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1500 questions
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How is 'flash fiction' a distinctive genre?
"Flash Fiction" is an umbrella term used to describe any fictional work of extreme brevity, including the Six-Word Story, 140-character stories (also known as 'twitterature'), the dribble (50 words), the drabble (100 words), and sudden fiction (750…
Dan
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Why does Mr Merdle ask for a penknife with a darker handle in "Little Dorrit"?
In Chapter 24 of Little Dorrit, in one of the last scenes, Mr Merdle asks for a penknife. When Mrs Sparkler hands him the knife he asks if he could have one with a "darker" handle.
‘So I am off,’ added Mr Merdle, getting up. ‘Could you lend me a…
Artichoke
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8
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Are Tigris in The Hunger Games and Tigris in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes the same person?
In Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games series, there is a minor character named Tigris. She is the owner of a shop in which Katniss and her team of soldiers take refuge during the assault on the Capitol. In The Ballad of Songbirds and…
Alex
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Poem-parody about O'Hare airport, written as though it were the Odyssey
I'm trying to find a poem that I'm relatively certainly was published in The New Yorker. I think I read it around 10 years ago, but definitely a margin of error of a couple of years on either side of that. It was paired with a cartoon illustration…
RSid
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8
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2 answers
What's the first appearance of the rhyme about "He died defending his right of way"?
There's a little poem that goes something like this:
Here lies the body of Thomas Grey,
Who died defending his right of way.
He was perfectly right as he sped along,
But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong".
Looking up this poem reveals many…
A. B.
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Why is the snake named "Asmodeus"?
In Redwall there is a fearsome, hypnotizing serpent called Asmodeus Poisonteeth. The name seems pretty obviously from the Biblical demon/devil (Is there a difference? The Wikipedia page doesn't help) Asmodeus. According to the Wikipedia page,…
bobble
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Origin of the story of Gilbert and the Saracen maid
A popular legend about the parents of Thomas Becket (1118–1170), Archbishop of Canterbury, is retold by Charles Dickens in A Child's History of England:
Once upon a time, a worthy merchant of London, named Gilbert À Becket, made a pilgrimage to the…
verbose
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8
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What might "And God, for a Frontier." mean in "I am afraid to own a Body—"?
I don't understand the second stanza of I am afraid to own a Body— by Emily Dickinson.
Double Estate—entailed at pleasure
Upon an unsuspecting Heir—
Duke in a moment of Deathlessness
And God, for a Frontier.
My current understanding:
Women are…
John Smith
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How does the trans community view Gore Vidal's 'Myra Breckinridge'?
Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1968) was perhaps the first major novel in English to have a transgender protagonist. Myra, née Myron, undergoes gender confirmation surgery. In order to retain Myron's assets without being outed as trans, she…
verbose
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Identify a children's story about a little girl who collected items, had a monster in the basement, and solved a dog-napping mystery!
I read this children's book about 5 years ago, it was a small, charming little book. It probably was published in the past 10 years. It was in Afrikaans, but I'm fairly certain it was a translation from English (or potentially Dutch).
I got it from…
stan
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8
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Why does Mr. Pumblechook call Mrs. Joe "mum"?
I noticed that at the beginning of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens that Mr. or Uncle Pumblechook kept calling Mrs. Joe mum. Why is that? I know for sure that Mrs. Joe didn't give birth to him, but I still am confused. Is it because of…
Noaki Sato
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Is The Lord of the Flies set on a real island?
It is a well-known fact that the author of Lord of the Flies William Golding was an officer in the Royal Navy, and that some of the sights he saw inspired him to write Lord of the Flies.
The boys are stranded on an island. All we know about this…
Beastly Gerbil
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8
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Is Keats' swan with "neck of arched snow" an allusion to Milton's "swan with arched neck"?
I discovered something quite interesting today in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Here is Milton (this is the Archangel Raphael relating to Adam and Eve the creation of the world):
the Swan with Arched neck
Between…
Solomon
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8
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Is there a specific tuition system that the University's was based on?
In Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle, students at the University are asked to pay a variable amount for their tuition per term, based mostly on their performance in an interview in front of the entire head staff, and partly on their…
Shokhet
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8
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2 answers
What does Nuvoletta's disappearance signify in Finnegans Wake?
I am studying Samuel Barber's art song "Nuvoletta", whose text is adapted from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. I have not studied Finnegans Wake. The music is very beautiful.
As I understand it, Nuvoletta is likened to wind, dew, and cloud, and she…
Violapterin
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