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Was Rand al'Thor supposed to be a symbol for Jesus?
Rand al'Thor has several moments that could be considered "biblical", including (spoilers):
"redeeming" mankind by cleansing Saidin", Dying to save the world, and being reborn after death, etc
Has Robert Jordan ever commented on this? I am really…
Matrim Cauthon
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Why did Velutha hold a relatively high employment status for his social class?
In The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Velutha is a member of the "Untouchables" - the social class at the bottom of society.
What I find slightly paradoxical is that he holds employment in Mammachi's factory as a carpenter. This is defying…
Zizouz212
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What does "minds her helium like a lady" mean in "The Terrible Voyage of the Toad"?
I have the following passage from 'The Terrible Voyage of the Toad' (1878) by Edward Page Mitchell:
"Without intendin' to disperidge," continued the deacon, "her bottom's more putty'n timber."
"Putty or no putty," rejoined the owner of the Toad,…
Dewton
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Where did Gerrit de Veer publish his diary?
Not so long ago I saw the film Nova Zembla, a fictionalized retelling of the voyage as described in Gerrit de Veer's diary.
On his Wikipedia page, there is only one mention about his published diary:
Map of the discovered West coast of Novaya…
kenorb
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When was the Holy Grail first depicted as an object to be owned by its seeker?
While the Holy Grail was always depicted as an important or powerful relic, in medieval literature I have never seen a quest to own the Grail, only to seek it in a spiritual sense. In early stories, the seeking of the Grail was subordinate to a…
rafa11111
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Was Edmund in the Narnia series loosely inspired by Edmund in King Lear?
In King Lear, Edmund, resentful of his inferior status to his older brother, betrays his family and frames his brother as a traitor. This strikes me as being quite a bit like what Edmund does in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Is there any…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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Whose fingerprint is on the cover of "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind"?
I'm interested in finding out whose fingerprint is on the cover of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Could it belong to Mr Harari, or his father (whom the book was dedicated to), or Suzanne Dean (the cover designer), or…
Jared Kozak
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Was Mark Twain actually almost a millionaire twice over, before he became famous?
The prequel to Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad was Roughing It:
Roughing It illustrates many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to Salt Lake City, gold and silver prospecting, real-estate speculation, a journey to the Kingdom of Hawaii,…
user59
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Is there any evidence the Party was atheistic?
Generally, most totalitarian regimes in history have been atheistic, shunning any form of religion and creating a cult of mass worship towards the leader(s) of the government. Does this hold true for the Party in 1984, or does the Party endorse a…
fi12
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What is The Princess Bride's "reunion scene" that you had to write to the publisher for?
In The Princess Bride by William Goldman, there is an extended section where the author says that he wanted to include a reunion scene when Buttercup first discovers that the "man in black" is in fact her beloved Westley, but his editor didn't want…
Thunderforge
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Can three unstressed syllables constitute a substitute foot in Shakespeare?
While trying to ascertain the accentuation of certain names in Shakespeare, by analyzing lines of verse where they occur, I encountered a couple of lines that I was tempted to scan with a substitute foot consisting of three consecutive unstressed…
Brian Donovan
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What does the rose represent in "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner?
In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, Faulkner never mentions rose as a noun, only as a past tense verb throughout the work. However, its position as one of two primary words within the title, suggests that the "Rose" has significance of its own.…
Benjamin
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In "Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote" is Menard an analogy for a critical lens?
In Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges, the narrator of the work talks about how when he read Don Quixote after having been told that Pierre Menard had rewritten it with the same words, he could feel a new life coming from the…
Benjamin
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Did any of the Pevensie kings and queens find romance while in Narnia?
Something that always struck me about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is how the four Pevensie children not only spend years in Narnia but grow up and become adults there, before having to return to being children in their own world. The issue…
Rand al'Thor
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Why is 'Hamlet' considered one of the very best plays ever?
When an intellectual work (philosophy book, literary book, painting etc) is studied there are (at least) two principal questions to be addressed:
What is this work about?
Why is this work important?
These questions are very intimately…
Outcast
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