The Reading Room

12:00 AM

@Bookworm Does this question lack focus?

12:10 AM

Richard Dawkins does literature now:

> Kafka’s Metamorphosis is called a major work of literature. Why? If it’s SF it’s bad SF. If, like Animal Farm, it’s an allegory, an allegory of what? Scholarly answers range from pretentious Freudian to far-fetched feminist. I don’t get it. Where are the Emperor’s clothes?

Lesson: If you don't understand a work of literature, it reflects badly on that text, not on your efforts to understand it. Are we expected to cancel Literature Stack Exchange now?

It really bugs him that he doesn't understand "The Metamorphosis".

12:27 AM

Teach people STEM subjects only and you'll get more of this.

4 hours later…

4:45 AM

Repost of this? — bobble 11 hours ago

@bobble how did you find that?

It was deleted years before you joined the site. I'm impressed.

yesterday, by bobble

this dupe of this?

First comment on first "this"

I follow meta-se

(the dupe I found there was linked in the "linked questions" of a question 'doku bumped with an answer)

Ahhh, that's the same user and same question.

Makes sense then.

I only pretend to have mysterious powers *sagenod*

Much like Holmes and Dupin, you dispel the magic with a logical explanation :-P

if you're on-site, perhaps you could reply to my comment on your latest question :)

7 hours later…

Q: John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps - what did Sir Harry meant by "free trader" and "Protection in the Colonies"

11:23 AM

I have a question about a passage in The Thirty-Nine Steps which I'm reading. In Chapter 4 "The adventure of the radical candidate" Hannay meets Sir Harry who mentions the following: You’re a Free Trader and can tell our people what a wash-out Protection is in the Colonies. What does he mean by "...

11:57 AM

@bobble Heh, I went AFK before seeing your chat message.

I did see your on-site comment, and kept it open in another tab so that I can figure out how to reply.

I have an idea in my mind of which collection I consider the "original" stories, but I read them at an age where I didn't care so much about specifying authors and references, so I've no idea which ones were written by his son and if those are really "extra"/"expanded universe" stories with a different tone/theme, or part of the collection that I remember.

2 hours later…

Q: What is the unmentionable Italian instrument in Tristram Shandy?

1:49 PM

In Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (Volume 1, Chapter XXIII) Shandy is discussing - if I am not mistaken - how people's character may be inferred from external appearances. Some, for instance, draw all their characters with wind-instruments.—Virgil takes notice of that way in the affair of Did...

laurence-sterne tristram-shandy

1 hour later…

3:01 PM

yesterday, by bobble

should be a comment?

2 hours later…

Q: What is the correct translation of the title "Les Fourmis" by Boris Vian?

5:28 PM

The literal translation of "les fourmis" is "the ants". It is one of the titles under which the story was published in English (for example, the translation by Rawdon Corbett). The only time "les fourmis" is mentioned in the story is the very end: ...parce que j'ai assez de la guerre et parce qu...

french-literature boris-vian

1 hour later…

Q: Is there a difference between different cultures in the sense of rhythm when reciting poetry?

6:41 PM

It may a vague question, but I haven't found any data on this myself. I am Russian and I've heard a lot of reading of Russian poetry, since my childhood (poetry reading by heart is a staple assignment in Russian schools when studying literature). And I always felt that poetry has a strong sense o...

poetry

2 hours later…

Q: Meaning of “City Lites”

8:19 PM

I'm reading "The Sellout" by Paul Beaty. One of the sections is titled: "City Lites" The first thing that comes to my mind is Charlie Chaplin's famous movie. But what else can be understood from it?

meaning symbolism

@bobble Done.

1 hour later…

9:22 PM

@Bookworm There is only one correct translation? shakes head in disbelief

9:33 PM

Would appreciate feedback on whether the ending section of my latest answer (literature.stackexchange.com/a/18857/11259), or parts of it, are unnecessary and can/should be deleted

@Bookworm would title apply, as this is about the title of a section?

9:56 PM

@Bookworm I won't mention that this has HNQ'ed... drat

2 hours later…

Q: What does Death is silence means?

11:33 PM

Why does Shakespearean protagonist Helmet said, "Death is silence."? What does it mean?

william-shakespeare