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1500 questions
8
votes
1 answer
Children's book about a disturbed adopted sister from Vietnam
It was written sometime in the 80s. It was a large but slim hardcover book. It was about a girl whose parents adopted a girl from an orphanage in Vietnam a few years after the war ended.
The adoptee had lost her entire family and seen horrible…
SpikeBuffyLuv
8
votes
1 answer
What words sung by Gloria Gaynor correspond to the line written in the lyrics of I Will Survive as "It took all the strength I had not to fall apart"?
The lyrics of Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive" include the line "It took all the strength I had not to fall apart".
You can hear here what she actually sings. With what words does she render this line?
tell
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8
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1 answer
How do the Silmarils solve the puzzle of the Sampo?
It is well established that Tolkien used his fiction as a means of filling gaps and solving riddles in the extant studies of mythology and linguistics.
Most of the time, he chose to do this by supplying a definitive answer to a problem. His work,…
Matt Thrower
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8
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1 answer
Why was Elizabeth shocked at Mr. Collins introducing himself to Mr. Darcy?
In Chapter 18 of Pride and Prejudice, the Bennett family are attending a ball at the Bingley's rented estate at Netherfield. Mr. Collins is speaking to Elizabeth explaining to her that he is going to go and speak to Mr. Darcy:
"You are not going…
steelersquirrel
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8
votes
1 answer
Poem about a young man who dies
There was a poem I read years ago that I can't remember the name of. The setting is rural, possibly set in 19th or 20th century United States. A young man, possibly even a teenager, suddenly has some major medical problem. His sister calls for the…
Kevin Long
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8
votes
1 answer
Looking for a short story about a small-town mob who goes after a man who had accidentally killed another man
The story I'm looking for is one I read only once over a decade ago for class.
The story is set in a small town in the U.S., sometime around the 1950s, 60s, akin to "Monsters are Due on Maple Street."
In this story, the town is planning and then…
Adam Guzik
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8
votes
1 answer
Origin of "The bells! The bells!" quote
The quote "The bells! The bells!" is often associated with Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, but I can't find any source to actually corroborate that.
It doesn't seem to appear in the Project Gutenburg eBook, nor in any of…
Chris
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8
votes
3 answers
What does Father Gur mean by "And then you'll be given back!"?
During the dinner at the king's palace, Rumata has a conversation with Father Gur, the poet. Rumata offers him a copy of the poets work, in exchange for a promise to write something new:
“Very well put, Father Gur. By the way, is it still possible…
Gallifreyan
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8
votes
2 answers
What did Lem find in his game-theoretical analysis of the writings of Marquis de Sade?
According to Peter Swirski in Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future (Liverpool University Press, 2015; on Google Books; emphasis mine),
The author [Lem] himself eloquently argued on behalf of employing game-theoretical tools to literary analysis…
Tsundoku
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8
votes
1 answer
Did Marge Piercy have experience with the mental health system?
Marge Piercy's novel Woman on the Edge of Time presents a chilling view of the modern mental health system, by documenting the thoughts and experiences of a woman committed to a mental institution against her will.
Was the author basing her…
Rand al'Thor
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8
votes
1 answer
Meaning of a stage direction in "Remember Caesar" by Josephine Tey
The opening stage direction in the play Remember Caesar by Josephine Tey (writing as "Gordon Daviot") includes the paragraphs:
LORD WESTON is seated by the fireplace, a table of books and papers
beside him. He is engaged in filling his pipe. And…
Baskaran Soundararajan
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8
votes
0 answers
What do red and blue represent?
The Manhattan Projects uses red and blue in clearly representational ways, but I can't quite figure out what they represent.
At first they're used to designate between the Oppenheimer twins, and later between alternate realities where things go…
BESW
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8
votes
1 answer
Does the text support the theory that Arata the Hunchback killed this character?
The obvious implication from the text of Hard to Be a God is that
Kira was killed on the orders of Don Reba -
at the very least, Anton blames Don Reba and that triggers his meltdown. (this gets more obvious in the play based on the…
DVK
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8
votes
6 answers
Understanding the key in The Waste Land
A passage from the fifth part of the poem The Waste Land (which you can read online) says:
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a…
user111
8
votes
1 answer
"The Interesting Vocation of . . . ?" — a mystery about a man with memory loss & an evil secret society that lives in mirrors
Science fiction short story or novelette, 1960 thru 1970s, a mystery about a man with memory loss & an evil secret society that lives in mirrors, the conclusion being that the man is an art critic who judges our reality & improves it by deleting the…
matt
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