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What techniques were used in "The Unfortunates" in order to allow the story to be read in random order?
In reading the book "The Unfortunates," you are directed by the book's instructions to literally mix the chapters together, excepting the first and last chapter.
This creates an interesting phenomenon, where the story becomes very personalized to…
user80
13
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How old is Romeo?
While answering a different question, I wanted to find out Romeo's age in the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. It's well known that Juliet is 13, and generally assumed that Romeo is older (hence the occasional modern-day accusation that he's a…
Rand al'Thor
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How big an impact did Lewis Carroll have on the English language?
Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" was, at the time it was written, even more nonsensical than it seems today, because some of the words which Carroll invented for it have since passed into common usage in the English language. For example, chortle,…
Rand al'Thor
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How many of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience come in pairs?
Some years ago I studied many of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Many of them are very clearly paired up, an Innocence song and an Experience song deliberately written to compare and contrast with each other: not only those with…
Rand al'Thor
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Is the giant who carved the "Under Me" line Time?
In The Silver Chair, Rilian, while enchanted, said:
Though under Earth and throneless now I be,
Yet, while I lived, all Earth was under me.
From which it is plain that some great king of the ancient giants, who lives1 buried there, caused…
Mithical
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What is the deeper meaning of "The Tyger"?
William Blake's poem "The Tyger" is part of his collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience, an extraordinary set of poems which explores ideas such as spirituality, love, poverty, repression, all expressed and contrasted in beautiful language…
Rand al'Thor
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Why are comic books listed under PN ("general literature"), and not under authors' respective categories in Library of Congress system?
After starting university and going to the library for some time, I noticed a peculiar thing: comics seem to be grouped under PN irrespective of their authors' general grouping.
Take The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, who is an English author: the…
Gallifreyan
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Does an answer to the Sugar Bowl mystery exist?
In the later books in The Series of Unfortunate Events, the sugar bowl becomes a cryptic macguffin -- everybody's after it, everybody mentions how important it is, but nobody explains why. There are implications that the sugar bowl would destroy…
Standback
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Did George Orwell ever feel that Spain would be better off under Franco?
I recently read an article at Foreign Policy (archived here) stating the following:
[Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom] grounds Churchill and illuminates the grim conclusions Orwell didn’t blanch at, like his dark, practical view that…
einnocent
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How does Room 101 reset for each person who enters?
It's known in 1984 that Room 101 contains your worst fears; it's the ultimate torture/emotional breakdown technique. However, assuming each prisoner has a different fear, Room 101 would have to continuously be modified specifically for each new…
fi12
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Why did Morris and Clay preemptively dissolve the Red-Headed League?
Spoilers ahead for The Red-Headed League.
In this Sherlock Holmes story, Holmes and Watson are recruited by a flustered pawnbroker, Jabez Wilson, who has been tricked into joining a fake society, the Red-Headed League. In reality, the society was…
The Dark Lord
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Is there any animal internal monologue in The Lord of the Rings?
Does Tolkien ever include any internal monologue from the perspective of an animal? That is to say, a scene where he shows an animal talking to itself inside of its own head?
Himarm
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In To Kill a Mockingbird, what does "let the dead bury the dead" mean?
In the ending chapter of "To Kill a Mockingbird", Atticus and Mr Heck Tate (the Sheriff) are deciding who is responsible for the death of Mr Ewell. Atticus thinks Jem killed Mr Ewell but Heck knows it was actually Boo Radley. Heck Tate said that…
TheFinal Kage
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Symbolism of Marx and Lenina's names in Huxley's Brave New World?
Reading Brave New World it seemed obvious to me that Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne are in some way referring to Marx and Lenin, but I couldn't figure out any clue to support this claim. Is it truly so and what are they representing? Is there any…
Luke
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What is a bootless oath?
In Book X (10) of The Illiad Hector (edition: Britannica Great Books of the Western World (The Illiad and The Odessey together), rendered into English prose by Samuel Butler) swears the following oath
"May Jove the thundering husband of Juno bear…
Mirte
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