The Reading Room

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Bookworm

00:59

Are there any notable works narrated in the second person? The only ones I can think of are "Choose your own adventure" storybooks from the 1980s

literary-device

2 hours later…

Rajorshi Koyal

03:28

Generally front is a word that refers to standing in the first position.

What is meant by Front in situations like Left Front and Right Front?

In the context I really do not understand what tje word front means.

Also what is meant by placed at the disposal of the president?

@Randal'Thor Thanks a lot for replying and telling me about exactly what I am supposed to google.

Bookworm

03:48

Q: What did the students at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind think of "Redwall"?

The Redwall series was originally written by Jacques for the students of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind. This is pretty well documented, from the official website (click on "About Brian" and scroll down): Brian wrote Redwall for the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind ...

brian-jacques redwall-series reception

bobble

@RajorshiKoyal again, this isn't really the place. If you can post a question to ELL you could do so. If you can't, I'd remind you that half the point of the 40-minute restriction is to force you to do some research to ensure your questions are of high quality.

Rajorshi Koyal

ok.

posted..

1 hour later…

Rand al'Thor

05:05

@Bookworm This free-born question is taking its ease in the HNQ list in 2021.

@Bookworm This should be closed, if we agree on "are there any" being essentially the same as a recommendation question.

2 hours later…

verbose

07:32

@Randal'Thor agree and VdTC

@Tsundoku Which translation of The Lusiads did you get? Or are you reading it in the original Portuguese?

Tsundoku

08:19

@verbose The Penguin edition. I told the local bookshop to order the Oxford UP translation and suggested the Penguin edition as a fallback. For some unfathomable reason, they didn't get the Oxford UP translation, even though it isn't out of print.

Rajorshi Koyal

Can you tell me this,"having sharp quality in smells and taste; bitter or burning to the senses; bitter in temper or manner"
What is meant by sharp quality

I tried posting in English language learners room but this did not work out please help.

verbose

@Tsundoku That's odd. The Penguin edition is decent too, I understand, even though it's around 70 years old at this point. Are you enjoying it? I saw parts of it online but haven't read it fully.

@RajorshiKoyal This is really not the right forum for questions of that nature, I'm afraid. People have been gently telling you so since you began posting them here. Perhaps you could ask on Quora or some such site.

verbose

08:37

@Tsundoku I have an old Penguin edition of Rabelais (1955 by J M Cohen). I'm tempted to get the new Penguin edition (2006 by M A Screech). In theory I could try reading the French original but I rather doubt I could handle 16th C French.

verbose

08:58

Oooh @Tsundoku! I randomly found a translation of The Poison Tree on archive.org. You had asked a question about it

Here is the translation

Tsundoku

09:55

@verbose The translation is OK. It's in prose and has been written in an attempt to make footnotes or endnotes redundant. However, it still requires knowledge of Greek mythology and other knowledge about antiquity.

@verbose There are French editions with notes on facing pages. That's what I have at home. Screech has published a lot about Rabelais, so his translation should be very competent.

@verbose Oh, thanks. I should have a look at that.

Bookworm

10:41

Q: What does "a star" symbolize here?

Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell, Each night a star to guid thy feet to heaven. This verse has been taken from the poem "Opportunity" by Walter Malone. What does "a star" symbolize here? Does the author mean 'night', or something else?

meaning poetry walter-malone

4 hours later…

Rajorshi Koyal

14:32

thehindu.com/business/Economy/…

I understand nothing in this particular news article can o abridge this slightly?

thehindu.com/news/national/…

Similar in the problem with both these articles..

Rand al'Thor

The purpose of Stack Exchange sites is largely to help people get answers, but answers to clearly scoped and answerable questions. Getting people to understand and explain an entire (quite complex) news article for you is really too much.

If there's a specific phrase or passage that you can't quite grasp, you might ask for help on the English Language Learners main site. If you really can't understand anything in the whole thing, then maybe start with some simpler texts instead.

I have to ask you to stop using this chatroom as a help desk for any question you have related to reading comprehension. Several people have already expressed their discomfort with you doing so.

Rajorshi Koyal

bobble

14:52

We're generally helpful people - otherwise we wouldn't be around here answering questions on main-site - but you can't just assume we're always on-call to help you specifically. It seems you've been assuming that, on Puzzling as well, with requests to open private chatrooms where people would tutor you in whatever you were working on at the time.

3 hours later…

b_jonas

17:51

Wtf. There are two apparently unrelated tools called an "ice pick". One is the large mountain-climbing tool that I knew about them; the other is a small tool like a screwdriver with a sharp point.

This is as confusing as "router".

1 hour later…

Bookworm

19:20

Q: "You have to take pains so the goods won't go off" from The Witcher

I am reading The Witcher - The Tower of Swallow on English and I would like to know what the following phrase means: ‘He ordered the people who had gathered to bring him a sack of salt and a keg of vinegar. And a saw. I didn’t know... I couldn’t understand what he meant to do... I still didn’t k...

the-witcher

2 hours later…

bobble

21:20

I am assuming that this is a book kind of question, please ask it here. — loan_2314 15 mins ago

grumble grumble

Don't point terrible questions to us, meta

Rand al'Thor

There's a whole SE site specifically about the Bible, AFAIU: Biblical Hermeneutics

bobble

AFAIU = "as far as I understand"?

Rand al'Thor

21:38

Yep.

I don't understand exactly the scope/topic of that site, but AFAIU it's about Bible interpretation/analysis.

bobble

@Bookworm would it be worth editing in a short content warning before the quote here "contains explicit gore" etc.?

@Randal'Thor They're basically us for the Bible; they take translation, interpretation, questions on interpretation methods, historical context, understanding the source of a particular Biblical text, etc.

Q: What is hermeneutics?

Seeing as this is a site about hermeneutics, it would seem a good place to have an answer to the above question. What exactly is hermeneutics?

hermeneutical-approaches

Q: What is the difference between exegesis and hermeneutics?

What is the difference between exegesis and hermeneutics? Are they the same, is there overlap, or does one pick up where the other leaves off?

hermeneutical-approaches terminology

not sure if you care, but here is information! woo-ee!

Bookworm

Q: How can a farmstead be situated in its paddock?

In "[The Markenmore Mystery]" (1922) by J. S. Fletcher, the author was describing Markenmore village: Markenmore was a place of tiny thatched cottages, set in gardens and orchards, with here and there a substantial farmstead, set back from the road, in its paddock or home-garth; its main feature...

the-markenmore-mystery j.s.fletcher

Alex

22:19

@Randal'Thor Christianity and Mi Yodeya also include (at least certain aspects of) the Bible in their scope, though Biblical Hermeneutics is more geared towards literary analysis of the Bible than the others.

I can't see what the original question was, though, as it's been deleted.

verbose

@Tsundoku Oh nice. I presume the notes are also in (modern) French?

Alex

70 more upvotes needed.

verbose

@b_jonas how odd. Not being a mountain climber, I had no idea that an ice pick was anything other than an awl-like tool used to break pieces or scrape shavings of ice off a large ice block.

Alex

Isn't an ice pick when they ask you if you want it in cubes or crushed?

verbose

@bobble 404 page not found. What was the question?

bobble

22:28

I don't remember that well, but "CAIN" was capitalized and there was a question about incest? Maybe?

Mith could see, they have view-deleted-stuff rights on Meta SE

verbose

@bobble eh, never mind. I was mildly curious and thought you might remember off the top of your head, but it's not worthwhile enough to make people actually hunt for the question

bobble

It was a terrible, no good, very bad question. We don't want it.

verbose

@Alex I'll bite. For what?

@bobble okay, I believe you

Alex

@verbose To be able to view the deleted question under discussion.

bobble

Oh dearest verbose, you're so close to Fanatic! Just log on religiously for 15 more days and that'll be your first gold :)

Alex

22:33

I'd say you should each just give me 35 now, but the daily limit will get in the way.

bobble

There would also be the slight problem of me not having a meta-meta account

Alex

What?!?!?!?!?!

bobble

And, it would be 72 needed, so 36 apiece

verbose

@bobble There's a meta-meta? How very meta

bobble

Ah, meta-meta = main-meta = meta-se = Meta Stack Exchange

verbose

22:35

@bobble ooh good to know! Thanks!

bobble

I use whichever name suits my fancy

Alex

@bobble How'd you get 72?Now that I rechecked my math I think it should be 62.

verbose

@bobble oh I thought you meant there was a meta for Meta Stack Exchange.

bobble

@Alex by assuming you got the 10s place right and changing the ones place

Alex

I mixed up the order of the digits.

I was thinking 691 instead of 619.

That might explain why I need 1,000 upvotes to view deleted posts on Mathematics.

bobble

22:39

there actually has been a true "meta-meta" proposed, but on Philosophy

-8

Q: As a Philosophy stack I think we should be unique

I believe with metaphysics being a large part of philosophy, we should have a meta-meta stack. I am not quite sure if we can find a concrete purpose for it. One possible idea I had was that it could serve the same function, but for our meta, rather than the parent stack. Thoughts?

discussion status-declined meta

Alex

That would be cool.

1 hour later…

verbose

23:42

Okay, all the discussed changes to questions tagged publication, editions, oral-tradition, and history-of-literature consequent to the new textual-history have been made. Yippee!

bobble

\o/

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