The Reading Room

Bookworm

00:24

0

Q: Why are all the schoolchildren referred to as guns in Clint Smith's "The Gun"?

Clint Smith's poem "The Gun" describes a school shooting from the perspective of a child. However, the central character, as well as its fellow classmates, are all referred to as "guns": "the gun moved to a closet filled with several other shaking guns". The pronouns it/its (as for an object) are...

Prince North Læraðr

@verbose So the Milan experience wasn't bad. Yeah we were stuck in the airport for like maybe 3 hours or so just trying to get our flight tickets, but all things considered it was fairly smooth

We didn't really have that much time to explore since it was right next to the airport and I personally just stayed in the airport hotel to get some work done, but it wasn't bad

But day 2 of flights came by and... getting to London wasn't bad, but getting OUT of London was horrible

We basically had a connected flight - so we were supposed to take a flight from Milan to London, and London to LAX

Well, they gave us basically an impossible turnaround time to catch the London to LAX flight. By the time the plane landed, we had like 20 minutes until boarding, and by the time we got off the plane, they already started boarding

By the time we got through security and everything they closed the stupid gate

They closed the gate right as some of the first group of chorale people got to the gate

They refused to keep the gate open for us so like none of the 36 people member of our choir actually got on the damn plane

If they kept the gate open for like 10 more minutes all of us would've been at the stupid gate

There could have been two people that got on the plane but our director wanted us to stick together

Then we spent the next TEN HOURS in Heathrow airport while our Italian tour guide was speaking/yelling at customer service xD

It was absolutely horrible

Our director wasn't there with us because she was going to spend more time in Europe with her family and she was in Paris

Our tour guide though really pulled through for us

He was speaking to customer service and the airport people literally the entire day, fighting to get us rebooked and getting us vouchers for food and everything

verbose

01:06

@PrinceNorthLæraðr !

That does sound awful. I'm sorry it went down that way but I'm glad you made it home eventually. Props to the tour guide

verbose

02:32

howdy @Mithical. Fun stuff going on in your neck o' the woods atm

Mithical

I wouldn't know, I've been in bed sick most of the week

verbose

03:44

Sorry to hear that! Glad you're feeling better

Bookworm

04:17

0

Q: Children’s Mystery Book with upside down answers

I’ve been trying to remember or find an image of these books and haven’t. So when I was in elementary school I remember reading books where a children’s (boys and girls) club found themselves mysteries that needed solving in their neighborhood, each chapter of the book was a different mystery and...

title

Prince North Læraðr

05:06

@verbose Yeah. Thank GOD for our tour guide

verbose

What does "candidate score x/40" mean?

Prince North Læraðr

Also, I don't think I'm going to nominate myself for moderator. I've given it some thought, and in the case that I were to become one, I don't think I could give the time and commitment it takes to be one

Rand al'Thor

Condolences to @PrinceNorthLæraðr for the London experience (missing your flight and being stuck in an airport is bad enough, but being stuck in an airport in a country where everyone is sarcastic and the weather is terrible?!) and to @Mithical wishing you a fast recovery (terrible time to have to write up a mod election nomination too, even if you are likely to be a shoo-in candidate).

Prince North Læraðr

Or else I'd be stretched WAY too thin

@Randal'Thor Yeah, unfortunately for them they were up against our ITALIAN tour guide

And you don't mess with our Italian tour guide Flavio

Rand al'Thor

@verbose Candidate score is a (still flawed but improved) post-2016 version of the old system of displaying candidates' rep prominently on their nominations. There's a total of 40 points available, 20 for rep (1 for each 1k rep, everyone over 20k looks the same) and 20 for various relevant badges (8 moderation badges, 6 participation badges, 6 editing badges).

Prince North Læraðr

05:10

How many editing badges would I get?

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr So it was hand gestures versus sarcasm? :-P

in 2023 Literature Stack Exchange Moderator Election Chat, 11 hours ago, by Rand al'Thor

Data.SE query to find any user's candidate score.

Prince North Læraðr

@Randal'Thor HA!

Well hand gestures and probably a lot of professional cursing

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Five. Your total candidate score would be 13, just 2 from rep and 11 from badges.

Prince North Læraðr

ELEVEN?!

Oh I thought it was 11 from editing badges and I was like what

Hey, that's not half bad!

Rand al'Thor

There's a maximum of 6 from editing badges :-)

Prince North Læraðr

05:13

yeah I saw that and I was very confused

Rand al'Thor

@PrinceNorthLæraðr You said that like a Scottish person in a lift.

Scottish Elevator - Voice Recognition - ELEVEN !

►

Prince North Læraðr

Oh that's pretty funny

verbose

@Randal'Thor ah

Rand al'Thor

@verbose Great answer on the gun question, btw.

That question probably needed someone more familiar with US culture than a brace of Brits.

verbose

@Randal'Thor thanks, that's what I figured

not that I enjoyed writing it or anything

What would my mod score be?

or candidate score I mean

I don't really know which badges are which. Like editing or moderating or participation

Prince North Læraðr

05:44

17+ for sure

Verbose how old are you, if I may ask?

Are you an old bean or a young bean or somewhere in the middle bean?

verbose

05:57

@PrinceNorthLæraðr an old bean

Let's just say I'm younger than SpaGirl but older than Christophe

Mithical

06:19

@Randal'Thor thanks

Bookworm

07:45

0

Q: What is the metre in the Scotch dialect of Thrawn Janet by Robert Louis Stevenson?

Could anybody help me in identifying the metre of this specific part of dialect: e.g if it is iambic, trochaic, spondaic, anapaestic, dactylic. I always struggle with identifying the metre for some reason and would really appreciate some help. Thanks. Fifty years syne, when Mr. Soulis cam’ first ...

meter robert-louis-stevenson dialect

Rand al'Thor

08:44

@verbose 27 (with 17 from rep and 10 from badges).

in 2023 Literature Stack Exchange Moderator Election Chat, 14 hours ago, by Rand al'Thor

Ten site users have at least 20/40 candidate score, fifteen have at least 15/40, twenty-six have at least 10/40.

Those ten are me (40), Gareth (36), Tsundoku/Mith (35), Matt (28), EJoshuaS/verbose (27), Spagirl (26), bobble (23), Gallifreyan (21), then a jump down to Sean Duggan / Peter Shor (18) and then a bunch of people who haven't been active for a long time.

@Bookworm Guns on the HNQ.

@Bookworm Bears on the HNQ.

Mithical

Unfortunately, you can't earn the Marshal badge from handling 500 flags. ;)

Matt Thrower

Well I've put my nomination post up as promised. Really hope to see @Tsundoku and @bobble nominate themselves, too.

(and @verbose - but they already suggested they were unlikely to run - and @GarethRees and @spagirl who've been fairly silent on the matter AFAIK)

Mithical

09:07

@MattThrower Glad to see it! Tsundoku has stated that he's not interested in continuing in the position, so it's unlikely that he'll be nominating.

Matt Thrower

@Mithical oh no :(

verbose

09:38

@MattThrower Welcome to the arena. As for me, it ain't gonna happen, man. Like @PrinceNorthLæraðr, I don't think I can give it the time and commitment it needs. But thanks for thinking I'd be a good candidate. Good to see Skooba running too. I will be seriously bummed if @bobble doesn't.

btw @MattThrower, we're both programmers who love literature. But unlike you, I don't fling rugs about, I merely talk a lot.

Matt Thrower

10:10

@verbose It's more common than everyone thinks. The literature, not the rugs. I can remember being told off by tutors for mixing arts & science courses before finding out from other students that there were quite a few of us who did.

Rand al'Thor

10:30

@MattThrower I went searching for this old link in the transcript and found it's gone dead. Worth mentioning in your nomination that you're a published author? Or would that be more relevant for Writing SE? :-)

Matt Thrower

@Randal'Thor I believe I put it on there. I neglected to mention that I'm an author of fact, not fiction.

Rand al'Thor

@MattThrower Gareth said in the last election that he didn't want to be a mod, but if he's changed his mind in the last few years, he'd obviously be a fantastic candidate.

@MattThrower Ah, sorry, you did say "and author" but I missed it.

Matt Thrower

@Randal'Thor well in truth it's not something I particularly -wanted- ... but I wanted it more than to see a shortfall of quality candidates if that makes sense.

Rand al'Thor

Yeah, understood.

Rand al'Thor

11:55

@verbose back in the top 6 highest-rep users after pulling ahead of @Spagirl.

Rand al'Thor

12:34

Congratulations @ClaraDiazSanchez on 4k reputation!

Mar 9 at 16:58, by Rand al'Thor

More soon, if @ClaraDiazSanchez continues at the same rate :-)

Called it :-)

Bookworm

12:57

2

Q: Reason of scare quotes in a text from Via Mala by John Knittel

Via Mala, John Knittel Il fonda une société. L'évêque de Coire, l'abbé d'Andruss, les barons de Thusis, et quelques paysans qui avaient de l'argent constituèrent un capital, et le capitaine Lauretz fut chargé de l'exploitation de la montagne d'argent. Les dossiers de son administration brûlèrent...

french-language orthography via-mala john-knittel

bobble

13:49

@verbose one of my roommates returned home from spring break and trapped me in a good conversation last night! I intend to nominate this afternoon.

Spagirl

@MattThrower I have neither the inclination nor the disposition required to be a moderator.

Rand al'Thor

A good conversation is the best place to be trapped.

Well, that or a good book.

Clara Diaz Sanchez

14:41

@Randal'Thor Gracias @Rand al'Thor! I've had a golden run for the last few days - who'd have thought so many people were interested in teachers' salaries in Ukraine in the 1990s?

verbose

19:16

@PrinceNorthLæraðr you could even say I'm a has-bean

namaskaaram, @Namaskaram

@Randal'Thor and :63276513 well, the constitution does grant the right to arm bears

DLosc

19:33

@Randal'Thor I keep thinking of a catchy song about 2 Kings 2:23-25 I once heard, entitled "Bears Are Eating My Friends."

verbose

@bobble you were hanging out with @PrinceNorthLæraðr, weren't you

Tsundoku

@Randal'Thor web.archive.org/web/20190513165507/https://haynes.com/en-gb/…

bobble

@verbose I will neither confirm nor deny

Tsundoku

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I've been in a similar situation with a flight from Boston to Washington Dulles, I think, and I had to spend the night in a hotel where they treated us as if it had been our fault that we had missed a flight.

Bookworm

19:52

0

Q: British 1990s/2000s crime novel featuring twin gangsters

I am trying to recall a British crime thriller I read in the late 1990s/early 2000s. It was set in the 1960s and featured twin gangsters very obviously based on the real-life Kray twins, with some of the events based on ones experienced by the Krays. The storyline concerned their downfall due to ...

identification-request

Tsundoku

20:16

@MattThrower Since I stated in the graduation election interest check that I would be handing in my moderator diamond, I would only nominate myself under one condition: a lack of credible candidates. Fortunately, there is a good list of nominations already.

Prince North Læraðr

20:30

@verbose Bet

@verbose Very funny

@Tsundoku Ugh I hate that. Like they give us like 15 minutes get through one of the biggest airports in the world and they're like "yOu HAd pLeNtY Of TiME"

Tsundoku

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Right. The plane in Boston took off later than scheduled due to bad weather, then in Dulles the people at the gate for the connecting flight treated me like [a word I don't want to use here].

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah. Our tour guide was literally pretty much arguing with them for 10 hours

Tsundoku

10 hours! And how was that flight supposed to be?

So, in Dulles, when they were looking for alternative connections to Brussels, they found a flight to Paris, and I told them there is a direct train from Paris to Brussels. But they didn't want to put me on that flight for some reason.

Prince North Læraðr

21:27

@Tsundoku Yeah we were stuck in that airport for 10 hours too

And the flight back was ten hours

Thankfully they put us in a hotel... at 12 am in the morning

@Tsundoku Geez

Oh my, so many unfinished tags!

3

Q: What are the acknowledged literary influences on "Star Wars"?

It's well known that Lucas had a ton of cultural influences on "Star Wars" - mostly cinematic (Kurosawa, etc..) but also literary (at the very least, Campbell). There are many sources that list possible literary influences (including a Wikipedia article) but all of the ones I saw, merely rely on "...

inspiration star-wars

^ Question is great in general, but I'm not a hundred percent sure on the usage of the "Star Wars" tag

DLosc

22:03

Hm, so literary analysis of movies is on-topic? Interesting... [steeples fingers]

Prince North Læraðr

Well I guess this is kind of an exception

Since it's asking about literary influences to a movie

DLosc

Context: I'm interested in learning more about kishōtenketsu story structure, but the only Japanese works I'm familiar with are Studio Ghibli films. I'm thinking about trying to frame a question around "How can Spirited Away [e.g.] be analyzed using kishōtenketsu?" If it can't be asked here, I suppose I could try Anime.SE.

Prince North Læraðr

Hm, that's a weird area

Like you'd need to have people familiar with both Studio Ghibli films and East Asian literature, but you might have more success with Anime SE in my opinion

Ugh but again

That's such a niche literary term

Tsundoku

22:22

Mar 12 at 20:55, by Tsundoku

star-wars, as used on the only question tagged with it, is not a work of literature. Do we want to keep this tag?

Prince North Læraðr

@Tsundoku I don't think so. Maybe just a general movie if we have one, but I don't think we need to tag a specific work of movie, since as you pointed out, is not a work of literature

I don't know if inspiration is enough on its own though

This question is definitely a weird grey area because it's very strongly a question about literature, but I'm not entirely convinced we need the star-wars on it

Tsundoku

If the question was about Star Wars novelisations, it would be easier.

Or about William Shakespeare's Star Wars trilogy.

Whether the community will accept the tag star-wars is still written in the stars.

@DLosc Based on what I've read on Wikipedia, kishōtenketsu looks like a kind of flash fiction in verse.

> For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Example of flash fiction attributed to Ernest Hemingway.

DLosc

22:44

@Tsundoku Not necessarily; it's a structure that can be applied to fiction (or non-fiction) of any length. One video I found described using it in a fractal-like way: the whole arc of a multi-volume story is a kishōtenketsu, each volume within that arc is its own kishōtenketsu, each chapter within that volume can also be a kishōtenketsu...

And a four-panel comic or a four-line poem can also be a kishōtenketsu.

(Dunno if the count-noun way I'm using the word is a correct way to use it, but it was shorter than repeating "have a kishōtenketsu structure" over and over.)

b_jonas

@PrinceNorthLæraðr That one seems unclear because it's not clear how big a scope it means when it mentions "Star Wars". Just the first movie, or all of George Lucas's Star Wars movies, or even more including novels and TV series perhaps?

You're giving me flashbacks about my Octodad question on Sci Fi. Users were arguing that Octodad the video game isn't fantasy and so the question is off-topic, even though I think it's not covered by the animal rule because the whole plot point of the second game is about Octodad being an octopus rather than a human, making it fantasy. Eventually the question remained open regardless, but I still find the whole thing weird.

And it's not about that one question remaining open that I care about, but the precedent we set about site scope when doing that.

Tsundoku

23:04

Film novelisations are on topic, but films as such are a grey area.

verbose

23:44

@Tsundoku especially these days. I remember eastmancolor, back when I was but a wee lad. Such vivid colors! Now everything is tan or, as you say, grey.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr I agree that we don't need a star-wars tag

I don't see why influence by itself is not enough?

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