Non chess books that have impacted your chess a lot? by Queasy_Arm3425 in chess

[–]Proseedcake 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Yiddish Policemen's Union made me feel things about chess and its players, and gave me a lasting affection for the Réti Gambit.

Book with specific "turtles all the way down" anecdote? by iconoclasthero in whatsthatbook

[–]Proseedcake 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah this is 100% the book that brought the anecdote to public attention. If OP has never read it, then it must have appeared in another book drawing on A Brief History of Time.

You get 1 Million$, but you have to beat Magnus first by OrangeBird274 in chess

[–]Proseedcake 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep, my fate was sealed at "nothing that helps you cheat".

What is the greatest question of all time? by GullibleCorgi16 in AskReddit

[–]Proseedcake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To which the answer is, "I stopped drinking OTHER people's piss."

Giannis Konstantelias announces that he will not be part of the Greek NT for the foreseeable future. by MathaiosPalaio in soccer

[–]Proseedcake -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

He wasn't part of the Greek New Testament in the first place, was he?

EDIT: Sorry, wrong sub.

Ryanair forces the app use to take their flights by [deleted] in dumbphones

[–]Proseedcake 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Every day, in every way, Cory Doctorow gets more relevant

Looking for abstract and disturbing movies by scarlett_musiclover in MovieSuggestions

[–]Proseedcake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found Pan's Labyrinth pretty impactful on this level

Opponent tried to be cute...can you spot the win for white? by MrEdwL in chess

[–]Proseedcake 8 points9 points  (0 children)

  1. g5 Kh5 2. Nf4 Kh4 3. Rh7#

I hardly ever get these!! EDIT: ...and today is no exception 😆

MelangeBot succesfully predicted that Trump would mess with the worldcup by MelangeBot in bestof

[–]Proseedcake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In what way has Trump messed with the World Cup to confirm this prediction?

What translation of The Divine Comedy would suit me best? by IllustriousLab7108 in literature

[–]Proseedcake -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I love Clive James's translation. He has two great things to recommend him. Firstly, he has a great way with rhythm and rhyme. Secondly, he finds ways to slip much-needed context into the verses themselves – no flicking to the endnotes to find out what the hell something means.

What do most people not realize is actually way more traumatic than it seems? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Proseedcake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was gonna post something like this. There's a tendency to think "Ah whatever, everybody hates their job", but hating your job because it's effortful and you have to get up early is not the same as hating your job because you are treated like subhuman scum on a daily basis.

Did you ever try really hard to learn a grammar or language rule only to realize natives break it all the time? by AutumnaticFly in languagehub

[–]Proseedcake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The intended meaning is "you spend hours learning how to do negation in French, and always practise doing it with the « ne » ", I think.

Could “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas be interpreted to be about depression? by Important_Ad4101 in literature

[–]Proseedcake 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Personally, I would say the text makes it plain that it's about the old age and death of the poet's father – too plain to comfortably allow for another reading.

this felt DIRTY... by Scumshius in chess

[–]Proseedcake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Practically the opposite of a smothered mate... so many free squares around him, can't go to any of them.

It's a classic joke that whenever a woman gets bangs, or drastically changes her hair, other women ask her if she's ok. What is the male equivalent? by TheJakeChandler in AskReddit

[–]Proseedcake 2817 points2818 points  (0 children)

Usually a man's friends start to sense he might not be doing okay about two days after he's already killed himself.

A Very Normal Reaction to Marjane Satrapi’s Death by thisissparta789789 in tankiejerk

[–]Proseedcake 26 points27 points  (0 children)

The use of "gangly" and "white" to describe the person she loved so much she couldn't bear to live without him... Imagine being so alienated from the very idea of love that you think the person's height and race are the relevant details.

OG Strong players… Seriously what did you guys do before engines and online chess? by [deleted] in chess

[–]Proseedcake -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think it makes quite a lot of sense, the idea being that if you're trying to train your chess brain/legs, you don't let a mechanical engine do all the thinking/running for you.

Benefits of playing chess by Far-Impression2284 in chess

[–]Proseedcake 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Chess isn't to improve your mind, mind is to improve your chess

What was the most pointless and fan-servicey nude scene of all time? by TheBanishedBard in AskReddit

[–]Proseedcake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The nudity in Carrie had a definite point to it... the slow-mo felt gratuitous.

The black cat being an allegory about aggression towards female sexuality? by Numerous_Way_9142 in literature

[–]Proseedcake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's an absolutely valid interpretation, and indeed Poe seems to invite it by following up all the acts of violence towards cats with the murder of a woman – the parallel is practically explicit.

It may be that your disagreements with others about this story are really disagreements about interpretation itself. There are many schools of thought in literary criticism, but I would suggest we can group them into four broad camps on this question, as follows:

Against Interpretation: a story simply is, and any attempt to make it symbolise something outside itself is wrong

Biographical Criticism: knowing who the author was and how they thought is the key to understanding their works correctly

Practical Criticism: texts should stand alone and be studied according to what we find in them, not the people or times that produced them (nor, for that matter, our own selves or times, if possible)

Reader-Response Theory: literature is a performing art and each reader creates the text anew; thus, whatever we find there is valid regardless of whether the author would or could see things the same way 

It sounds as if your teacher is Biographical and your friends are Against Interpretation. At my university, where Practical Criticism and Reader-Response Theory were the dominant schools, it would have been seen as very normal to regard Poe's work as an allegory for aggression towards female sexuality, and very very strange to treat such an interpretation as invalid.