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Meaning of President "Coin" in the Hunger Games books?
My impression was that the name Coin is meaningful as opposed to arbitrary. My thoughts on the meaning so far are:
"Other side of the same coin" in that Coin represents the good guys, but is also an authoritarian
This relates to the communal…
DukeZhou
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About Sappho's epigram for the little girl Aithopia: first line (manuscript tradition and experts' take), and authorship
Background and research:
As I am planning to post this poem on my blog relatively soon, I was doing some research on the first line. From what I had written previously, I seem to have found two different versions:
Παῖδες, ἄφωνος ἔοισα τόδ' ἐννέπω,…
MickG
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Who put forward this completion to Sappho 94, and what is it actually supposed to read?
In Sappho 94 (τεθνάκην δ' ἀδόλως θέλω), there is this tercet at ll. 25-27, which is very incomplete, which Edmonds doesn't even have, and which Bibliotheca Augustana and Campbell p. 69 both read:
κωὔτε τις [^ ^ οὔ]τε τι
ἶρων οὐδ᾽ ὐ[^ – ^ ^
ἔπλετ᾽,…
MickG
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Why was My Uncle Napoleon banned in Iran?
The satirical novel My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad was briefly banned in Iran in the 1970s. Presumably this was because some aspects of its portrayal of Iranian society were considered undesirable by the new government. In order to find out…
Rand al'Thor
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Does Nausicaä not develop as a character at all?
There will be spoilers regarding characters from the end of the manga here.
In Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika) manga, the characters are usually depicted as multi-layered, and developing throughout…
Gallifreyan
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Names in The Water Margin
I'm reading Lowe's 2009 revision of J. H. Jackson's 1937 translation of the classic Chinese novel The Water Margin. The revisions make a point of removing some of the anglicisations from Jackson's original translation.
One of the main characters is…
DJClayworth
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British Duke is murdered in elevator. Title is inherited by one of a pair of identical twins, both of whom are suspects
During the COVID lockdowns, so some time between March 2020 and June 2021, I read either a novel or a short story, I think the former, that had the following plot elements:
A duke is gruesomely, swiftly, and efficiently murdered in a London…
verbose
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Why did Shakespeare write in iambic pentameter?
Shakespeare is incredibly famous for writing a lot in iambic pentameter.
But why did he choose to write in this specific style of having ten beats and 5 stressed syllables per line? Considering it was not at all a requirement for plays at the time…
SleepingGod
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Which traits of Milton's Lucifer from "Paradise Lost" did Neil Gaiman carry to "The Sandman"?
Lucifer Morningstar, the Vertigo Comics character, was created by Neil Gaiman with influence from John Milton's Paradise Lost - at least that's what is written on his Wikipedia page, and even on the official DC website's "Lucifer 101" page, which is…
Gallifreyan
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Why Pallas in "The Raven"?
In Poe's famous poem "The Raven", the eponymous bird, after tapping on the narrator's window, steps smartly inside and perches upon a bust of Pallas.
Why Pallas? As far as I know, this figure is not particularly common (among ancient Greek…
Rand al'Thor
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Does Don Quijote in fact say "Facts are the enemy of truth"?
I recall a quote of the sort "Facts are the enemy of truth" attributed to Miguel de Cervantes in his book Don Quijote de la Mancha. However, I could not find the quote in the book by searching for "truth" or "enemy". There are also some sources on…
Jannik Pitt
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Language in A View from the Bridge
In page 33 of the play "A View from the Bridge" by Arthur Miller, Eddie describes Rodolfo saying he:
looked so sweet there, like an angel – you could kiss him he was so sweet
and
Paper Doll they call him. Blondie now.
What does the language of…
Valeria Aguayo
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12
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"Miss" as a form of address to a married teacher in Bethan Roberts' "My Policeman"
In Bethan Roberts' 2012 novel My Policeman, Marion Taylor begins working as a schoolteacher in 1957. She writes her name on the chalkboard for her students:
A moment passed as I gathered myself, then the chalk touched the slate and began to form…
verbose
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How did Leo Tolstoy approve Maude's English translation of War and Peace? Did he speak good English already?
It is widely known that Maude's English translation of War and Peace was approved by Tolstoy himself. How did Tolstoy approve it, and did he know and speak English?
Ethan
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What word did Updike have in mind here?
In the first story "Rich In Russia" in Bech: A Book, John Updike writes:
(the mailbox, students should know, where his pitifully nibbled checks
arrive has been well scarred by floating urban wrath, and his last
name has been so often…
Chris Hartman
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