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1500 questions
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Does the Epic of Gilgamesh have a continuous cultural history?
Over 4000 years ago, the Epic of Gilgamesh was first told and written down on clay tablets.
Today, as far as I understand, the story is known from the discovery of those tablets in recent centuries.
Does human knowledge of the Epic of Gilgamesh have…
Rand al'Thor
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What rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;…
DukeZhou
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What is the Pasifika response to "Nation"?
Pratchett's Nation was recommended to me because it depicts an alternate reality version of Pasifika cultures, faiths, and traditions. A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me it's got cannibals and reveals that a Pasifika culture is the forgotten…
BESW
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What did O'Brien mean when he said "They got me a long time ago" in the book 1984?
The boots were approaching again. The door opened. O'Brien came in.
Winston started to his feet. The shock of the sight had driven all
caution out of him. For the first time in many years he forgot the
presence of the telescreen.
'They've got…
Ne Mo
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Short story about a man condemned to death because he cannot remember the details about a country
I once read a short story about a man (a journalist?) visiting a prison inmate. He was incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, and it was a case of mistaken identity or insufficient alibi. The conviction hinged on the fact that he could not…
Raziman T V
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17
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1 answer
Science fiction short story with the ability to jump from world to world
I read this not long ago, maybe a year. It was either a short story or a novella, certainly not longer. Read in English, in the US.
The story was definitely older though, no clue exactly when but probably before the 2000s. (I remember very yellow…
user72
17
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2 answers
Do I need to read all the supplementary material for The Expanse, and in what order?
I want to read The Expanse, but I'm kind of confused about which to read first and what I actually need to read. So far as I can tell The Expanse is a series of novels that fall in roughly chronological order, but there's also a number of novellas…
BESW
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Why is the tense wrong in the beginning of The Stranger?
The first lines of Albert Camus' The Stranger go something like this:
Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday
It's told in the present tense, as in, when Meursault is recounting the event it had happened that very same day. This tense continues…
GGMG-he-him
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Is Professor Moriarty really Sherlock Holmes' arch-enemy in the way some people think?
Some people view Professor James Moriarty as the ultimate arch-enemy to Sherlock Holmes, and that perhaps he may have been a major character in the stories and novels.
If you've watched a TV series or movie adaptation, chances are the major villain…
Buffer Over Read
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17
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What was a "ward in chancery"?
Gilbert often had certain ideas reappear in his various operas. One of these ideas was that of a "ward in chancery."
From Pirates of Penzance:
MABEL: Hold, monsters! Ere your pirate caravanserai Proceed, against our will, to wed us all,
Just…
Matrim Cauthon
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17
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1 answer
How did T.S. Eliot's literary criticism affect his poetry?
T.S. Eliot wrote influential essays in New Criticism, a literary theory movement that if I understand correctly tried to revive formalism and focus on close reading and the text itself, as a response to the literary criticism of the early 20th…
Benjamin
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What do the other farmers symbolize in Animal Farm?
I asked this question on the old literature site, it got migrated to the science fiction and fantasy site, and then was later closed as off-topic. I figured that I might as well ask the question here.
I remember reading somewhere that Mr.…
user111
16
votes
3 answers
Symbolism of Albus Dumbledore's name in Harry Potter
What is the symbolism of the name Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter?
'Albus' means white
'Dumbledore' is a type of bee
What is this representing?
Beastly Gerbil
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What is the significance of the anisotropic highway and the skeleton of a fascist chained to a machine gun?
In the beginning of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's novel Hard to Be a God, the protagonist, Anton, goes down a country road, disobeying a "wrong way" sign, and finds a skeleton of a fascist chained to his machine gun - a remnant of The Great…
Gallifreyan
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In what way is The Lord of the Rings metafiction?
As a student, I read metafictional novels such as Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. When I checked the Wikipedia article Metafiction, I found, much to my surprise, that it lists The Lord of the…
Tsundoku
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