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1500 questions
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The name of a poem about a poet being happy that someone has forgotten the title of their poem
I read this poem in a collection and now I can't find it. It starts with the poet talking about how they were approached by someone who had loved one of their poems. But the reader could not remember the name of the poem.
This delighted the poet…
KittenWithAWhip
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What is up with the oracle's prophecy in the story of Cupid and Psyche?
In the story of Cupid and Psyche, found in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, Cupid, sent to wound Psyche with his arrows, falls in love with her himself, and flees. Later, her parents consult the oracle of Apollo at Miletus to find out whom she will…
Mark Dominus
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Who can nominate candidates for a Nobel Prize in Literature?
I was reading the Nobel Prize website page on the nomination and selection of Literature Laureates, and didn't quite understand the list of people and organisations eligible to submit nominations:
The right to submit proposals for the award of a…
Rand al'Thor
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Identify a book, love triangle, death of a woman, no Personal Computers
I have read a book in the 90's, while I was a teen, but it is very likely it was published much earlier. I have been trying to find it on and off since. I do not remember character names. Sorry. Things I do remember:
The book is of novel…
jo1storm
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Why did Bill Watterson choose the character names he did?
Several major characters in Calvin and Hobbes are named after fictional or historical characters.
Calvin is named after theologian John Calvin
Hobbes is named after Thomas Hobbes
Miss Wormwood is named after Wormwood in The Screwtape Letters, a…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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Why is the hero's journey so ubiquitous across world literature?
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Joseph Campbell argues that many myths follow a typical pattern involving the hero's departure from familiar surroundings to a unfamiliar setting, ultimately culminating in some sort of epic battle or…
Paul
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Was Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos based on the story beats of the same Keats poems?
I've read Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, composed of the books Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion.
The series pays considerable homage to the life and works of the 1800s poet John Keats, and its titles correspond to three…
doppelgreener
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Why is Nausicaa named 'burner of ships'?
Nausicaa in the Odyssey is the princess of a race of seafarers.
She and her people are beloved of and descended from Posidon/Neptune. Nausicaa herself is directly descended from both sides as her grandfathers were brothers and sons of a son of…
Mirte
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Why does the poem "Naming of Parts" contrast war with nature?
Henry Reed's poem "Naming of Parts" (which you can read online) depicts a lesson used to teach soldiers the various parts of their rifles. (Hence the title "Naming of Parts"). Interspersed between the description of the lesson is a description of a…
user111
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About l. 3 of the second stanza of Sappho's Ὠδὴ εἰς Ἀνακτωρίαν (Ode to Anactoria)
A long time ago, I translated all of Sappho's poems. In doing so, I had to reconstruct some parts of the texts, and do some amateur level criticism. One example of such work lies in the poem sometimes referred to as in the question title, whose…
MickG
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"The Dearest Charms in France" - French story about soldiers, a lottery, and a famous prostitute
Several years ago, I read a memorable short story included as an example (of what, I don't recall) in a book about writing. The story was set in a historical era of France. I believe it was translated from the French, and written in the era it…
Chris Sunami
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What makes the Sydney barber's remark rude?
In Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Ironbark", a city barber makes a supposedly rude remark to his country bumpkin customer:
And as he soaped and rubbed it in he made a rude remark:
"I s'pose the flats is pretty green up there in…
Jeremy
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Identify a story about murders of homeless people
I remember 2 years ago reading a book in class about a retired soldier who lures homeless people into his house and murders them.
I believe the plot went like this:
Lets say the heroes name is X.
The antagonist is a retired soldier from the…
Metro Boomin
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Where did Asimov say this quote, about women becoming lawyers vs doctors or engineers because math was not required?
On the TvTropes page "Everybody Hates Mathematics", in the section of examples from "Real Life", there appears the following excerpt:
Isaac Asimov once wrote in an editorial that the reason so many women are becoming lawyers — as opposed to…
SuspiciousGarbage
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Why did literary critic Harold Bloom say something that didn't correspond to reality regarding Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?
In this opinion piece by renowned late literary critic Harold Bloom, we see him levy the following charge against Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:
I went to the Yale bookstore and bought and read a copy of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s…
Fomalhaut
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