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1500 questions
15
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Should Go Set A Watchman be read before To Kill A Mockingbird?
Given that Go Set A Watchman takes place after To Kill A Mockingbird, we would think that we should read it second. However, Go Set A Watchman was probably a first draft of To Kill A Mockingbird. I am not really sure in which order they should be…
Benjamin
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15
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How does the golden bough in "Sailing to Byzantium" relate to the story in the Aeneid, if at all?
According to Wikipedia of W.B. Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium" is
a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Yeats explores his thoughts and musings on how immortality, art, and the human spirit may converge. Through the use of various poetic techniques,…
Vixen Populi
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Was Afghanistan considered tropical or was Holmes wrong?
From the 1887 Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet:
... He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural tint of his skin ... Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got…
stacksia
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Did Cummings' editors try to fix his works' eccentricities?
E.E. Cummings often wrote with deliberately unconventional spelling and syntax. It was popularly criticised when published; however, did his editors try to "fix" his work before it was published?
If not, how did Cummings convey his intentions to the…
BESW
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What is the origin of the trope of an evil character whose name is not permitted to be spoken?
Many works of fantasy involve an evil leader or "dark lord" whose real name is known but usually not permitted to be spoken, either by his own followers (out of respect?) or by others (out of fear?) or both.
In the Wheel of Time series, the Dark…
Rand al'Thor
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15
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African dystopia with children on the run
This is a book I read in 4th grade, so about 2012-2013. This was in English and in the US.
This wasn't really a sci-fi novel that I remember, but definitely dystopian. It was set in the future of an African nation, I don't know which one. I don't…
user72
15
votes
1 answer
Whose were the "best minds" being destroyed in Ginsberg's "Howl"?
In Allen Ginsberg´s most famous poem "Howl", he claims he was witness to the destruction of the best minds of his generation:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the…
user59
15
votes
4 answers
What did Melville mean by the "Pythagorean Maxim" in "Moby Dick"?
From Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
For as in this world, head winds are far more prevalent than winds from astern (that is, if you never violate the Pythagorean maxim), so for the most part the Commodore on the quarter-deck gets his atmosphere at…
Fomalhaut
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2 answers
Would a reader of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea miss anything essential without knowing about Jane Eyre?
I read Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea without ever having heard of Jane Eyre. I didn't see even it was a prequel to another work, because I try to avoid spoilers on the back of the book.
What, if anything, would I have missed while reading Wide…
Andrew Cheong
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What is the foundation of the religion in Watership Down?
In Watership Down, El-ahrairah is essentially the father of all rabbits. He interacts with Prince Rainbow who seems to be a god.
From where do the religious history and/or deities in the story come?
James Jenkins
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14
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4 answers
What does "The Edge of Doom" mean?
The following stanza is from Robert Frost's Into My Own:
One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as ’twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of…
David542
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What is the "heap of broken images" in The Waste Land?
In T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land (which you can read online), T. S. Eliot claims that someone (probably either humankind or the reader) only knows "a heap of broken images".
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony…
user111
14
votes
4 answers
Does "The Soul selects her own Society" by Emily Dickinson have a simile?
Here is the poem "The Soul selects her own Society" by Emily Dickinson.
The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more —
Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing —
At her low Gate —
…
Elena Kolumba
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Identify a book about a boy who has hypnotic powers
I remember this book fairly well. I'll try to provide what I remember about all points.
Cover
The cover was predominantly blue, with spirals across the whole thing. I think it had a person on it.
Author
It was written by one of the authors of the…
Mithical
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Source of quote: "Speaking the truth that somebody wants you not to publish is journalism. Everything else is marketing."
Heard from a BitCoin motivational speaker:
Oscar Wilde said, "Speaking the truth that somebody wants you not to publish is journalism. Everything else is marketing."
However, we all know that Oscar Wilde also said (or was that Abraham Lincoln?)…
Quuxplusone
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