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Tsundoku

13:37

@Randal'Thor You might think that, but five of our "poetry" topic challenges were about epic poetry, which isn't necessarily easier to dip into than prose.

Updated table of all topic challenges since April 2017, now with a new column for genres.

James Baldwin is our 86th topic challenge.

Rand al'Thor

13:55

Nice! We should think of a way to celebrate the 100th topic challenge. Maybe the topic can be "stories with 'hundred' in the title"?

one-hundred-years-of-solitude, Grandmother Brown's Hundred Years, etc.

Bookworm

Q: Questions about Alfred Noyes' Midnight Express

I have these questions regarding Alfred Noyes' "Midnight Express" Why Mortimer could not remember what he read in the red battered old book and he had to start it again? Who is that "double" or "triple" doppelganger of Mortimer? Why did Mortimer kill the old man who gave him shelter? Why is the ...

Tsundoku

Empty tag wiki excerpts: rachel-harris, john-h-crabb, p-z-reizin. The tag art-history no longer exists.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan, The Hundred-Foot Journey, ...

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, The Hundred Loves of Juliet. No lack of novels with "100" in the title.

And for the 300th topic challenge, we'll read Frank Miller's 300.

Bookworm

14:16

Q: What does "spiked with coughing death" mean in "The Odyssey"?

In The Odyssey, when Penelope becomes convinced that Odysseus is not going to return, she devises a test for the suitors: to use Odysseus' bow to shoot an arrow through twelve axes. When she goes to get the bow, we are given this description: Now Penélopê sank down, holding the weapon on her kne...

meaning greek-language homer the-odyssey

Rand al'Thor

15:07

@Bookworm @Mithical ^ :-)

Mithical

15:36

@Randal'Thor Where's that from?

Not to comment on what may have gone to or through his head, but it is apparently quite an odd choice.

Rand al'Thor

16:06

@Mithical A review of Fitzgerald's translation, that I found on Jstor while searching about the phrase "coughing death".

Somehow I thought there might be more to it than what was in Gareth's answer, like a specific meaning of "coughing death" referring to some particular kind of death (cf. "sleeping sickness" which refers to a specific disease).

Bookworm

16:47

Q: Who or what are the Pelayos in Gabriela Mistral's poem Ronda de los metales?

In Gabriela Mistral's poem Ronda de los metales, one of the stanzas goes as follows (emphasis mine): El cobre es arrebato, la plata es maternal, los hierros son Pelayos, el oro Abderrahmán. Translation: Copper is rapture, silver is maternal, irons are Pelayos, gold Abderrahmán. The Spanish Wi...