Humanities desk
< February 27	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	March 1 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 28[edit]

The Nazi - a comedy[edit]

According to an upcoming main page blurb "the Austrian actor and librettist Karl Lindau co-wrote The Nazi, a comedy, in 1895". What was the play about? What was the Nazi of the title? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 00:56, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The article has an explanatory footnote which itself has a reference footnote, which points to a Google Books link. The link has a quote that explains it: The word Nazi is an abbreviation of Ignatz Wirbel, the name of a waiter whom the play represents as much the sport of Fate. --Trovatore (talk) 01:10, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. A footnote to a footnote, linking to a Google book which can't be read in all territories (I cannot read beyond "an abbreviation of"). So it's about a waiter. DuncanHill (talk) 03:02, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. I'm surprised you can't read it. It was published in 1895; should be PD I think? There's a red button to the left that says "EBOOK - FREE". --Trovatore (talk) 23:45, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

There's a red button saying "Get print book" and below that the text "No eBook available". Google Books gives different results in different territories. DuncanHill (talk) 23:55, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

DuncanHill, a Googling trick is to repeatedly search the last phrase of the previous search result in speech marks. Using that, the whole text is:

"At the Theater an der Wien, Der Nazi, by Leopold Krenn and Carl Lindau, the music by Leopold Kuhn, has met with a very favourable reception. The word Nazi is an abbreviation of Ignatz Wirbel, the name of a waiter whom the play represents as much the sport of Fate. He is obliged to contend with a very pugnacious mother-in-law, and this contest is the source of much amusement to the audience. There is plenty of song and melody in Der Nazi, and the fun is so catching that the audience goes into fits of laughter over it".

I have added a little more detail to the footnote. Alansplodge (talk) 11:13, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 23:23, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The term "Nazi", as an abbreviation for "Ignatz", was a derogatory term, essentially "country bumpkin". Sounds to me in this case the Nazi was a schlimazel, or at least a schlemiel. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 00:47, 2 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 01:03, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Jpgordon, wow, I had never heard that before. Was that term still in use (with the "country bumpkin") connotation when it started being applied to members of the NSDAP? Were they in on the joke? Did they start applying it to themselves first, or did they find themselves going along with it after it had caught on? I'm boggled like this. It's like the Bolsheviks' ("Majority"'s) opposition going along with being called Mensheviks ("minority") and actually using it in their name. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 22:56, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

From Nazism#Etymology: "The NSDAP briefly adopted the designation "Nazi" in an attempt to reappropriate the term, but it soon gave up this effort and generally avoided using the term while it was in power. For example, in Hitler's book Mein Kampf, originally published in 1925, he never refers to himself as a "Nazi". A compendium of conversations of Hitler from 1941 through 1944 entitled Hitler's Table Talk does not contain the word "Nazi" either. In speeches by Hermann Göring, he never uses the term "Nazi." Hitler Youth leader Melita Maschmann wrote a book about her experience entitled Account Rendered. She did not refer to herself as a "Nazi," even though she was writing well after World War II. In 1933 581 members of the National Socialist Party answered interview questions put to them by Professor Theodore Abel from Columbia University. They similarly did not refer to themselves as "Nazis". In each case, the authors refer to themselves as "National Socialists" and their movement as "National Socialism," but never as "Nazis". Alansplodge (talk) 23:07, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! 173.228.123.166 (talk) 02:06, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

173.228.123.166 -- If you're curious about groups named by their opponents, there are many cases in history, starting with the Mitnagdim (which literally means "opponents" in Hebrew!), and continuing with the Ashcan School, Civil War "Copperheads", etc etc. In British history, "Whig", "Tory", and "Quaker" were all originally derogatory terms applied by outsiders... AnonMoos (talk) 03:53, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks all for the very interesting replies. DuncanHill (talk) 15:36, 7 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Italian short story[edit]

A reference online to Italian writers stirred my memory: Way back in the Dark Ages, when I was in college, I remember reading a magical short story by an Italian writer - Primo Levi is the name that comes to mind, but I'm not certain - that concerned strange and wondrous happenings in the small Italian town of Pavia, where, I think, a god or goddess came to earth and caused some cosmic happenings. I have searched through all the lists of Levi's short story collections in WP, but don't see it - I'm pretty sure "Pavia" was part of the title. Anyone know this story, title, author? Textorus (talk) 02:50, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Italian writer I remember reading in college was Italo Calvino. He did write a number of short stories and many are in the fantasy genre. You could start by scrolling through the Italo_Calvino#Selected bibliography. My google search got tricky because the University of Pavia comes up with his name frequently. This is just me guessing so my apologies if I am way off base with that guess. MarnetteD|Talk 05:28, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I had the same problem with Google searching. Thanks for the link to the Calvino bib; I looked through it and didn't see a likely title, though it could have been Calvino. Textorus (talk) 13:22, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Textorus I note that the wikipedia pages just name the collections of short stories but not the titles of the individual stories in those collections. This website has all sorts of links that might be helpful - er only if he wrote the tale that you are looking for that is :-) Best regards. MarnetteD|Talk 19:27, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks MarnetteD, I'll check it out. Textorus (talk) 02:18, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Textorus: if you do find out, please let us know! I would be interested to read that story. Calvino is one of my favorite authors and I am not aware that he wrote such a story, but that doesn't prove much; I've read only a few of his works. --Trovatore (talk) 02:42, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

No luck so far but I'll post it here if I find it Trovatore. Textorus (talk) 07:42, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If it's not Calvino, the OP could check out either Dino Buzzati or Tommaso Landolfi. Both are major Italian writers of the same generation as Calvino and Levi, who have written short stories in a similar vein and would be included in a college course on Italian literature. --Xuxl (talk) 15:35, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It was a course in general literature, mainly English-language writers but a few in translation. The one I remember was notable for being so different from the usual oh-so-serious realism of most other stories. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check them out. Textorus (talk) 04:25, 6 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

For sure read Il colombre by Buzzati. Buzzati can be a little depressing, and you may not find this story an exception, but somehow I thought it was sweeter. --Trovatore (talk) 04:33, 6 March 2019 (UTC) [reply]

Subdistrict Map of Sao Tome and Principe[edit]

We have a map showing the various districts of Sao Tome, but there is no map that shows the subdistricts. For example, Lemba district has two subdistricts: Santa Catarina and Neves. However, I can find no maps that show the boundaries of these, or of any other of Sao Tome's subdistricts.

Principe has only one district, which I believe - although it is unclear - to be also its own subdistrict. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.150.2.11 (talk) 07:25, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a start, anyway. Per the official government page, it seems like the correct term might be aglomerações rather than subdistrict. Searching for that term I found a map on page 11 of this pdf. It does not name every aglomeraçao but it appears to show all the boundaries. It also gives you further search terms for the different types of aglomeraçao such as roça, luchan, cidade, bairro. The only problem is, it seems to show far more than two for Lemba? 70.67.193.176 (talk) 23:06, 28 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The relevant paragraph of the link (in translation) reads:

According to the legislation denominated "Law of the Administrative Division" of 21 November 1980, which defined the territorial organisation of the country, with political and administrative ends, this was divided into seven districts (Água Grande, Cantagalo, Caué, Lembá, Lobata, Mé-Zochi, Pague), being six for S. Tomé and one for Príncipe, with their own administrative organs (District Councils). The isle of Príncipe actually possessed a statute of Autonomous Region. Each district is subdivided into agglomerations (cities and towns) and these in localities.

.

The word aglomeração appears to mean "built-up area" - the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 (article 25 paragraph 3) defines "urban agglomeration" (in translation) as

the result of the physical growth of the cities, of the proximity of urban zones and of the frequent relationship between the cities".

Page 11 of the linked pdf explains how the aglomerações grew out of the roças (large agricultural estates), cidades (cities), luchan (hamlet) or bairros (suburbs). Page 7 of this document says "... there were no administrative boundaries smaller than the district ..." A helpful map shows the boundaries of the six districts. A helpful table at pt:Lista de cidades em São Tomé e Príncipe has a list of 11 cities and towns and the municipality in which they fall. 2A00:23C2:2400:9600:F5EA:F47B:BAE7:6415 (talk) 12:07, 1 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]