I’m reading a book about world history, and there is a phrase in a paragraph I have no idea: “They were mostly connected to productive hinterlands, though less so in the case of Perth than the others.” This paragraph is talking about colonial capitals in Australia. I couldn’t find any good explanation for the phrase … Read more
I’ve just encountered a seemingly strange paragraph in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and I wonder if anyone can give me an explanation: If the boy was here he would wet the coils, he thought. Yes. If the boy were here. If the boy were here. I understand the usage of were in … Read more
To forestall the incursions of the dreadful Threads, the Pernese, with the ingenuity of their forgotten Terran forebears, developed a highly specialized variety of a life-form indigenous to their adopted planet. Such humans as had a high empathy rating and some innate telepathic ability were trained to use and preserve this unusual animal whose ability … Read more
In Tolkien’s book The Hobbit, he constantly writes "round" when it seems to me as if it should be "around". Not just in one or a few places, but all the time. There is no way that this is some typo. It was written in the 1930s in the UK. Is it possible that "round" … Read more
In one of the very first sentences of Gravity’s Rainbow by Pynchon …feeling metal nearer and farther rub and connect… am I right that the word ‘connect’ is used as a noun here? if so, is it a standard use? what does it mean exactly, is it some sort of material? I’m puzzled because I … Read more
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/120/the-invisible-man/2071/chapter-2/ “Good-afternoon,” said the stranger, regarding him, as Mr. Henfrey says, with a vivid sense of the dark spectacles, “like a lobster.” Answer It’s in two parts. “Good afternoon,” said the stranger and: regarding him, as Mr. Henfrey says, with a vivid sense of the dark spectacles, “like a lobster.” Lobsters have eyes that stick … Read more
I am only familiar with "faggot" being used as a slur for a gay man or as a bundle of sticks. Some statements in the preceding paragraphs that provide context: …A predawn hush had come over the desert basin. Straight overhead, the stars were a sequin shawl flung over blue-black… …As the Duke watched, the … Read more
I have read this in Maugham’s "Theatre": She wrote her letters at a satinwood desk, seated on a gilt Hamlet stool. [Source (PDF)] What does it mean? I have googled it and found tens of images and no formal definition. As there are so many various images, with 3 legs and 4 legs, with and … Read more
And when I was thirteen Shawn welcomed me into teenage life with a spritz of his almost-grown cologne, said my girlfriend— my first girlfriend— would like it. But she hated it so I broke up with her, because to me her nose was funny acting. — from Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, pub Simon … Read more
I’m puzzled by these three sentences from Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo: Heavy trucks went downtown bouncing, headed to the garment district or the meatpacking docks, and nobody saw them. They saw the cockney selling children’s books from a cardboard box, making his pitch from his knees. Eric thought they were the same thing, these two, … Read more
