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13
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Why does Anne Frank have so many admirers at school?
Anne Frank writes:
I have a throng of admirers who can't keep their adoring eyes off me
and who sometimes have to resort to using a broken mirror to try and
catch a glimpse of me in the classroom
Is this a real event, or was Anne Frank…
Dawny33
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YA Adventure/Survival Novel, Written Late 1940's Through Late 1970's
I'm trying to find a YA novel that I read sometime between 1977 and 1980 from our public library (after I started reading "big books" in second grade, but before we moved from that town). Two notes:
We lived in a small town in Iowa (USA) with an…
Deacon
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13
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Are keteks based on some form of real-life poetry?
In Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive novels, the chapters are grouped into parts, the titles of the parts combining to form a ketek. For example, in the first book, The Way of Kings:
Above Silence
The Illuminating Storms
Dying
Storm's…
muru
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13
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1 answer
Is calling Queequeg a "cannibal" meant to imply he literally consumed human flesh?
Ishmael and other characters repeated refer to Queequeg as a cannibal, which in modern parlance means that he consumes human flesh. However, the novel doesn't ever say that outright, rather, Ishmael just seems to use the word to indicate that…
GGMG-he-him
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13
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What is the significance of the "suffocation scene" at Tchermashnya in Brothers Karamazov?
I'm re-reading The Brothers Karamazov and was struck again by a strange scene whose meaning isn't immediately clear to me.
In "Lyagavy", Part 3, Book 8, Chapter 2 of The Brothers Karamazov, Mitya rushes to Tchermashnya at the underhanded suggestion…
brianpck
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13
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Mystery book series whose titles are alliterations and involve gemstones
I remember, when I was in middle school, reading a series of mystery books. The titles were of the format 'X and Y', where X was a type of gemstone, and X and Y began with the same letter.
As far as more specific details, I'm afraid I don't…
Xynariz
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13
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What is meant by "without resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob Marley" in A Christmas Carol?
Near the end of Stave 3 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge a Christmas party hosted by Scrooge's nephew Fred. Fred's wife plays a song that was familiar with Scrooge's late sister Fan (Fred's mother):
Scrooge’s…
M. Justin
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13
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What's the significance of the witches' name change in Sandman?
As mentioned in another question, the three witches are very significant in The Sandman. While that other question asks for their significance in general, I have a much more specific question to ask.
In issue #2 ("Imperfect Hosts"), Dream returns to…
Shokhet
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13
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Was Wolf Hall originally written in the first person?
When reading Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall, I noticed that the protagonist, Thomas Cromwell, is referred to as often as possible simply as "he"/"him" rather than by his name. This includes in contexts where "he" would more naturally be read as…
Rand al'Thor
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13
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Is the haiku in "You Only Live Twice" by Bashō?
Ian Fleming's Bond novel You Only Live Twice has one of my favourite poems:
You only live twice
Once when you're born
And once when you look death in the face.
According to the Wikipedia article, this is merely "in the style of ... Bashō."…
muru
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13
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3 answers
Why does Valentine refer to her father's second wife as her "mother-in-law"?
In the translation of The Count of Monte Cristo I am reading, I noticed in Chapter 51, in the exchange between Valentine and Maximillian, Valentine makes repeated reference to her father's second wife as her "mother-in-law". Wouldn't this be her…
Nick
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13
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2 answers
Is there any deeper significance to the Borges story "The End"?
"The End" is a very short story, not much over 1000 words, in Borges's collection Fictions. It describes a paralysed man, Recabarren, who observes an unnamed black guitar player avenge himself on Martin Fierro, the killer of his brother.
Is there…
Rand al'Thor
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13
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Ogden Nash poem on hiccups
I have a vivid memory of reading a poem by Ogden Nash about hiccups that included the word "epiglottis" to help explain why they happen. I think it also had, as a poem, his quote about how "the trouble with a kitten is that it grows into a cat",…
Sean Duggan
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13
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3 answers
Why is a "cucumber sandwich" specifically used as what English faith has "only just enough teeth to get through"?
In Chapter 34 of The Kingdoms, Kite goes on this musing about religion:
The golden dome of the cathedral at Cadiz showed, just. He had been trying not to stare at it as much as he'd been trying not to stare at the flagless masts of the Royal…
bobble
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13
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What is the greater meaning of the thrush?
In 1984, Orwell devotes a few lines to a singing thrush that lands several feet away from Julia and Winston during their first secret meeting.
A thrush had alighted on a bough not five metres away, almost at the level of their faces. Perhaps it…
fi12
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