The Reading Room

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verbose

01:07

@Randal'Thor thanks! Yep, it was a late answer (about 2 years after Gareth's, IIRC) and just never got any traction. Then a few days ago I came across it while looking for a different answer I had written, and saw that I had not formatted some quotations right, so fixed that.

4 hours later…

verbose

05:24

@Bookworm causing trouble on the HNQ

@Bookworm ticking along merrily on the HNQ

12 hours later…

Clara Diaz Sanchez

17:42

@Randal'Thor You might be interested in an essay "Old Narnia is True" by Marvin Hinten. He has a similar epiphany to your about the name of the mole:

"The leader of the moles, he has casually noted earlier, is named Clodsley Shovel. The name makes linguistic sense; moles shovel up clods. And so I used to think that was the entire story.

Then, several years ago, I was reading a book of l7th-century British history. The book described the growth of British naval power during the century and mentioned some of the leading commanders. The commander of the British navy in the 1690s, it noted, was named (believe it or not) Cloudesley Shovel.

And I remembering laughing out loud and shouting in delight, "That’s Clodsley Shovel! That’s where Lewis got the name from!" And my enjoyment of Clodsley Shovel's name was much greater than if Lewis had named the mole leader, say, Spadesley Dirt, or some other name that used linguistics but didn't bring in the historical reference.

That brings up an important point. Lewis expected at least some readers to recognize his allusions and gain added pleasure from them. He expected educated adults to pick up on the allusions right away; he expected children to recognize more of the allusions as they continued their education."

2 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

19:56

@ClaraDiazSanchez Wow, that was indeed a very interesting read. Thanks!

1 hour later…

verbose

21:09

Q: Looking for an English-language poet whose name rhymes with Stowe and who lived in the time of Stevenson or earlier

My friend is composing a poem, and for a rhyme's sake she needs the name of an English-language poet whose name rhymes with Stowe and who lived in the times of R.L. Stevenson or earlier. I came up with "Poe" but she said she already used this surname. I would be grateful for any suggestions. ...