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Does the Abrahamic God exist in the Cthulhu Mythos?
In several Cthulhu Mythos stories, incantations are made that seemingly reference Hebrew terms for the Abrahamic God. For example,
Per Adonai Eloim, Adonai Jehova
Adonai Sabaoth...
from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft
Here, we…
Robert Columbia
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How was "A Passage to India" received in Britain and India?
E. M. Forster's A Passage to India was published in 1924, in the decade after the Indian independence movement really started to gather steam. Forster incorporated this into his novel, showing the strong emotions raised within the British and the…
Gaurav
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Was Neil Gaiman's Stardust influenced by C.S. Lewis?
A central theme in Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel Stardust is that stars, when they fall from the sky, take on the shape of human beings. One of the main characters is a fallen star who ends up living on earth as a human woman, with a human mate.
This…
Rand al'Thor
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What was the first book that explicitly used "A Hero's Journey" as a checklist?
Obviously, many stories told fit "A Hero's Journey" - that's the whole point of it.
George Lucas was famous for explicitly making the Star Wars story based on Campbell's checklist and acknowledging that fact.
What was the first work of literature…
DVK
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Is there evidence of anti-Semitism in Dostoyevsky's books?
It's well known that Dostoyevsky as a person didn't like Jews.
But is there clear evidence of that in his books?
Ideally, I'd prefer evidence of things that arise above things that were commonplace normal stereotypes in Russian society of the time,…
DVK
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Why is black evil and white good?
This trope appears everywhere in literature - especially in fantasy. Everywhere you turn, black means bad and white means good. This is particularly true when applied to people, or the consequences of peoples' actions.
The Lord of the Rings does it.…
user80
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Is it a common motif in (western) storytelling that the antagonists are located to the east?
I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this question. I was reading some Lord of the Rings-lore the other day and it got me thinking about the location of "evil" in storytelling. In LOTR, Mordor is located to the east of where the…
vade
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How familiar would the "Blind men and an elephant" tale be in the West?
I am translating my article to English, which heavily uses the Blind men and an elephant tale. Since the metaphor is important, I wonder how it would be perceived in the West, especially in the US. Do you know how familiar or exotic it is to a…
Ooker
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Is it common practice for cover art to be designed without direct input from the author?
in the last day or so there's been something of a furore over Terry Goodkind's public criticism of the cover art on his latest novel, Shroud of Eternity. He made a post on Facebook ridiculing the cover art, which has received a lot of attention and…
Rand al'Thor
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Terminology and examples for what George Orwell calls "good bad poetry"?
Recently I bumped into an article where "The Poetry Foundation’s president, John Barr, takes a look at what separates “serious” poetry from the rest". Poetry being an art form, obviously no such definition will ever satisfy everyone, nor should it,…
Ilmari
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What was Captain Hook's name before losing his hand?
In J.M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, what was Captain Hook's name before losing his hand?
Revolucion for Monica
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Meaning of "all the boards did shrink" in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
What is the meaning of this phrase in plain English? What are "boards" here? Sides of the…
CopperKettle
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Short story about Gentlemen being told a tale by a young woman
Trying to find the title of an old short story I read roughly 5 years ago. If memory serves, The protagonist was a man in his late 20s to early 30s and the story takes place in Europe shortly before the beginning of World War I. The man traveled to…
user93468
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What does "Maybe it's a Big Horse I'm Morporkian" mean?
In Terry Pratchett's book Raising Steam, there is an explanation of the phrase "Have seen the big horse" where the author uses the sentence "Maybe it's a Big Horse I'm Morporkian". What exactly does this sentence mean?
kumold
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Identify a Children's Book about a character who eats all his groceries on the way home
I'm trying to identify a book I used to read as a child (90s-00s) that I just barely remember. It was for young children, and I believe each page had a sentence or two along with an illustration. It might have even been part of some kind of…
anwen
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