The Reading Room

Q: Any recommendation for classic beginner?

1:16 AM

I want to start reading classic for this year and 2022 , any recommendation on good books list ? Thank you !!

book-collecting

3 hours later…

sonicsid

4:21 AM

@Randal'Thor funny, I was about to recommend Narayan to you after seeing your interest in Premchand's works but looks like you've already found him.

His characters are all very lively, realistic and deeply human (not "humane"). He reminded me of Kafka sometimes, the way he understood human nature so well.

5:22 AM

@sonicsid Yep, I read a whole collection of Narayan's short stories during a topic challenge about him last year. (The collection I read was Malgudi Days, but the 1982 one not the 1943 one among the two collections with the same name.)

5 hours later…

Q: Why is the separation between literary criticism and literary theory controversial?

10:18 AM

Wikipedia notes Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary theory, or conversely from book reviewing, is a matter of some controversy. For example, the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism draws no distinction between literary...

theory literary-criticism

2 hours later…

12:11 PM

@Randal'Thor It's a link-only answer if you define "link" broadly enough to include just bibliographic references. The referenced chapter in Harald Weinrich's book does actually discuss The Stranger. Unfortunately, that "answer" was submitted by an unregistered user, which often means it won't get improved.

12:46 PM

It's not technically a link answer, but it falls under the same philosophy that just saying "the answer is over there" isn't really an answer itself. If the answerer (or anyone else) would edit in some relevant passages from that chapter, maybe it would be great as a self-contained answer, but at the moment it isn't one at all.

3 hours later…

3:51 PM

"Your answer is in Howl's Moving Castle."

ToxicFrog

4:28 PM

looks at the sign on the door

Shouldn't that link to the book?

Q: Sujet de mémoire

I have a topic in mind for le mémoire and i need your advices/suggestions and if you think it's worth it or not. Dans les mystères urbains, les écrivains qui parlaient d'une autre Paris (les bas-fonds sombres), décrivaient les prostituées comme des etres sans honneur. Il y a ceux qui les décriven...

french-literature

Slate

Always a great day when you get a tracking number on a new (used) book.

@ToxicFrog Who reads books these days? ;-)

ToxicFrog

<--

4:46 PM

@Bookworm I know they say "don't polish turds", but I think this question should be translated into English if only so that people can see it's opinion-based and vote accordingly.

@Bookworm I suspect @Tsundoku will answer this one :-)

@Randal'Thor It's on my to-do list but will probably take a while.

5:03 PM

Polishing done. I'm going to wash my hands now.

A French Language mod using Google Translate for French to English? :-O

Q: Literary theory about "how much to leave out" (abstraction v explication)?

5:19 PM

I'm writing and thinking about different authors approaches to science fiction, and examples where the author is relatively obscure or sparse in their explanation vs authors who do more explication/backstory etc. I'm interested in theorists who have written about this tradeoff, particularly in te...

authorial-intent reading

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor I agree. That's what we've done to that previous question "Can someone unearth hidden meanings of this poem ?" too. We included a transcription, then got it deleted.

And yes, that one is an open-ended question that probably shouldn't be on our site.

2 hours later…

Q: "The Evil One" in Sherlock Holmes Series

7:24 PM

Holmes makes a reference to an individual he referred to as the "Evil One" in "The Adventure Of Charles Augustus Milverton", though without explicitly naming them: ...He is as cunning as the Evil One. Exactly who is the "Evil One", and what is their significance in the Sherlock Holmes series?

arthur-conan-doyle sherlock-holmes

Q: One generic word for Novels, Short Stories, Poetry etc. as well as non fictional books

8:14 PM

I'm looking for a Word that can cover both fictional and non fictional books as well as short stories, poetry etc. I'm aware of "Texts" which normally can cover all written media. "Prose" covers mostly fictional and non poetic forms and leaves out non fictional books too. "Literature" again is a ...

wording-choice

Mithical

9:12 PM

@Bookworm I tend to use "narrative".

As in, my personal definition of "literature" is "a narrative conveyed largely through the medium of words".