Sverre

Why I upvote literary works on Everything2

I've been around on Everything for a while, but some things still puzzle me. There is so much good reference material lying around, from Windows Error Lookup Guide and The E2 Emacs Reference Guide, via Magic: The Database, to literary classics, like most of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. What puzzles me is how few votes these kind of writeups seem to gain. Is this stuff not interesting?

I started thinking about this after noding a couple of classical, literary works myself. My Håvamål nodes have an average reputation of just above 0, though most of the nodes have been C!ed. Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People did not get the overwhelming reception I had hoped for. Still, I think these and others are works that should exist in Everything. Being able to look up The Book of the Damned or read War of the Worlds through E2 is, IMHO, part of what E2 is all about.

To conclude
Node Integration and Cut-and-Paste Writeups Will Die aside, as long as a literary work is in the public domain (see The Everything Copyright Problem), it is my strong opinion that it belongs in Everything. This is why I've now made a pledge to myself: To always upvote literary works when I stumble across them. If they are too poorly formatted or integrated, I'd /msg the author about it.

E2 is what you make of it.

Update 27 Feb 2005, on explicating lyrics:
What's so special about lyrics? There is so much non-original material on E2. The The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, poems, fairy tales, the periodic table, straight facts about the planets, the CIA World Factbook, ... I could go on. None of that is original material. In fact, most factual nodes aren't.
There's no difference between noding a poem and noding lyrics. Both are really just purely factual, so as long as copyrights aren't violated, I think they are very worth having in the database.
Should you explicate your lyrics? Not in any larger degree than you explicate a poem. Or a list of information about an element. Of course, if you have something to say, that's good, but if you don't, the factual information is still valuable. Other noders can always add more information if they have anything to say. That's the whole point of how Everything 2 works.

Feedback I like:

• wertperch says I read and re-read your Havamal nodes, especially the proverbs, in fact, often read and reflect on the proverbs!! Just thought I'd let you know!
• sleeping wolf says Your writeup in metastability is pretty damn good too...
• Rancid Pickle says Now we're getting somewhere. [André Bjerke]'s the kind of author I was particularly looking for. You earned 2 blessings :)
• Nordicfrost says Takk skal du faen meg ha! ;) Bra noder om Håvamål, forresten!
• Rancid Pickle says Thanks again for the addition of more European authors, the nodegel needed an infusion of quality like yours. 2 more blessings!
• Rancid Pickle says Two more... I think you have the most entries :)
• ModernAngel says re: [Triangle Challenge], a worthy puzzle, I've added to A Blather of Paradoxes per yr request =)
• thefez says that song [In Spite Of Me] hit the spot. good to see it noded.
• thyme says re Einstein's Paradox: woah!
• toalight says re The Fox Widow: Glimrende!
• jasonm says nice =) i will be reading more of your nodes now that i have found you =)
• toalight says re Pål Andrestua: Stilige greier. Snodig å se [Asbjørnsen and Moe] på engelsk.
• toalight says re The Man who Stayed to Tend the House: Du er produktiv som få :-)
• rougevert says [re literary works] I agree entirely - most people don't. So those of us who do think e2 needs lit. works should band together and try and change attitudes somehow
• MacArthur Parker says re The Settlers of Catan: This writeup upvoted by the RANDOM NODE PATROL :)
• thyme says I am all for noding literary works. Keep on trucking, regardless of recognition. I thank you!
• saturnine says re Norwegian swearwords and curses: Heh, this is cool.
• ^Davion^ says Those little norwegian fairy stories are extremely entertaining! More, please! :)
• saturnine says re "Hello, Man!" - "Axe Handle": Hey! The same phrase exists in Finnish: "Hyvää päivää, kirvesvartta." =)
• Apatrix says I'll be waiting [for more fairy tales]. :)
• nocte says hallo. nice to see your nodes, they look great..
• toalight says re Stupid Men and Trolls for Wives: Utrolig bra stykke arbeid du gjør med folkeeventyrene. Spesielt når en tenker på at de ikke alltid er så lett å oversette.
• JerboaKolinowski says re Stupid Men and Trolls for Wives: Excellent job on the translation - reads very naturally! (not that I've seen the original, or read Norwegian for that matter :)
• NotFabio says re Asbjørnsen and Moe: [...] I love the fairy tales. It's cool to see the different culture.
• Excalibre says [re Asbjørnsen and Moe] i think this project is really cool. [...] this kind of stuff is what makes e2 worthy of its name.
• Wuukiee says I'm suprised i've never talked to you, you being around as long as you have ,but i've been reading your past few nodes to day and am quite impressed! nice work.
• SharQ says re The Lord and St. Peter Wandering: :) Godt arbeid!
• SharQ says re The Jutul and Johannes Blessom: [...] Bra greier!
• NotFabio says re The Mountain Code: Awesome writeup, full of useful stuff. Thanks!
• kalen says I noded Iraq vs. Monty Python because it pushed my buttons and I thought it aught to be more widely read. Your cool helps that to happen. Thanks heaps!
• fuzzy and blue says re International Women's Day: [...] Great writeup!
• Siobhan says re Skadi: Nice. Now I know a bit more about her :) Thank you for updating it and thank you for letting me know!
• nine9 says re Slipper Hero: oh, for a C! to spend right now...!
• toalight says Takker og bukker. Ser du sakte men sikkert tar kål på Asbjørnsen & Moe. Når man leser dem på engelsk skjønner man at moralen (de eventyrene som har) er universell. Bra jobba!
• jessicapierce says re Well Done and Badly Rewarded: this is excellent! thanks for adding it. (and translating, of course)
• kthejoker says [re Friends in Life and Death:] I love things like that, folk tales from far away. Man, sleeping for 400 years ... think of the bedsores!
• Jet-Poop says [re Friends in Life and Death:] Nifty! I was hoping we'd get some folklore in here for the Quest. Many thanks. :)
• wertperch says re Shoo Cat, Go down from the Table!: well, it made me laugh!
• x7 says i've been enjoying reading your translations of the fairy tales. thanks for posting them.
• Siobhan says re Friends in Life and Death: neat. reminds me a bit of fairy tales from the valais...
• PMDBoi says re Why the Bear Has No Tail: Yay fairy tales. [...] Good job on the translation. Upvote from me.
• oakling says i think it's awesome that you're translating these [fairy tales]!
• wertperch says re Håvamål proverbs: I am putting quotes from here into a random script in my homenode. Thank you again!
• Jet-Poop says I really enjoy reading these snarky folk tales. :) I'll take 'em long or short. Great, funny stories. :)
• bane221 says re Asgard: You obviously know your myths/legends/tales/etc... good stuff.
• bane221 says re Ranting in Various Languages: Thank you for giving purpose to this Node, even if it was two years ago :)
• Lometa says *balloons Happy Birthday Sverre!
• montecarlo says re It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier: Thanks! I'm an admirer, of TL, as well as of you!