Unanswered Questions
1,441 questions with no answers
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How did real historical Igbo society differ from its portrayal in Things Fall Apart?
I recently read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and found its detailed portrayal of historical Igbo (aka Ibo) culture very interesting. My understanding is that it's a reasonably close ...
CommunityBot
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Was Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum at all inspired by A Predicament?
Poe's satirical short story A Predicament tells the story of a woman who is slowly decapitated by the minute hand of a large cathedral clock. In all its ridiculousness, it was supposed to be a horror ...
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Is the treatment of Jar Jar Binks in Aftermath: Empire's End a reflection of audience treatment?
In one of the Interlude scenes in the book Star Wars Aftermath: Empire's End, a child interacts with Jar Jar Binks, and gives more details about how the adults don't like him due to their beliefs that ...
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Are Frog and Toad more than just friends?
In a 1977 interview with The Lion and the Unicorn, Arnold Lobel said:
You know, if an adult has an unhappy love affair, he writes about it. He exorcises it out of himself, perhaps, by writing a novel ...
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Do Daniel Handler's novels for adults share themes or tone with his Lemony Snicket work?
Daniel Handler's A Series of Unfortunate Events, written under his Lemony Snicket pseudonym, delves into a great many intriguing themes -- the blindness and dysfunctionality of modern society; living ...
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What is this mid-20th century British adventure novel?
I’d like help finding a novel I loved as a child. The points I can remember:
It was set and written in mid-20th century England, perhaps the 1950s.
Perhaps aimed at schoolchildren of the time - a ...
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What is the Pasifika response to "Nation"?
Pratchett's Nation was recommended to me because it depicts an alternate reality version of Pasifika cultures, faiths, and traditions. A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me it's got cannibals and ...
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What does the letter V in Thomas Pynchon's book symbolize?
Obviously, V. is a character in the book, known only by her initial. That initial is also the title of the book, which actually includes the period.
But I assume this title/name symbolizes something ...
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How did Lee's personal experience affect the narrative of To Kill A Mockingbird?
Many Southern authors of Harper Lee's time period wrote very autobiographical works. This led me to wonder how much Harper Lee's personal life was reflected in the narrative of To Kill A Mockingbird. ...
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Who said that Allingham "polished her prose until it shone over-bright," and where?
Somebody read to me from a book about Allingham long ago that she would "polish her prose until it shone over-bright" and then dictate it to her husband to reduce it to a more readable vernacular. I ...
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A story in which a young girl saves a poor boy from a factory owner and meets that boy decades later
Yesterday, I was reading a 5th grader's comprehension book. It had multiple excerpts from good (if not well-known) novels.
One of them particularly stood out to me. It was about a woman who lived in ...
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Help me identify an old children's picture book featuring anthropomimetic arthropods
The book in question was written prior to 1990. The pages probably had no words — I was able to read at the time, so either it was not narrated or the words were not memorable. Each page, or pair of ...
CommunityBot
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Vonnegut's writing style as time passed
I've been reading a lot of Vonnegut recently, and I've noticed some interesting stuff. Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, and Cat's Cradle are similar to a ...
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Nineteen Eighty Four - the chocolate ration demonstrations
After the chocolate ration is reduced from 30 grammes per week to 20, the Ministry of Truth puts out the claim that it has been increased to 20 grammes (its supposed previous level is not stated).
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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, ...
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