Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 November 11

= November 11 =

Shops in Neuromancer game
Are there any shops mentioned by name in the book Neuromancer and if so, what are the names of those shops? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.170.142.48 (talk) 02:54, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Do you have access to the book? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:07, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I have the audiobook but it would take a while to listen all the way through it again and I'm not even sure any shops are mentioned. --145.255.241.67 (talk) 04:03, 14 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It's a fairly common book. You should be able to pop into any decent-sized public library or bookstore and find a copy just lying around.  -- Jayron 32 13:13, 14 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I just saw this for sale used $.25 at a library. And I am quite sure you can get it for a penny plus shipping on Amazon.  Or am I misunderstanding the question?  μηδείς (talk) 00:59, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

absentee ballot
In the US, if someone votes using an absentee ballot, but unfortunately passes away before the election day, is that vote still counted? Mũeller (talk) 03:18, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * If you google "dying after casting absentee ballot" you'll see plenty of comments, and I suspect the answer varies by state. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:06, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * How would they necessarilly know, though? The election might only be a few weks away, and it can take that long to filter through to update official records. And in any case, who is actually monitoring the coffined /uncoffined status of voters?! &mdash; fortuna  velut luna  10:16, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * has some details for the law in several states. Although it's dealing with the 2008 primaries, there's no indication and some of the laws would seem to apply to other elections. It does mention that some states which do technical forbid such votes lack any good system to weed out deaths. The the ref it cites from 2004 [//usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/2004-10-31-dead-voters_x.htm] gives more details on various methods used including monthly reports (albeit potentially more than a month in some cases given the interaction of election dates, when the data is handed over etc), checking obituaries, family notification etc which vary not only from state to state but sometimes within the state. The earlier ref gives South Dakota as one example with reporting of deaths more frequent than monthly. One specific important factor which is also mention in this recent ref [//www.vice.com/en_us/article/exkp5e/what-happens-if-you-vote-and-die-before-election-day] is whether the state opens the ballot sometime soon after receiving it, or waits until election day as the later obviously makes it a lot harder to disqualify the vote even if it's known they are deceased. While not stated in any of these refs, given the extensive data driven voter records that the 2 major parties seem to have nowadays it wouldn't be that surprising if the parties also do their best to keep track of deaths and try and get these votes removed in potentially close races. Nil Einne (talk) 10:57, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

New Mexico during World War II
Can anybody tell which combats the Casualties section exactly refers to? The article, in fact, does not seem to state why American soldiers died on New Mexican territory…--Herfrid (talk) 07:38, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Those statistics are for soldiers from New Mexico killed anywhere during World War II. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  07:51, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks. So that would be 2612 out of 49,579, right? It also says: "Of the 1,800 New Mexican troops serving in the Philippines, only 800 returned home." Now I'm just wondering whether these proportions work.--Herfrid (talk) 10:06, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Taking the figures in good faith, that would mean that of the 2,612 deaths, about 1,000 of them actually occurred in the Philippines. However, New Mexico National Guard's involvement in the Bataan Death March from the New Mexico National Guard Museum says of the two New Mexico National Guard units which deployed to the Philippines: "Of the 1,816 men [of the] 200th & 515th Coast Artillery identified, 829 died in battle, while prisoners, or immediately after liberation. There were 987 survivors". It goes on to say that New Mexicans were also present in other units, at least two of them are still alive today.  Alansplodge (talk) 12:59, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * "It goes on to say that New Mexicans were also present in other units, at least two of them are still alive today." Couldn't that make up for the "missing" 200 Philippines casualties in a sense? Otherwise, I would say there is, in fact, a certain discrepancy here, isn't there?--Herfrid (talk) 20:19, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It seems obvious that many New Mexicans also served in regular armed force units and were stationed in the Philippines in December, 1941. The death rate among U.S. troops in the Philippines at that time was very high. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  20:50, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The 1,800 figure quoted in our article must be an approximation, but we can't see the source online. The references for the table showing the 2,612 war dead total are both dead links, but I did find World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel from New Mexico which gives a total of 2,032 war dead (p. 4). Alansplodge (talk) 00:50, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

Whereabouts info about a Russian painting
Hi. I need some info about whereabouts of by Boris Kustodiev. I appreciate any help like name of the river, the church in the background, source of the painting etc. Gnosis (talk) 10:52, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Housed in the State Russian Museum according to Boriskustodiev.ru where there's also an autolitography of this, in the same museum. The river is presumably Volga, since this says: "Her smile is snarky. Summer of 1921, the famine on the Volga. Evoking other sweltering years, Kustodiev paints this smiling beauty: "Hey, buddy, remember? Where are those bygone days?" Brandmeistertalk  13:13, 11 November 2017 (UTC)
 * . Brandmeister is correct: the painting belongs to the State Russian Museum, the river is the Volga, the town is Romanov-Borisoglebsk. She sits on the right bank and the left bank is seen in the background. There are many Kustodiev paintings that glamorize / saccharinize the left bank. File:KustodievB Provinc.jpg is just one example. --Ghirla-трёп- 19:51, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot guys. --Gnosis (talk) 22:34, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

Need help creating article about graphic artist using primary source material and published artifacts
Hello -- I am researching the life and artistic output of Guy Fleming, a commercial graphic artist who was did the jacket design and typography of a great number of important books published between 1955 - 1980 from publishers including Knopf, Farrar-Straus & Giroux, Harper, Random House, etc.

Though he was hailed by his peers in the field, the authors for whom he produced book (jackets, illustrations, maps, etc), and the marketplace where many of the books he helped produce went into subsequent printings having sold well, his work was not "documented" in secondary sources of graphic artists. As a commercial artist, the bulk of his work was not displayed or reviewed in the art world, and thus not documented except on the covers of books still circulating today.

I am his daughter and would like to produce a brief piece in Wikipedia describing his life and work. (I was urged to do this by a couple of blog writers that I came across who had found some of his book art and asked the question: "who is this Guy Fleming? we cannot find any biographical information on him.." etc.)

I only have my memories, a good deal of correspondence to me, a large number of the book jacket art (proofs), and a few items to document his life like college diplomas, newspaper articles re marriage/death, etc. Unfortuantely, a large quantity of the correspondence dealing with his work was disposed of after his death in 2001. I plan to do some travelling this winter to visit one of his artist friends for more information, and have started collecting online references to books that he designed/illustrated. My question: is there a way to put together a brief biographical article without the standard printed biographical sources for someone like this? I have enough of his original correspondence to cite for some of the major events in his life and/or recollections from other family members and friends/colleagues. But again, I do not have standard secondary source material that seems to be required for an article in Wikepedia. Looking for some guidance on using primary source information to create an article.

Faith FlemingFaithfleming (talk) 13:36, 11 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Your father clearly was a very gifted and accomplished person. Unfortunately, if the only sources of information on his life are unpublished personal recollections and primary sources such as original correspondence and his products, it's going to be very hard to write an article that will pass Wikipedia's policies. You mention newspaper articles on marriage/death and the like. Do any of these describe his work? If so they might be acceptable to at least establish that he was a well-known artist.
 * You also mention that he was well regarded by his peers and by those for whom he worked. Why not get them to publish their recollections, or ask one of them to assemble the recollections of various colleagues into an overview of his life? One often sees articles like "Reflections on a life with..." in specialist publications and elsewhere. Such an article would then be a candidate for use in a Wikipedia bio. To be acceptable for Wikipedia they would need to be well-regarded publications with editorial control, not blogs or self-published venues. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 15:08, 11 November 2017 (UTC)