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Topic Review
Dagor Dagorath
The Dagor Dagorath (Sindarin for Battle of Battles) is a fictional battle described in the legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien. As Tolkien's works were conceived as a fictional "forgotten history" of the world, the Dagor Dagorath represents the coming End of the World, and is often referred to as simply "The End". As Tolkien originally wrote it, The Silmarillion ends with a prophecy by Mandos about the end of the world. The published Silmarillion ends instead with the last paragraph of Valaquenta. This was because Tolkien had abandoned the idea of the "second prophecy of Mandos", and the Valaquenta text, much later, contradicted it openly. However, references to the final battle remain in the published Silmarillion, such as a statement at the end of the Akallabêth that Ar-Pharazôn and his mortal warriors who had set foot on Aman were buried by falling hills, imprisoned in the Caves of the Forgotten until the "Last Battle and Day of Doom". Christopher Tolkien sees the account as similar to the Nordic legend of Ragnarök and J. R. R. Tolkien also made this connection in some of his letters.
  • 3.6K
  • 14 Oct 2022
Topic Review
The Clouds
The Clouds (Ancient Greek: Nephelai) is a Greek comedy play written by the playwright Aristophanes. A lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, it was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and was not as well received as the author had hoped, coming last of the three plays competing at the festival that year. It was revised between 420 and 417 BC and was thereafter circulated in manuscript form. No copy of the original production survives, and scholarly analysis indicates that the revised version is an incomplete form of Old Comedy. This incompleteness, however, is not obvious in translations and modern performances. Retrospectively, The Clouds can be considered the world's first extant "comedy of ideas" and is considered by literary critics to be among the finest examples of the genre. The play also, however, remains notorious for its caricature of Socrates and is mentioned in Plato's Apology as a contributor to the philosopher's trial and execution.
  • 751
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life
Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry is a 1984 book by Albert Borgmann (born 1937), an American philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of technology. Borgmann was born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life contributed to the emerging philosophical discussions of issues surrounding modern technology. Following a Heideggerian viewpoint, Borgmann introduced the notion of the device paradigm to explain what constitutes technology's essence, loosely based on Heidegger's notion of Gestell (enframing). The book explores the limitations of conventional ways of thinking about technology and its social context, both liberal democratic ideals, and Marxist lines of thought, concluding with a call for the reform of technology and the device paradigm via what he calls focal things and practices.
  • 613
  • 05 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Affects and Care Labor in Ladies Coupe
Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupé (2001) is about six women who meet in an express train’s compartment in southern India. One of these women, Akhila, is the narrator of the novel, while we hear the voices of the other women only when they narrate their stories in first person to Akhila. The way the women tell these stories one by one is in the spirit of empowering Akhila, who is portrayed as a woman bound within heteronormative ideas of coupledom and gender-based expectations of care labor within patriarchal families. The women also encourage her, by example, to question the accepted ethical model of feminist practice within an already unethical patriarchal structure of society.
  • 564
  • 13 Oct 2023
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
The Discourse of Courtly Love in Medieval Verse Narratives
This entry explores the vast field of courtly love poetry, romance, and other related genres, tracing the development of this topic across medieval Europe and discussing some of the major contributors. The focus rests on the element of discourse because so many different poets have made their voices heard and debated from many different perspectives the meaning, impact, and consequence of courtly love on the individual in ethical, social, moral, religious, economic, and even political terms. Courtly love is to be understood as a literary discourse on the mostly esoteric pursuit of love as a way of life for members of the high medieval aristocracy, finding vivid expression in poetry, short verse narratives, and romances.
  • 492
  • 26 Jan 2025
Topic Review
June 13: William Butler Yeats's Birthday
William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, and Nobel laureate, widely regarded as one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century. A central figure in the Irish Literary Revival, Yeats' work explored themes of nationalism, mysticism, and the human condition, blending Irish folklore with modernist experimentation. His influence extends beyond poetry into theater, politics, and occult philosophy.
  • 197
  • 12 Jun 2025
Topic Review
Ernest Miller Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was a Nobel Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and journalist whose understated literary style and adventurous life made him one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Known for works such as The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway's prose shaped modern fiction and left a lasting imprint on literature, war reporting, and popular culture.
  • 176
  • 09 Jun 2025
Topic Review
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) was a French novelist, dramatist, essayist, musicologist, and pacifist, recognized for his literary and philosophical contributions that championed humanism, intellectual freedom, and social justice. A Nobel Laureate in Literature (1915), Rolland is best known for his ten-volume novel Jean-Christophe, his biographies of Beethoven and Michelangelo, and his outspoken opposition to war and fascism.
  • 170
  • 12 Jun 2025
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Dignified, Powerful, and Respected Old People in Medieval and Early Modern Literature: The Worthy Hero and the Wise Old Person Versus the Old Fool
To understand the topic of old age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we can draw much information from relevant literary texts among other sources because the poets operated with general notions commonly subscribed to by their audiences. Old people appear in many different roles already in the pre-modern world, but here the focus will rest mostly on worthy, dignified, mighty, and even ferocious old warriors in heroic poetry. Those stand out because of their strength, their knowledge, their resolve, their wisdom, and their extensive and varied abilities, but this does not automatically mean that they were flawless. To round off this entry, the attention will finally turn to remarkable examples of old but highly respected people in the verse narratives by the German poet Heinrich Kaufringer, in Boccaccio’s Decameron, a harbinger of the Italian Renaissance, in Christine de Pizan’s didactic writings, and in the Old Norse Njál’s Saga.
  • 163
  • 10 Mar 2025
Topic Review
June 9: Charles Dickens Died
Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812–9 June 1870) was a preeminent novelist and social critic of Victorian England. His masterful portrayal of social injustice, inventive characterizations, and pioneering use of serialized narrative radically transformed English literature.
  • 162
  • 09 Jun 2025
Topic Review
June 12: Anne Frank's Birthday
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (12 June 1929 – February or March 1945) was a German-born Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim whose posthumously published wartime writings became one of the most significant firsthand accounts of Nazi persecution. Her diary, Het Achterhuis (1947; The Diary of a Young Girl), is recognized as both a major historical document and a literary work, offering profound insights into adolescence under oppression.
  • 158
  • 12 Jun 2025
Topic Review
A Comprehensive Guide to Slope Game
If you are a fan of online games that require both skill and reflexes, then Slope Game is one you must try. 
  • 141
  • 24 Mar 2025
Topic Review
June 27: Helen Keller's Birthday
Helen Keller (1880–1968) was an American author, lecturer, and activist who became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She is internationally renowned for her advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities and for her contributions to education, women’s rights, and social justice. Her life and work profoundly shaped public perceptions of disability and demonstrated that individuals with sensory impairments could achieve intellectual distinction and social influence.
  • 10
  • 27 Jun 2025
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