The Reading Room

Rand al'Thor

10:35

Apr 3 at 9:06, by verbose

quiet in here innit

Mithical

11:05

Ssshhh! People are reading.

Bookworm

12:43

0

Q: Meaning of "Low down on the sky was a narrow band of apricot, all that was left of the daylight."

This passage is from The Children's Bach by Helen Garner The hostess at the open door showed her teeth. Vicki came out into the world. She saw the man beside Elizabeth and slowed down. That couldn’t be Philip. Philip couldn’t possibly look like that. Philip played in a band. She whipped off the ...

bobble

14:38

@Bookworm correct capitalization and formatting of title & author!

Tsundoku

15:14

Jun 19 '18 at 20:12, by Mithrandir

Shh! Folks are trying to read here! :P

tiptoes out of the room again

Mithical

15:44

...good to know I still think the same way three years later.

Rand al'Thor

16:09

Feb 23 at 20:27, by Mithical

we do not talk about my posts before... 2018

But not more than three years?

bobble

16:35

Not sure if this gets a work tag or just short-stories; I put a work tag in the meantime because the author can change to short-stories but lacks the rep to create the new work tag

Rand al'Thor

@bobble It's described as a "novel", even if it was published in a collection of five stories. Seems pretty long, with multiple parts and chapters. Maybe a novella or something, but a work tag seems fair enough.

Oof, published together with "The Apple Tree". I remember that gripping tale from another question here.

Bookworm

0

Q: What is the meaning of "the least bit" in these affirmative clauses by John Galsworthy?

I'm translating a novel by John Galsworthy, A Stoic, written at the beginning of the XX century (full text on Project Gutenberg), and I've come across a sentence I’m finding quite tricky to understand: It had a particular ring, that voice, as if coming from beautifully formed red lips, of which ...

meaning john-galsworthy a-stoic

bobble

17:26

Do we have a meta-FAQ that lists our current consensus/guidelines for tagging in a clear an concise way? (Not just one where we discussed what should be the consensus). There are some chat messages but they're scattered around and a meta post would be better for a quick link in the comments for a new user.

Rand al'Thor

We don't, but that's a good idea.

Which policies are worth summarising in a meta FAQ? Author tags, work tags vs poetry/short-stories, and language tags spring to mind.

bobble

The difference between meaning and symbolism?

At the end a reassurance that if you miss a more obscure tag (e.g. timeline, which I alerted Alex to) we can add it on, because this post ain't going to cover everything

Bookworm

0

Q: What is the meaning of "your first interest" in this novel by John Galsworthy?

I'm translating a novel by John Galsworthy, A Stoic, written at the beginning of the XX century (full text on Project Gutenberg), and I've come across a sentence I’m finding quite tricky to understand: This'll be your first interest-on six thousand pounds? The context is as follows: a man has m...

meaning john-galsworthy a-stoic

0

Q: Is there any significance in the cry "Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi" in Prince Caspian?

In Prince Caspian, there's a passage where Aslan apparently uses his power to summon up the spirit of Old Narnia, leading to the eventual defeat of the Telmarines with very little bloodshed. A wild party ensues, featuring Bacchus, Silenus, a lot of girls, and a lot of vines and grapes. This nod t...

c-s-lewis the-chronicles-of-narnia allusions

bobble

identification-request and quote-source might be worth bringing up, but we have to be careful to not make any FAQ too long

Rand al'Thor

@bobble Pff, I'm more concerned about the difference between symbolism and allusions and allegory, which I believe still isn't really consistent. There's an old meta where I proposed just using symbolism for all questions about any kind of indirect meaning or significance, since casual users won't know enough to distinguish between symbolism, allusions, allegory, and whatever else there is.

@bobble Good idea.

@bobble Maybe also history-of-literature vs textual-history vs historical-context.

bobble

17:36

How much information would we want to include in the answer itself (instead of linking to a different discussion)? Would we split up into multiple answers?

Do we need to have a meta post about the contents of this meta post? :P

Rand al'Thor

@bobble I think one answer is best, but maybe a CW one (more future-proof), along the lines of the FAQs on main meta. Briefly stating policy on each issue and maybe linking to older meta posts for more details.

bobble

Anyone else have ideas for something that would be important to include? CC: @Tsundoku @PrinceNorthLæraðr

Bookworm

17:56

0

Q: What is the meaning of the sentence “You are--aren't you?” in this novel by John Galsworthy?

I'm translating a novel by John Galsworthy, A Stoic, written at the beginning of the XX century (full text on Project Gutenberg), and I've come across a sentence I’m finding quite tricky to understand: You are--aren't you? The context is as follows: “Sit down. Isn't washing one's head awful?” ...

meaning john-galsworthy a-stoic

verbose

18:39

So should I go ahead and make the tagging changes to these history-of-literature [questions]((literature.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1552/289) that should be tagged textual-history instead? I believe @Randal'Thor has vetted all of them

Rand al'Thor

19:46

@verbose That's quite a lot of edits - maybe break it up into 2 or 3 retagging sprees?

verbose

k

Mithical

l

Rand al'Thor

m

bobble

20:02

n

verbose

oh?

Tsundoku

@Randal'Thor Wait, what? Allusions are really separate from symbolism and allegory.

@bobble I'm lost. Include into what?

bobble

3 hours ago, by bobble

Do we have a meta-FAQ that lists our current consensus/guidelines for tagging in a clear an concise way? (Not just one where we discussed what should be the consensus). There are some chat messages but they're scattered around and a meta post would be better for a quick link in the comments for a new user.

verbose

The Robin Hood question asks "Is there one particularly important early written text which influenced many of the later/modern versions of the story?" so I think leaving the history-of-literature tag on there is fine

Tsundoku

@bobble All types of tags (including authors, book-length works and language tags)?

bobble

20:12

The idea being to have a short, clear explanation for how to tag that we can link new users to

Did you see the discussion between Rand and I?

Rand al'Thor

@verbose I was thinking that some stories are so old and culturally significant that it's hard to draw a line between textual-history and history-of-literature.

Tsundoku

@verbose I don't understand why you retagged the question about the Old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh epic. I think that seriously stretches the concept of "text" (in the context of a culture with a writing system).

Rand al'Thor

@Randal'Thor ^ like that one

verbose

@Tsundoku How is "Are all the Sumerian fragments part of a unified text?" not a question about textual history?

@Randal'Thor Surely it's not whether the work is significant that determines whether a question is tagged history-of-literature, but the question being asked?

I mean, every Shakespeare question would qualify as history-of-literature under that criterion

verbose

20:34

@verbose I mean "Old Babylonian" not "Sumerian," sorry. Mistyped

Hey @Tsundoku have you reached Week 4 of the U Basel class yet? Is the prof correct that "Zeitgeist" is pronounced with barely a trace of the "s" in the second syllable?

Rand al'Thor

@verbose I'm not sure exactly how to justify my feeling here, hence why I didn't voice it before. Maybe @Tsundoku has the same thought and can articulate it better.

verbose

@Randal'Thor I'm certainly intrigued by @Tsundoku's statement that the retag "seriously stretches the concept of 'text,'", so I'm looking forward to understanding what that means.

Rand al'Thor

Btw, I posted an answer to the quarterly best-of.

You averaged exactly 1 answer per day throughout the entire quarter :-D

Just edging out Tsundoku with three fewer answers in the quarter.

bobble

20:50

I only have 15 answers at all ;-;

Question to mod in the room: I flagged an answer a while back as NAA and a mod responded that they would nudge the OP to update the answer. It has been over two weeks with no response. Should I re-flag, or keep waiting, or what?

Also, note to @verbose - I am temporarily stopping my retagging so that there will be less bumps for the duration of your retagging.

Bookworm

21:58

0

Q: Somerset Maugham short-story "he man with the scar", understanding the gesture of the rebellion

So the general considers the gesture of the rebellion man as a noble gesture, I don't understand, he killed his love, the girl didn't kill herself, so why this murder is considered noble? I consider it as a selfish gesture.

william-somerset-maugham

verbose

22:16

@bobble Thanks! I am spreading them out over three days as Randolph suggested, so I should be done the day after tomorrow

@Randal'Thor Oh cool. I had set answering one question per day as a sort of goal (I'm trying to get our answered %age up), but it's fun to know it worked out exactly, as I wasn't actually being disciplined about it.

Transcript for