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In the "Neverending Story", what judgement do Falkor and Atreyu make of the Childlike Empress?
When I recently read The Neverending Story to my children, they were puzzled by this passage, and I could offer no help:
“Falkor,” Atreyu asked, “do you suppose the Childlike Empress cares what becomes of Bastian?”
“Maybe not,” said Falkor. “She…
Chris Sunami
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Has The Danish Girl novel been banned in any countries?
There is a film The Danish Girl based on the fictional novel of the same name by David Ebershoff.
The film has been banned in some countries on grounds of moral depravity.
Has the novel been banned in some countries as well? If not, was the novel…
kenorb
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Which order is recommended for the "Commonwealth" novels?
The Commonwealth Saga of Peter F. Hamilton is comprised of several novels spanning centuries, characters and planets. Unfortunately, the publishing order does not concur with the in-universe order. What is the recommended order that will make for…
Helmar
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Did Thomas Hardy's books get more miserable with time, and was this because of his own life?
Thomas Hardy is best known for his tragic romances, novels which are really miserable and depressing to read. However, not all of them are equally so:
Far From the Madding Crowd, one of his first novels, actually has a happy ending for the main…
Rand al'Thor
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Who said that Allingham "polished her prose until it shone over-bright," and where?
Somebody read to me from a book about Allingham long ago that she would "polish her prose until it shone over-bright" and then dictate it to her husband to reduce it to a more readable vernacular. I think it was a line from a biography describing an…
BESW
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Why don't people in the Chronicles of Narnia have trouble "transitioning" back to their old life after extended times in other worlds?
In The Chronicles of Narnia, people often spend weeks, months, or even decades in other worlds. They return to their old life at the exact instant that they left as if they were never gone. For example, the Pevensies spent years (perhaps decades?)…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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What does this quote from The Great Gatsby mean?
Here's the quote:
My commutation ticket came back to me with a dark stain from his hand.
That any one should care in this heat whose flushed lips he kissed,
whose head made damp the pajama pocket over his heart! (Fitzgerald p. 155).
The…
Frank
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Who first referred to Odysseus as Ulysses?
When I was in high school, Homer's Iliad, Homer's Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid were taught as a trilogy of sorts.
Was Virgil the first Roman to refer to Odysseus as 'Ulysses' or was there another (recorded) author before him who did so?
miltonaut
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An imaginary young British poet who was invented as a literary hoax in the 1920s?
I think I read a brief piece about this a long time ago -- as in, over twenty years ago. (Possibly in some sort of literary reference book.) As near as I can recall, the following sequence of events is supposed to have occurred in the real world,…
Lorendiac
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Is Doctor Adams a self-insertion in Watership Down?
In chapter 48, "Dea ex Machina", of Watership Down, we meet Doctor Adams.
Watership Down is of course written by Richard Adams.
Is there any indication besides the surname that this character is a self-insertion by Richard Adams?
Or is the surname…
SQB
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Explanation of the line 'But you don't really care for music, do you' in "Hallelujah"
In the first verse of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", there are these lines:
Now, I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this...
I can't figure…
Mithical
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What is the meaning of the epilogue in Blood Meridian?
Cormac McCarthy is famously tight-lipped as to his own interpretations of his work. Nevertheless, there are some clear themes in his novel Blood Meridian: human propensity to violence and the efforts of religion and philosophy to make sense of that…
Matt Thrower
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Is there really a bawdy pun at the conclusion of Romeo and Juliet?
Romeo and Juliet is listed as one of Shakespeare's tragedies and, personally, I found it one of the more affecting ones. With that in mind I was gobsmacked to learn that there's apparently a dirty joke right at the high point of pathos in the play.…
Matt Thrower
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16
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Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby?
“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
When I read this quote from Jordan Baker I was (and am) puzzled as to the meaning. It seems like straightforward irony that large parties can be more…
iceninja21
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Where is the start of Treasure Island set?
Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel Treasure Island opens somewhere in Britain, at and around the Admiral Benbow inn. Where exactly is this meant to be?
It seems to be relatively near to Bristol, so I'd guess somewhere in the West Country of…
Rand al'Thor
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