The Reading Room

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verbose

03:04

@user85795 40 years of what?

user 85795

03:31

Since the OP read it.

yesterday, by Bookworm

Q: A la Recherche and Marcel

I have seen over the years people ask if main character of Remembrance of things Past has a name. It is some forty years since I read it. I thought I read somewhere in the three volumes that the narrator says If this character had a name it would be Marcel. Am I remembering right and if I am wher...

french-language

> It is some forty years since I read it.

1 hour later…

verbose

04:51

oh ah

1 hour later…

Bookworm

06:17

Q: What does "crammle aboon the grees" mean?

At some point in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mina - Jonathan Harker's fiancée/wife - encounters an old man, and strikes up a conversation. The old man is depicted as speaking a rustic dialect, with that speech reflected in the text. Towards the end of the conversation, we have this scene: I thought h...

meaning bram-stoker dracula

1 hour later…

Bookworm

07:19

Q: Benvenuto and Pantasilea

Early in Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography, he overhears the prostitute Pantasilea with another man, Luigi, in a secretive manner, perhaps as if they are having an affair. Benvenuto leaps from a window to attack them, but they get away. Later, he lies in wait near Pantasilea's house and ambushes...

italian-language

Mithical

08:14

@Bookworm @verbose it may be inaccurate to say that it was quoted from an online source, since the quote was typed in by hand based on a physical book

verbose

@Mithical I'll double-check to make sure the online text matches your input. I think it's good to provide links to the text, generally. Or would you prefer just leaving out the link?

We can roll back if so

Mithical

I don't mind, but the access date implies that it was sourced from the link, as opposed to simply providing an online version of the text. It's not a big deal either way, though.

verbose

I am not sure I understand the distinction? The text that's in the quotation does (now) conform to the text at the link as it stands on the specified date; that's all that the citation is claiming. So if someone has a different edition, they could for example say that grees is rendered greens in their copy ... but the citation provides a source for where the quoted text in the question is from.

Granted, it isn't your original source, but for the purposes of the question, I am not sure it makes a difference. What am I missing?

Mithical

As in, the version I quoted from is not the version that was linked to. There were minor differences; in some cases, there are major differences between versions. It doesn't really make much of a difference in this particular case, but in general I think it's good to be careful that if you're citing a specific source for a quote that the citation should be where it was actually sourced from.

verbose

@Mithical In principle, I agree with you; and by that reasoning, the question should cite the source fully. So if you want to roll back to your original question and add details about the edition you're using (editor if named; place, publisher, and name), that would be groovy.

Mithical

08:26

Fair enough point :)

verbose

place, publisher, and *year I meant. sigh.

It is interesting that Gutie has "the whale-fishing" and yours doesn't have the definite article ...

I came upon How to develop skills in computer science that separate normal students from students of reputed institutes? and I sorta wonder about the premise of the question?

I TA for an introductory CS class. It's being taught at a community college (non-élite) but was developed at Stanford (definitely élite, particularly where CS is concerned, birthplace of Silicon Valley and all that)

As the TA, I have access to the solution code for the problem sets. Presumably the solution code was developed by Stanford TAs ... it certainly wasn't developed by anybody at the community college. But I don't think the code they've produced is notably (or noticeably) superior to the code one sees from students at my college.

I think students at Stanford have access to more, and more advanced, courses. In theory, they also have access to folks like Don Knuth (although I seriously doubt people of that stature consort with undergraduates). So I guess if it's a question of access to resources, asking "how might I get comparable access" or "how do I compensate for lack of such access" is one thing

but the question is framed, it seems to me, like there's an ontological difference in the skill level of folks who go to (say) Stanford and folks who go to (say) a community college, and that seems rather iffy to me. Oh well.

7 hours later…

Tsundoku

15:28

@Bookworm Chapter XVIII: "Suddenly I have to think of my mother. (...) In the old days, before she was fluffing kapok, she'd have gladly paid for those two thousand cheeses to spare me this ordeal." Not ten thousand cheeses? CC @verbose

Peter Shor

16:04

@Tsundoku So maybe either Elsschot or Laarmans was innumerate.

I've been reading Elsschot's Villa des Roses (our library didn't have Cheese), and his description of the details of the payments by the boarders gives me the impression that he was really quite numerate (is that a word?). So it's probably Laarmans.

Tsundoku

It's unlikely that Laarmans couldn't count, since he can calculate exactly how many cheeses and how much money he needs to send back to Hornstra.

John Allen Paulos thought innumeracy was a word (or coined it for the title of his book).

I finished reading a book by Elsschot's daughter Ida, which provides a lot of autobiographical details that Elsschot used in his books.

Tsundoku

16:27

Also, in Chapter XXI, "René Viaene, Rozenhoedkaai 17, Bruges" is much more specific than the details Laarmans gives about his representatives in Brussels (chapter XIV): "the address he'd given", "a very different part of town".

Tsundoku

16:45

@PeterShor Villa des Roses is inspired by Elsschot's experiences in guest houses in Paris (without being autobiographical). Even what happens between Madame Gendron and Chico is inspired by real events (but I won't spoil anything).

1 hour later…