The Reading Room

Q: Why is a "cucumber sandwich" specifically used as what English faith has "only just enough teeth to get through"?

3:53 AM

In Chapter 34 of The Kingdoms, Kite goes on this musing about religion: The golden dome of the cathedral at Cadiz showed, just. He had been trying not to stare at it as much as he'd been trying not to stare at the flagless masts of the Royal Sovereign. As of this morning, he hadn't been ashore f...

1 hour later…

4:54 AM

@Randal'Thor never would've thought to check Wikipedia for an article specifically about cucumber sandwiches. Surprised they have such a thing! Nice answer, anyhow.

3 hours later…

Q: Looking for a sci-fi book (possibly novela / story in a collection)

7:36 AM

I've been trying to find a story I've read about 20 years ago, without success. It is about a group of human astronauts landing on an alien planet, where they help the local life advance technologically and socially, but eventually they break into factions led by the different humans, who go to w...

identification-request

1 hour later…

Rand al'Thor

8:56 AM

@bobble Maybe too many of us got too busy this summer.

@bobble Yeah, I don't feel it's a poorly researched question, even though the answer is right there on Wikipedia. Googling for "cucumber sandwich" just brings up a load of recipe pages. I was only able to find a source for the answer because I already knew what the answer is.

9:09 AM

I know cucumber sandwiches only from The Importance of Being Earnest. Probably like most non-English people who read literature.

"Cucumber sandwiches immediately make me think of the Importance of Being Earnest and the manner in which Algernon gobbled them all. (...) In fact, cucumber sandwiches weren't meant to take the place of a meal, but were served as a sign of one's status, like caviar used to be." The Rise and Fall of the Cucumber Sandwich.

"More tea, vicar?" "No thanks, I've just had a choir boy". From Reddit.

Rand al'Thor

9:31 AM

"More tea" also sounds like an Italian death threat.

Another multilingual pun for your collection, @Tsundoku.

9:50 AM

Here's another one: pneumology is the art of holding monologues about tyres.

Q: Does O'Connor's fiction argues for the importance of religious belief for its own sake, and not for its possible benefits to society?

10:30 AM

While these benefits are noteworthy and laudable, are they only secondary to fidelity to what the religion believes in and holds true?

meaning short-stories interpretation

1 hour later…

11:46 AM

@Bookworm These cucumber sandwiches won't stay fresh for long, since they made it to HNQ. Hot Network Qucumbers?

3 hours later…

2:26 PM

@Bookworm I assume this is about Flannery O'Connor, but the OP should add that.

4 hours later…

6:06 PM

Hey people!

Can someone please provide suggestions on how to improve this post: literature.stackexchange.com/q/19372

@RandomPerson At the moment, it contains several different questions, all in the same post. Each distinct question should be asked separately.

@Mithical hmm.. wouldn't that decrease the chances of getting answers for all the questions?

Quite the opposite, actually, since some people might want to answer one of the questions but not every single one. It's a lot of work to answer some questions, and expecting that someone does that work seven times over is a bit much to ask. People are much more likely to answer one or two of the questions than to provide a gargantuan answer that covers all seven.

hmm.

I already got an answer.. so what about that?

Is it still advisable to create new questions?

I mean... if you want to. You might get more of a spread of answers, with different interpretations.

6:20 PM

hmm.

Will my question (that is closed) get deleted after couple of weeks?

It won't be auto-deleted due to the upvoted answer

OK.

BTW, @bobble, why is your username not mentioned in this literature.stackexchange.com/review/close/11909, but mentioned in this literature.stackexchange.com/posts/19372/…?

I voted to close directly from the question, not through the review queues

As mine was the first vote, the question wasn't even in review yet

ok..

Do you want a further explanation of the review system?

6:25 PM

nope.

Strange, Knight's Meta SE profile doesn't have the association bonus

@bobble That's what happens when you incur the wrath of the -100 rep red-flag deletion penalty...

Ah, I can't see deleted posts there. And I just noticed the reputation history says he got the bonus.