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2:02 AM
> You tell me to do this,
He tells me to do that.
You're all bastards,
Go fuck your mother.

"Poem about bastards" by Zhang Zongchang
 
4 hours later…
5:47 AM
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Q: Light in August by Faulkner

Richa PaliyaCritical analysis on Faulkner's "light in August" should include what points? Asking as a master's students of literature.

 
6 hours later…
12:13 PM
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Q: What is the meaning of the brown flower in Condé's ""The Gospel According to the New World"?

Clara Díaz SanchezThe central character of The Gospel According to the New World is Pascal, who may (or may not) be the son of God. At his christening, his foster mother, Eulalie, is given a flower by a visitor (who may be an angel, Pascal's uncle, or the Holy Spirit, or indeed something entirely different). The f...

12:33 PM
Time to announce the Sep-Oct topic challenge? Looks like Svetlana Alexievich is top of the pile, and indeed the highest-voted challenge of the year so far.
(At least now that I reversed my vote. I had previously downvoted it as too similar to other challenge(s) that were chosen, but now it's been a while since the Belarusian literature topic challenge.)
 
2 hours later…
2:39 PM
@Bookworm “The actors of the Théâtre Historique and their play, however, were driven from the London stage. There arose a cry about the desecration of Drury Lane. It was held that the presence of the French company upon its boards was a fatal degradation. Histrionic London rose against the project. The Historique players went back to Paris unheard and insulted, carrying their drama of ‘Monte Christo’ along with them.” — Dutton Cook
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Q: Announcing the September–October 2024 topic challenge: Svetlana Alexievich

TsundokuIn accordance with our meta agreement to have topic challenges and a later meta agreement to have topic challenges lasting for two months and overlapping by one month, it is time to announce the September–October 2024 topic challenge. Based on the number of votes (+6), our next topic challenge wi...

3:36 PM
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Q: What evidence is there that Hecate's speech in Act IV, Scene 1 of Macbeth was added in later?

MithicalIn Act IV, Scene 1 of Macbeth, the famous "Double, double toil and trouble" scene, Hecate shows up for a brief moment to comment on the brewing: Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. Hecate O, well done! I commend your pains; And every one shall share i' the gains: And now about the cauldron ...

4:17 PM
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Q: I am searching for a possible Hitchcock anthology short story written before 1970 about newlyweds honeymooning In Caribbean facing a black magic spell

MikeMinNCI am searching for a short story written before 1970. It may have been featured in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology of scary stories. It was about a young newlywed couple honeymooning on a Caribbean island, maybe Haiti or the West Indies. In the story the young bride has a spell placed on her by a ...

 
5 hours later…
9:23 PM
I read James Baldwin's No Name in the Street yesterday. Before I had finished the second page, I knew all the other books I had going would have to wait until I had finished this one.
10:02 PM
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.: Where to start reading James Baldwin’s books. OK, but just start reading him.
10:15 PM
@verbose How is your review of Satire coming along? ;-) (If I buy the book, I'll have to pay 30 euros.)
10:26 PM
What did Christopher Marlowe do when he couldn't sleep? Count young goats.
Reading challenge for August 2025: Augustus by John Williams.
11:04 PM
@Tsundoku 30€?! That's obscene. Are you serious about wanting me to write a review? I thought you were kidding. If you are serious, I'll put something together this week.
The book is on archive.org
@Tsundoku I don't get it. Is that a pun on "kid" (young goat) and "Kit" (Marlowe's nickname)?
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A: New Literature SE Topic Challenge Suggestions Thread

verboseJames Baldwin James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and activist influential in both the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), is on several lists of the best 100 novels: Modern Library, Time, Fr...

@verbose Well, yes. And counting sheep.
@NewTopicChallengeSuggestion I almost asked whether someone wanted to suggest a James Baldwin reading challenge. I didn't expect a mind reading challenge.
@verbose 31.99 € for Ogborn & Buckroyd's Satire. Strangely enough, the book is no longer listed at Cambridge University Press.
11:21 PM
I spend too much time in front of computer screens already.
@Tsundoku I certainly hope it gets enough upvotes. It's weird how few reading challenges we've had that cover Black authors: four (Condé, Kincaid, Omenuko, A Grain of Wheat), of which zero have been African-Americans. I'm rather disappointed that the Harlem Renaissance hasn't received sufficient upvotes, for example.
@verbose To some extent this may be due to people looking for non-English literature. English is the language best represented on the site already.
It can hardly be that people want to avoid "political" reading challenges, because those for Ukrainian and Belarusian literature were inspired by political events and censorship. Unless people want to avoid a specific type of political issues, namely those related to race.
11:38 PM
Ongoing topic challenges: Maryse Condé (until the end of August) and August Wilson (until the end of September).
11:52 PM
@Tsundoku You could be right about the language thing. I can't help wondering if implicit bias also plays a part: that non-Black people just aren't that interested in reading Black literature because they don't see it as worthy of attention. I know I have to consciously struggle against my own biases about what I find "worth reading" (for example, I rarely pick up SFF), and the discourse around dating apps has
also led me to be suspicious of claims that one's likes and dislikes are "just a preference", so ...
I'm not accusing anybody of racism, I'm just laying out my own thoughts.

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