The Reading Room

> Is there any evidence that Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby, the creators of Ant-Man, deliberately associated that superhero with Achilles and his fellow Myrmidons?

^ from the question. Does that mean it should have three author tags, or what?

Prince North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor Well... Stan Lee is the creator, Kirby is the artist, and uh I forgot what Lieber did

Pretty sure he was an artist too

I'd say just Stan Lee, but like, Kirby might get offended

Rand al'Thor

When it comes to comics, mightn't an artist be as much of an author/creator as a writer?

Again I'm out of my depth in this topic, so dunno really.

@Gallifreyan would know better.

Prince North Læraðr

It's a bit complicated, but yes, both the writer and the artists are very important

The problem is that sometimes there could be many, many artists

Tsundoku

1:19 AM

@Randal'Thor I'm still waiting for the day when libraries will reopen so I can check some old editions of the books listed there ...

bobble

1:36 AM

I love wandering around in libraries and pulling random books off the shelf

You don't get that with a virtual book collection that the school rents out

verbose

4:01 AM

@Randal'Thor I just added a comment to Laurel's answer (wherein she says that the copy you linked to is from 1947 and not 1930):

The version of Granville Barker's Prefaces that's online from 1947 is an impression, i.e., a reprint. It is not a new edition, and would not have any changes from the 1930 version.

@Randal'Thor Is it standard practice on SFF to include author tags (including writer and illustrator) for comic books that are part of a large universe? If not, I'd say we skip the author tags entirely and just use the-avengers. Because I don't even know who wrote/drew the comics for the later two Ant-Men.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Yes, especially considering that I'm not asking only about specific Ant-Man comics but about the entire universe: is there any indication universe-wide that Ant-Man is a Myrmidon

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I agree with marvel but not stan-lee for reasons given immediately above

@PrinceNorthLæraðr What's the Lair?

bobble

@verbose The Sphinx's Lair, the main site chatroom for Puzzling

verbose

@Randal'Thor Sorry you got a downvote. People are weird, it's a perfectly legit question. Also weird: I spent four years on the Myrmidon/Ant-Man question and it got two upvotes; I spent less than five minutes on the white withered answer and it got ten upvotes (it had maybe one or two when I went to bed last night). Sigh.

@bobble ah. Thanks!

The next time Literature needs a mod we should get someone who's a girl (or at least not a cis boy) and who's in a time zone that makes sense for the US. I shall nominate @bobble coz she's the only one I know who meets those criteria 😁

bobble

I am not exactly a girl but I'm far from a cis boy. Though I present as cis female in most situations because it's easiest.

(Though I'm not eligible right now anyways, as I'm 17)

verbose

Oh, I thought @Mithical was thirteen or something when they were a mod?

bobble

Recent rule change that mods must be 18 or older, and all younger mods have to give up their diamonds

-4

Q: Questions about the new minimum age for diamond moderators

Today we've released a policy that moderators must be 18 years old or older to be diamond moderators on our sites. Since the policy post isn't well-suited to address questions about the policy, that's what this post is for. Prior to release, this policy was shown to the Moderator Council and Mode...

verbose

4:16 AM

Also, I said "the next time" and I have no idea when that will be. It might well be after you turn 18. I don't think we're in short supply of mods rn and I think the three we currently have are doing just great so there's no immediacy to my speculations at all

@bobble That blows, it would have been nice if they'd grandfathered in those who were already mods below 18. Though the answer said something about legal requirements so maybe their hands were tied

Gallifreyan

7:01 AM

@Randal'Thor Sure they are

Rand al'Thor

8:04 AM

@verbose On SFF? That site hardly uses author tags at all, except for questions specifically about the author or questions about short stories not part of a larger universe where it's not worth creating a specific story tag. The [stan-lee] tag there has 18 questions, compared with 4000 for [marvel] and 500 for [marvel] + [comics].

Lit is much stricter on using author tags everywhere, but I don't know how much that makes sense for series/characters with so many different writers over the years.

Mithical

8:24 AM

22

A: Questions about the new minimum age for diamond moderators

So after sleeping on it, and listening to what Cat and Yaakov and everyone else has been saying, I was able to gather my thoughts a little more. (Originally posted in Discord.) It's kinda funny. To anyone outside of the community (and some within), this seems like perfect sense and shouldn't be ...

verbose

@Randal'Thor yes, for that reason I think we should not use specific author tags for this question. I suggest we go with influence, the-avengers and/or marvel

I’d argue for greek-literature and roman-literature as well, unless we want a broad classical-mythology

@Mithical that is a very well expressed answer and I agree with you 100%

I mean latin-literature not Roman, sorry

Rand al'Thor

We don't have an influence tag, but I guess inspiration fits?

verbose

Yes, that fits closely enough

Rand al'Thor

@Tsundoku So many answers waiting for libraries to open :-(

@Randal'Thor I'll check again on 2/3 January, when the library opens again... — Tsundoku ♦ Dec 23 '18 at 18:28

verbose

8:39 AM

the main thing I miss about working at Stanford is the library

’twas so nice to say, “I wonder what this word meant at the time the author was writing” and just log into the OED.

verbose

9:46 AM

Okay @PrinceNorthLæraðr I edited the tags on the Ant-Man question so you can go wild making the entries!

verbose

12:41 PM

Also, I'm immensely sad that what I thought was a nifty pun above on "white withered" for that Hardy question about white wizard / withered arm went utterly unremarked upon by any of you. Sigh. Nobody loves me. I shall betake myself to bed and cry myself to sleep.

Bookworm

1:22 PM

0

Q: American transcendentalism in Moby Dick?

Do you think Melville challenge or question American transcendentalism in Moby Dick? If so in what ways?

herman-melville moby-dick

Prince North Læraðr

3:25 PM

@verbose Woohoo!

b_jonas

@verbose Is there some way you can access that with a library subscription then?

Bookworm

4:52 PM

0

Q: German book where a hiring manager hires his former bully

I am trying to get a German book from which I read an excerpt when I was in high school studying German. In that book a manager at a company is reviewing applications for an opening at his companies when he finds one sent by his former bully. At least on paper, his former bully seems perfect for ...

german-literature

bobble

5:40 PM

@verbose Just realized I forgot to say this. I upvoted the Myrmidon/Ant-Man question (and I don't vote very often here!). I can't say I comprehend all of the intricacies that went into it. But from a scan and my limited understanding, I saw it had a good deal of work put into it. That's a kind of question that this site needs, so you got a slightly confuzzed upvote from me :D

Mithical

5:52 PM

Happy fourth birthday to Literature.SE!

2

bobble

what shall be done to celebrate?

verbose

7:05 PM

@bobble thanks for your kind words and your upvote!

@b_jonas I asked my local public library if they had a subscription I could use, and they didn’t. I could certainly pay for a subscription myself but it’s not exactly cheap

i forget how much it costs exactly but I remember looking into it and deciding I couldn’t afford it

b_jonas

7:27 PM

@verbose But don't you already have a subscription to some library, for other reasons too, whether free or expensive?

I know libraries are expensive if you don't have something that gives it free, but they're usually still worth.

Rand al'Thor

@verbose Damn, that completely escaped me (and I usually have an eye for wordplay even when it's not intended). Sorry for the lack of appreciation. I'll make up for it by punning at you some day when you're not expecting it :-)

Tsundoku

It wasn't the first pun that went unnoticed and it won't be the last.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical I came here to say the same thing :-)

Mithical

7:43 PM

@Randal'Thor you snooze you get ninja'd >.>

verbose

@b_jonas I don’t think I’m aware of any subscription libraries I have access to? I have no access to any University library and the public libraries I belong to have no OED subscription.

Rand al'Thor

8:23 PM

14

Q: How should SFF's "Ask Question" page be customised?

The "Ask a question" wizard is now live network-wide: The new ask page is now live on the network!. Ours is very plain right now, but parts of it are customisable: (shortened; see the main Meta post for the full version) The "welcome modal" for new askers (seen with the default text in scr...

discussion status-completed asking-questions

^ this is something we might consider for Lit too

Especially customising the text in the tag popover, since here we have a pretty rigid tagging system and it'd be nice to explain it to new askers as soon as possible.

Bookworm

8:48 PM

0

Q: Do literature interpretations actually reflect what the author had in mind?

I remember reading in the past an article about a writer who was asked about the interpretation of one of his books, and he had a hard time coming up with something that would be aligned with the expectations of the jury (sorry, I do not remember more of that, this was an Americal article about s...

interpretation

Tsundoku

9:23 PM

@Bookworm I am now considering posting a question about the tenacity of the authorial-intent meme...

Bookworm

10:06 PM

0

Q: Is either Rhoda Brook or Gertrude Lodge portrayed negatively in "The Withered Arm"?

Thomas Hardy's short story "The Withered Arm" (freely available to read online) revolves largely around two female characters, Rhoda Brook and Gertrude Lodge, the two "viewpoint" or central characters throughout. The first half of the story is told from the viewpoint of Rhoda Brook, showing firs...

short-stories character-analysis thomas-hardy

Tsundoku

10:42 PM

@Bookworm I am pleased that my answer to the question about Stefan Zweig's Ungeduld des Herzens is now my highest-voted answer, and not that SF identification question from October last year.

I suppose Stefan Zweig's work would also make a good topic challenge, but my list of suggestions is long enough for now.

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