Content tagged with "literature"

Dickensian
Explanation
September 8, 2021
127

It means something related to the works of Charles Dickens, but is usually used to refer to depressing circumstances, as Dickens often told stories of the poor of Victorian England. From The Free Dictionary: Of, relating to, or reminiscent of the works of Charles Dickens, especially with regard to…

The Fault In Our Stars
Explanation
September 8, 2021
118

This is a line from Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Cassius is trying to explain to Brutus that their current lives were not due to fate . In a 1980 episode of Buck Rogers, Dr. Goodfellow…

Fu Manchu
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
June 5, 2023
252

Fu Manchu was the villain in a series of Sax Rohmer novels in the first half of the 20th century and continuing into films. In popular culture, he is considered an archetype of a “supervillain.” Generally depicted as Asian, with a mustache that extends downwards from the corners of his mouth. The…

Hard Science Fiction
Stuff I Looked Up
Explanation
December 23, 2022
124

This is genre of science fiction that’s concerned with scientific accuracy, with explaining how something might actually work in the real world. For example, The Martian was hard science fiction. It presented an example of what an astronaut might actually do if stranded on Mars. A lot of Daniel…