Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 November 26

= November 26 =

Mitre Press, London
Anthony Burgess named a strange (I guess) book on war as his pick for a Neglected Books survey by Stephanie Bastek (The American Scholar, July 8, 2015; accessed online): Major Norman Walter, "The Sexual Cycle of Human Warfare", Mitre Press, London, probl. 1950s.

Has anybody ever read this - and is it interesting?

As far as I can see, Mitre Press was a small, but (mostly) very serious, publisher in London, published books at least into the 1970s. Many books of poetry, books in the 1930s on great American Women, on American film, on Kentucky folklore - just to name those which look "relevant" today.--Ralfdetlef (talk) 08:01, 26 November 2023 (UTC)


 * Here's a book review on ReserchGate. --136.54.106.120 (talk) 16:31, 26 November 2023 (UTC)
 * This review gives a link to an online copy of the book: https://www.gwern.net/docs/sociology/1950-walter-thesexualcycleofhumanwarfare.pdf (183 MB).


 * Sorry, I have nothing to add about the book, but I disappeared on some pleasant byways looking for information about the Mitre Press. It seems to have started about 1928 at Mitre Chambers on Mitre Street in London EC3, adding a sales office further west on Sicilian Avenue at some point.  The key people were William Kingston Fudge (Bill Fudge) and his nephew Barry Kingston Shaw, and companies such as Fudge & Co, Fudge & Shaw, and Werner Shaw.  Given the difficulty of finding much information, I suspect none of them are notable enough for an article, but perhaps I just haven't found the important sources. Fudge and then Shaw were the long running editors of the trade journal Bookdealer which ran from 1971 for almost 50 years, and which published a long-running series of biographical articles by Sheila Markham on people in the antiquarian book trade in London, which have been collected and published. Theramin (talk) 00:35, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Aladdin and the King of Thieves
In origin, the production wanted to reveal that Mozenrath, as the main antagonist, was Aladdin's long lost twin older brother. Can you search if there're detailed info about that first plot? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.14.67.73 (talk) 12:40, 26 November 2023 (UTC)


 * I think this is merely a completely unsubstantiated rumour. Mozenrath's absence from the film's story led to all kinds of speculation. Tad Stones himself tweeted that Mozenrath was never meant to be the main villain in King of Thieves. This may have led to the rumour, but I suppose that if they had toyed with the idea of another role for Mozenrath in the story, he would have suggested something to that effect in the same tweet. --Lambiam 09:45, 27 November 2023 (UTC)


 * How much older was this "long lost twin older brother"? A few minutes? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:50, 29 November 2023 (UTC)

Library of Humanity
Does the UN or a comparable organization actually have the intention of establishing a human library? To save the mental products of our age as a whole for future generations? 2A02:8071:60A0:92E0:64E9:D272:CF02:D132 (talk) 18:46, 26 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Do you mean knowledge? Bibliotheca Alexandrina has books in three languages: Arabic, English and French. Sleigh (talk) 23:45, 26 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Are you aware of The Human Library? Perhaps not quite what you are thinking of, because it "lends" people to contribute their experiences of oppression, not their mental status.- gadfium 00:16, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Assuming that by "mental product" you mean a product of mental labour (as apposed to material labour), this is a rather extensive category. The vast majority of mental products of our age are IMO best forgotten. Attempts to save them as a whole may burden future generations with the Herculean task of getting rid of quettabytes of clutter while faced with the impossible task of finding and saving the rare gem. --Lambiam 09:28, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * This is partially done on the national level anyway: Many national libraries collect pretty much everything that is published in the country, cf. legal deposit. --Wrongfilter (talk) 10:03, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * But not texts on banners, commencement addresses, tweets, FaceBook posts, YouTube videos, commercials ..., all also mental products. --Lambiam 22:51, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
 * partially. --Wrongfilter (talk) 22:59, 27 November 2023 (UTC)