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1500 questions
13
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Why "Moon Child"?
In The Neverending Story, the main turning point is when Bastian gives the Childlike Empress her much-needed name, saves Fantastica, and enters into the story himself.
This name is "Moon Child", or "Mondenkind" in the original German.
What, if…
Rand al'Thor
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Where was Homer born?
I hope not to ask a very silly question. As the title says, I want to know the place where Homer was born. According to some quick searches on the web, he was born in Ionia. But it seems strange for me that he narrates the Trojan War from an Achaean…
user1630
13
votes
1 answer
What does "kettle at the heel" mean in this Yeats poem, "The Tower"?
What shall I do with this absurdity —
O heart, O troubled heart — this caricature,
Decrepit age that has been tied to me
As to a dog's tail?
Never had I more
Excited, passionate, fantastical
Imagination, nor an ear and eye
That more expected the…
ktm5124
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13
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Meaning of "d-n" in "'T is strange—the Hebrew noun which means 'I am,' the English always used to govern d—n"
From Byron's Don Juan:
She liked the English and the Hebrew tongue,
And said there was analogy between 'em;
She proved it somehow out of sacred song,
But I must leave the proofs to those who've seen 'em;
But this I heard her…
CopperKettle
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13
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2 answers
In Brave New World, If Lenina is a beta, why does she wear green?
I never quite understood why Lenina wears green if she is a beta, since betas don't wear green.
Lala
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13
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2 answers
Why do the witches in Macbeth rarely speak in iambic pentameter?
Shakespeare is pretty well known for writing in iambic pentameter. One important exception to this are the witches in Macbeth, who speak in everything from trochaic meter:
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
To…
user111
13
votes
1 answer
Why do some paperbacks have shortened front covers?
Some paperback editions have a front cover which is a centimetre or two shorter than the actual book. I first noticed this on House of Leaves, where I thought that it's just part of the whole experimental deal (representing the house whose inside is…
Martin Ender
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13
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Is the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt a joke, or is it serious?
I'm watching two adaptations of Romeo and Juliet that take two different approaches to the play: Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film Romeo + Juliet and Zeffirelli's 1968 film Romeo and Juliet. There are some obvious differences between the two: one is set in…
Method Actor
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13
votes
2 answers
What does it mean to greet a guest with an unsheathed sword?
In A Game of Thrones, Chapter 24, when Tyrion Lannister visits Winterfell on the way back from the Wall:
“Any man of the Night’s Watch is welcome here at Winterfell for as
long as he wishes to stay,” Robb was saying with the voice of Robb the
…
muru
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13
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Is Ozma a lesbian character?
Throughout the Oz books, we see that Ozma has several indicators of perhaps being gay: She never takes a boyfriend, she has a... erm... very close friendship with Dorothy, and some people claim that she is in a relationship with Dorothy in book…
R. Daneel Olivaw
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13
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3 answers
What were the three clues mentioned at the end of Agatha Christie's And There Were None?
In the end of the book it is said that the culprit believes, even though the crimes committed were perfect and the police will be unable to solve it, there are three clues left that can help identify the killer.
What are these three clues?
srk_cb
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13
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1 answer
What does the physical Scarlet Letter represent?
I love The Scarlet Letter, but I surprised to find out that I did not even know what it was supposed to represent. Its significance seemed to change throughout the book. Is there one central symbol the brooch was supposed to symbolize, or did it…
Matrim Cauthon
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13
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What is the origin of epigraphs?
What are the origins of putting epigraphs in a work?
Wikipedia has this example from 1700, but no explanation on when or why epigraphs came into vogue.
Facsimile of the original title page for William Congreve's The Way of
the World published in…
TheCaptan
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13
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Trying to remember a book about a relationship between a teenage girl and an older man
I read this story in the 1990s sometime. I remember it being novel-length, but short novel length, maybe 200 pages or so. The cover art I remember was the most 80s thing you've ever seen - a girl with big poofy hair, shoulder pads, and the kind of…
Nathaniel Irvin
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13
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Did Heller base his sarcastic swipe at academia on any actual example?
In chapter 1 of Catch 22, Yossarian describes how he makes a boring task (censoring letters) interesting by erecting "dynamic intralinear tensions":
All the officer patients in the ward were forced to censor letters written by all the enlisted-men…
MikeRoger
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