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Is there a term for epic poetry’s detailed, successive introductions of multiple characters?
I’ve noticed a topos in a few epic poems I’ve read where a long list of characters is given, each receiving practically a paragraph of description. In The Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, Jason’s crew members are introduced like this. In Book 7…
IglooMaster
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What is the meaning of “the drumstick” in this novel by John Galsworthy?
I'm translating a novel by John Galsworthy, A Stoic, written at the beginning of the 20th century (full text on Project Gutenberg), and I've come across this peculiar use of the word “drumstick”:
She is obviously always ringing for "the…
avx
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What is so special about a fruit being in season for eight days?
In chapter Four of The Time Machine, the Time Traveller states:
But the fruits were very delightful; one, in particular, that seemed to be in season all the time I was there — a floury thing in a three-sided husk — was especially good, and I made…
Alex
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11
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What does "But... They went home" mean in Maya Angelou's "They Went Home"?
Maya Angelou's "They Went Home" opens like this:
They went home and told their wives,
that never once in all their lives,
had they known a girl like me,
But... They went home.
The end of the second verse also ends "But... They went home", and the…
Mithical
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What does "Bool-var" mean in "In the Midst of Alarms"?
In In the Midst of Alarms (1894) by Robert Barr, Yates was defeated in a friendly fight by his friend, professor Renmark, and he was astonished by the fighting skill of this quiet educated professor
Oh, I say, Renny, that wasn’t fair. That was a…
Ahmed Samir
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Is there any evidence that George Orwell read 'For whom the bell tolls'? Did Hemingway read 'Homage to Catalonia' or (later) '1984'?
Orwell was familiar with Hemingway, who was already very famous by the 1920s. Mostly Orwell was quite scathing about Hemingway, because of his macho image.
Hemingway was relatively favourable towards the official Communists, did this contribute to…
Ne Mo
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A timeslip murder mystery from the 70s/80s
I'm trying to remember a YA novel I read back in the 80s/90s (in English) about a teen girl who goes to spend a summer with her grandmother or other older relative, something weird timeslippy happens, and she's able to slip between present day and…
sarcasticaquarius
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11
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How do these lines in Shakespeare's Sonnet 151 mean what they're supposed to?
How do these lines in Shakespeare's Sonnet 151 mean what they're supposed to? Here's the sonnet:
Love is too young to know what conscience is,
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my…
seawitch
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Identify a poem entitled Mock Song, written in middle English in the 13th-15th centuries
I'm looking for a middle English poem, written in the 13th-15th centuries, which I only have in translation (to Hebrew).
The translated poem is found in a chapter that contains three additional poems, and one of them is Adam lay ybounden.
Here is…
HeyJude
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Has a parody of a work of literature ever become more successful than the original work?
I was thinking of this when I read Nineteen-Neighty-Four, a fanfic with My Little Pony ponies in a 1984-ish world.
Parodies can be really successful as a way of challenging another work, or the ideas in it. If they're well done, they might also…
Charlotte SL
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What is King Darzin?
One of the El-ahrairah stories told in Watership Down features someone called King Darzin, but it's not clear what sort of animal (or even human?) he's supposed to be.
Now, King Darzin ruled over the biggest and richest of the animal cities in…
Rand al'Thor
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What's the symbolism of the flowers in The Winter's Tale?
In Act IV, Scene IV of The Winter's Tale, Perdita is "mistress o' the feast", playing hostess at the sheep-shearing feast, when King Polixenes and Camillo arrive in disguise. Perdita gives them both flowers, accompanied by the following short…
Rand al'Thor
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How has knowledge of the Ur-Hamlet evolved over the centuries?
I recently read in an excellent verbose answer that the existence of the Ur-Hamlet, on which Shakespeare's Hamlet is presumed to have been based, is known from a throwaway line of Thomas Lodge, published in 1596 some years before Shakespeare's…
Rand al'Thor
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Did Leckie consult with the audiobook narrators on pronunciation?
I love how Adjoa Andoh narrates the audiobook version of Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, especially her pronunciation of Radchaai words and her singing. Did Leckie give Andoh those pronunciations and tunes, or did Andoh come up with them on her…
BESW
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Why is "close reading" necessary?
Following up on this question and answer What is close reading?
In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general,…
Eddie Kal
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