/fantasy, and my mom made sure I had Anne of Green Gables. I read one of those things more often.
 
Sci-fi literature was something totally alien to me for several decades.
I read my first sci-fi novels after joining Literature SE: Liu Cixin, Ursula Le Guin, Nalo Hopkinson, Carl Sagan and G. R. R. Martin. Nothing else so far.
 
10:56 PM
I have completely avoided the horror and romance genres. I'm fine with an element of horror or romance in a book, but centering the whole plot around it turns me off.
 
@bobble Oh. Sounds not much up my street, then.
@Tsundoku Is that another pun? ;-)
 
I haven't read any horror stories except for the occasional E. A. Poe story.
 
Poe is brilliant in pretty much any genre.
 
@Randal'Thor I was wondering when someone would get it.
 
@Randal'Thor Yes, in Tamil names the suffixes are used interchangeably. They're also fairly meaningless. That is to say, "Subramani", "Subramaniam", and "Subramanian" are all variants of the "same" name.
 
11:14 PM
@bobble I...actually thought that was supposed to be a summary of the sci-fi genre in general, which would have been quite appropriate.
 
heh yeah my description is a little vague
 
@verbose Thanks, I wondered if it might be something like that.
 

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