Recent questions tagged literature

Description : What do you do to prepare to attempt to do an intellectually taxing task?

Last Answer : Lots of research. Time to just think about it. Quiet room. Set aside good amount of time. Work in sprints of 20–30 minutes. 10-minute breaks.

Description : If dogs were able to author stories, what would your pet write about you?

Last Answer : Treats and snacks.

Description : Is Miss Havisham related to Mr. Havisham?

Last Answer : It’s not a popular name that I’m aware of but it doesn’t seem that likely that she was using it as an homage. There doesn’t really seem to be any reason for her to have but you’d have to do some biographical research into her life to really verify whether there was or not.

Description : What makes Kafka’s works a must read?

Last Answer : No idea. We had to read one of his stories in college – I found it impossible. He’s not on my list of influential authors.

Description : Who are the strongest female characters in literature?

Last Answer : Jane Eyre Anne of Green Gables Antonia in “My Antonia” Ada Dunstable in Trollope’s Barsetshire Chronicles is a great character Jo March in Little Woman Mary in The Secret Garden

Description : Do you know of any chaotic/problematic characters in literature that transform through looking inwards?

Last Answer : Hmm, Dr. Strange? How about Tony Stark?

Description : Would Trump have been a gold mine for Shakespeare?

Last Answer : Fu King Leer…he does that to women right?

Description : What is that most common character trait possessed by literary characters you like?

Last Answer : Now, that's one I'll have to think about. I'll get back to you on that. I can tell you that it's not beauty, goodness, or pluckiness, although those may be additional traits in some appealing characters ... ). And it sure isn't flaws alone. Maybe there isn't a commonality? This could be a hard one.

Description : What is your favourite type of Fan Fiction?

Last Answer : HISHE. How it should have ended.

Description : Female author recommendations (please see details)

Last Answer : J. K. Rowling . Margaret Atwood.

Description : Would you please help me with the first line or so to my novel?

Last Answer : In the upcoming screenplay based on the novel Candice Glover will sing the title song, if that helps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpgWD9SOsxo

Description : Is anyone willing to help me with annotating a passage?

Last Answer : Why don't you just post the passage in question here and let the collective help you? Some of us may not want to correspond via pm. Also, if this is a homework assignment you need to do ... notes or other reference material related but this shouldn't be too hard for you to accomplish on your own.

Description : What is generally regarded as the "Great American Novel"?

Last Answer : Too broad to answer. Ask 20 different literature teachers and you’ll get 20 different answers. And are you talking about a contemporary novel or a classic? If you narrow it down to that, I’ll hazard some opinions.

Description : What would you name your autobiography if you happened to write one?

Last Answer : I’ll Let Marketing Think of Something Clever

Description : Would anyone please tell me the meaning of a sentence from Carlyle's Book "On Heroes..."?

Last Answer : So, no one told an untruth is what the second part means. I think it might mean that fables are made up of truths but altogether these truths do not make the truth.

Description : What is the greatest work written in English?

Last Answer : answer:Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. One can learn a lot from it about understanding and tolerance.

Description : If you were William Shakespeare and were writing a play about the rise, intrigues, and fall of Donald Trump, would you consider it a tragedy, a comedy, or a drama? (it's no sonnet!)

Last Answer : answer:If he wins, it's a tragedy; if he loses, it's a drama. I can't make it a comedy because so many people support him (although I imagine Jonathan Swift could have a ... how developing a detach air of amusement at the current election would be very helpful in maintaining psychological health.

Description : Can someone who understands film and literature correct my essay?

Last Answer : How long is it?

Description : Could you recommend, other vampire novels similar to the work of Anne Rice?

Last Answer : Hellsing Ultimate.

Description : What two moods are conveyed in this extract?

Last Answer : answer:One mood is dishonesty. For someone who (in her profile) proclaims herself to be “someone who lives English”, you seem to be very satisfied with other people doing your schoolwork.

Description : Will you help me think of a name of an author?

Last Answer : Ann Ryand?

Description : Which author or literary character would you most want to be - and why?

Last Answer : Do you really need to ask? The name is Bond, James Bond.

Description : What are the literary terms and devices that Ama Ata Aidoo uses in her story: The Girl Who Can ?

Last Answer : If you have access through a database or school library to Gale Research’s Short Story Criticism you should find some helpful essays in it. There are also other literature resource databases that you can search.

Description : In Bram Stoker's novel, what was the relationship between Mina and Dracula?

Last Answer : I believe that Mina was very much in a physical sense a reincarnation of Dracula’s Wife llona, so in other words it was love at first sight for him all over again, and it was his pursuit to call her his own forever.

Description : What are some of the biggest mistakes/unfortunate choices/decisions you've made that affected your whole life?

Last Answer : answer:Letting my odious in-laws bully me into having a wedding. After a lifetime of their megalomania, my husband was easily cowed by his parents and didn't stand beside me and help fight them. ... be very different. I would have put my foot down, drawn some firm boundaries, and demanded respect.

Description : How to get out of reading a book?

Last Answer : answer:Just tell him that you have no interest in reading. No need to complicate it. (As an aside, is there anyone who isn’t a visual thinker? We are visual creatures afterall.)

Description : What is the most definitive version of the Gilgamesh epic one can buy?

Last Answer : As I understand the version by Andrew George, initially published by Oxford in 2003, is widely regarded as the most definitive translation in English.

Description : I saw a quote and I can't remember who to attribute it to. Can you help?

Last Answer : answer:Bill Moyers said this in September: So Pope Francis and Kumi Naidoo speak the truth, in different accents and with different metaphors, but their message boils down to this, capitalism is ... us. And that fragile, thin line between democracy and a darker social order will be extinguished.

Description : Who is your favorite dog in literature?

Last Answer : Follow My Leader. The story of a boy who was blinded, and aided by a guide dog.

Description : What do these two verses mean?

Last Answer : These verses are hotly debated by experts and has never been resolved satisfactorily. Here the rose is a symbol of sleep and the rose petals are reminiscent of closed eyelids.I think Rilke here compares rose petals to eyelids,and remarks that unlike eyelids,the petals conceal no desire for sleep.

Description : What do you think about this Ernest Hemingway's work?

Last Answer : Oh – I like it!

Description : Did you or would you name a child or a pet after a literary figure?

Last Answer : Oh, absolutely. We were going to name the baby I’m carrying Enoch for Enoch Root in Cryptonomicon by Stephenson but went with a diff name. Anyway, totally.

Description : When was the last time you reveled in a piece of literature?

Last Answer : answer:Hilary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall. (I loved them both.) One reviewer's somewhat smarmy take, It also meets the demand for a cracking good read - the ... predecessor, Bring Up the Bodies will stimulate a feel-good factor throughout the nation's book groups. Source

Description : What's the minimum background reading for Pratchett's Going Postal and Making Money ?

Last Answer : answer:My solution, (not everyone's, I understand) was to read almost everything he wrote, excluding the children's and comic books, chronologically. There are lists on his web site of the ... as you mention. But I am retired and have enough time for these really long literary adventures.

Description : What literary character description best fits you?

Last Answer : I told a friend recently that I fantasize that I am the Jewish Elizabeth Bennett but I’m not sure that anyone else has ever seen that. I don’t have particuarly “fine eyes.”

Description : How should I present my book presentation on Kate Chopin's The Awakening?

Last Answer : answer:Your media depends on your point and how you want to display your point. Do you have any graphics you need to illustrate your point? I hope so. Do you plan to display text on a screen and read ... 't matter. What matters is what slides you plan to use. That's what you need to worry about.

Description : Have you read Dhalgren?

Last Answer : Nope, let me know if you figure it out.

Description : Any great audiobooks of "the classics"?

Last Answer : Jeremy Irons reads “Lolita” in it’s entirety.

Description : If you could step into any book either written or yet to be written, by any published author, who would the author be?

Last Answer : I want to live Edward Abbey’s life in Desert Solitaire.

Description : What's a quote by Iago in Shakespeare's Othello you like but is lesser known?

Last Answer : answer:There are so many famous ones! Wearing your heart on your sleeve, etc, etc,,, I really had forgotten, but an internet search turned up so many! I like this one and below, there ... whom he claimed to love so completely! To believe she had cheated on him with totally circumstantial evidence!

Description : What literary movement would you assign Edgar Rice Burroughs to?

Last Answer : I don’t believe in trying to categorize artists, how can we? Sure, some fit into certain boxes of genre but, plenty do not. They are free flowing and innovative, ever surprising and random in their expressions and defy description. E.R.B. is one of the unboxable artists. :-)

Description : Will you write a short mystery story based on a recent Fluther question?

Last Answer : answer:I was sitting in my office reading last weeks paper. My feet rested on the desk next to a plaque which read private eye. That's me. As I perused the paper, I heard a pair of stelettos clack ... get the cops involved. first of all, I said what was the name of the landscaping company? ...

Description : Do you have an aphorism you would like to share?

Last Answer : This is an exception to every rule (except this one).

Description : Any idea what the literature term of appearance is?

Last Answer : answer:I'm not sure I understood your question correctly. Are you asking what appearance (external) means as a point of comparison between two books? Is that phrase one of your options on an ... to each other. People look different. Period. I would certainly choose another element if I could.

Description : Today: (Feb 7th 2012) marks 200yrs since the birth of Charles Dickens, which of his many works would you list as your favourite?

Last Answer : answer:“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, . . .” Hmm, sounds like now, doesn’t it?

Description : What works best for you as an answer? Sarcasm? Or detailed writing?

Last Answer : I prefer to give appropriate answers to the questions asked. Sometimes it’s short and to the point, others are long and involved. I don’t try to give sarcasm, because that’s just mean, but satire may work it’s way into an answer if I go on to long, if it seems appropriate to the topic.

Description : Who said a famous quote that is close to "He who is unable to die and be reborn is but a poor traveller on this earth"?

Last Answer : “To be a traveler on this earth you must know how to die and come back to life.” — Goethe

Description : What are the scariest moments in a book have you read?

Last Answer : It was a crime thriller story where a woman was alone in her large multi-levelled home and someone was trying to break in on a stormy night with flashes of sheet lightning illumining the ... on the caller and they discover that the offender was actually calling from an extension within the house.

Description : Looking for suggestions for novels about immigration to America for a course I'm planning?

Last Answer : John Jakes had one, I think it was set in California, about an immigrant to America and he started an iron mill and used lots of immigrant labor, but I can’t recall the name of it.

Description : Can you recommend your favorite short stories?

Last Answer : answer:Orientation by Daniel Orozco is creepy and very enjoyable. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor is another favorite of mine. And though it is a bit longer, Closer by Greg Egan is a ... opening and closing lines to serve as the title to my band's first album, I liked it so much.