Most Popular
1500 questions
12
votes
1 answer
Is there symbolism in Vronsky going bald in Anna Karenina?
As I am reading Anna Karinina I notice how as the story continues Vronsky is going bald.
As characters meet him it is noted how he tries to hid his increasing baldness. For instance when Dolly goes to Vronsky's estate it is stated that he has taken…
Mirte
- 2,943
- 1
- 16
- 37
12
votes
1 answer
Are the numerous hunger references attributed to the title of A Moveable Feast?
In Ernest Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast, there are several references to hunger, both physically and metaphorically.
There are so many sorts of hunger. In the spring there are more.
But that’s gone now. Memory is hunger.
It was a…
steelersquirrel
- 1,051
- 11
- 23
12
votes
1 answer
Did Pushkin ever deliberately copy the style of anyone else?
Beginning, or less talented, writers often consciously or subconsciously imitate the style of earlier creators.
Are any works by Pushkin (past the age of 20) known to copy someone else's style, especially on purpose - as a tribute, or any other…
DVK
- 4,516
- 17
- 43
12
votes
1 answer
Origin of symbolic interpretation of Prospero's breaking of his staff?
At the end of The Tempest, which is generally believed to be the last plays that Shakesepare wrote alone, Prospero breaks his staff and drowns his book. This has often been read as Shakespeare telling us that he will stop writing plays. (Random…
Tsundoku
- 44,570
- 7
- 95
- 211
12
votes
1 answer
What is the meaning of "Director's Cut" in the context of comics?
I have noticed that a few comic titles are also referred to as Director's Cut like DC's Final Crisis 1: Director's Cut. I know what a Director's Cut is in the context of film, as discussed here on our sister site.
But what is the meaning of…
Ankit Sharma
- 708
- 9
- 24
12
votes
1 answer
Narrator in The Idiot
I'm struggling to understand the narrator in The Idiot. He seems like an omniscient narrator, talking of characters in third person. But, in Chapter I of Part One, while describing know-it-alls, the narrator says:
I have known scholars, writers,…
Kandrax
- 121
- 4
12
votes
2 answers
In what sense did Yossarian love the chaplain?
It's been a while since I finished Catch-22. But when I first read it, I remember the opening jumping out at me:
It was love at first sight.
The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.
My first impression on this…
skytreader
- 223
- 1
- 2
- 7
12
votes
2 answers
What is steampunk?
I've long been confused about what exactly comprises the steampunk genre. Of course I realise that genres aren't usually things for which one can pin down exact definitions, but I don't even have a proper 'feel' for the steampunk genre or where its…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
12
votes
2 answers
80s? Infected Man trapped in an Office tower with people trying to kill him
This was a paperback, probably from the 80s. The cover may have had the exterior view of an office tower (~20 floors) with a man suspended on a rope swinging outside.
The protagonist goes to his company's office in the tower. (The building is pretty…
NJohnny
- 305
- 2
- 12
12
votes
2 answers
Where was the Odyssean Ithaca?
It's well known that the home of Odysseus, as described in Homer's Odyssey, was the island of Ithaca. There's a modern-day Greek island called Ithaca, and according to Wikipedia:
Modern Ithaca is generally identified with Homer's Ithaca, the home…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
12
votes
3 answers
Why is the last title in Proust's "Search For Lost Time" not consistently translated as "Time Found Again"?
Marcel Proust wrote a seven-volume French novel called A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. The original French title of the last volume was Le Temps Retrouvé.
It seems to me that in these titles Proust intended an allusion to one of the aphorisms that…
Chaim
- 604
- 4
- 7
12
votes
2 answers
Why was/is James Joyce's writing revolutionary for its time?
I love his writing, but I don't know why he is considered one of the great fiction writers in English. Why was James Joyce's writing so "revolutionary" for its time? I know that at one time originally it was considered risque for some reason, but…
johnny
- 229
- 1
- 4
12
votes
1 answer
What is "vulgar white of personal aims"? Why is it "white"?
From Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
'I have not stood long on the strand of life,
And these salt waters have had scarcely time
To creep so high up as to wet my feet.
I cannot judge these tides–I shall, perhaps.
A woman's always…
CopperKettle
- 2,829
- 1
- 11
- 27
12
votes
3 answers
Do Guildenstern and Rosencrantz deserve to die?
In Shakespeare's play Hamlet (which you can read online), Hamlet is on a voyage with his two friends, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, to give a letter to a foreign ruler. However, Hamlet discovers that the letter they are carrying orders the foreign…
user111
12
votes
2 answers
Did Ratty have a housekeeper?
Kenneth Grahame's masterpiece, The Wind in the Willows, describes the adventures of five friends, four of whom are, apparently, bachelors.
We can infer that Mole was a bachelor since (1) he did his own spring-cleaning, and (2) his larder consisted…
Mick
- 1,339
- 14
- 18