Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 May 13

Humanities desk
< May 12	<< Apr | May | Jun >>	May 14 >

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

May 13

Shortest time in which a novel is set

The question about Ulysses, above, brought mention of a category of novels (and wider category of media) set in one day. The movie My Dinner With Andre is set in one dinnertime, though it is basically one scene (I want to try the videogame of it shown in the Simpsons[1] though). The movie Run Lola Run (I haven't seen it but it sounds good) is apparently set in a 20 minute period in which Lola has to frantically get a pile of money together to pay off a gangster, but it's several "alternate realities" of the same 20 minutes and anyway it's a movie. The novel Inshallah has a scene in which someone gets shot, which iirc spends several pages between the instant in which the bullet leaves the gun, and the instant a few milliseconds later when the bullet hits the person a few meters away; but that's not a whole book. The First Three Minutes (a science popularization) is set in the 3 minute period just after the Big Bang but it's not a novel.

Are there some novels whose events take place in less than a day? How much less? An hour? A second? An instant? Actual normal passage of time if possible, rather than weird metaphysical interpretations or excessive flashbacks. Movies and other types of media (like above) are also ok I guess, but let's say they don't count as much as novels. 2601:648:8202:96B0:3567:50D5:8BFF:4588 (talk) 04:52, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Great question. I think The Mezzanine is the winner of anything novel-length that I've come across. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:35, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Nah, Nicholson Baker followed that up with Room Temperature, the action of which takes place over a few minutes. --Viennese Waltz 07:06, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Another candidate is Pincher Martin by William Golding (of Lord of the Flies fame). Lt. Martin is the only survivor of a torpedoed British destroyer in the Second World War and the book follows his struggle for survival over several days on a mid-Atlantic rock, possibly Rockall, (SPOILER ALERT) but on the last page his floating body is found by another ship; "He didn't even have time to kick off his sea boots" says the captain, however Martin had kicked off his sea boots on page 10. Alansplodge (talk) 11:05, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

The first work I can think of that used that plot device is "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", which is a short story, but similarly takes place as a person who hallucinates escaping death, only to find out at the end that they actually died. The entire story takes place over the course of about a minute, including the short set up. The bulk of the "action" in the story occured in real time over the course of 2-3 seconds. --Jayron32 12:25, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Similarly, The Lathe of Heaven has been interpreted as George's hallucinations as he lies dying in a nuclear war. —Tamfang (talk) 01:39, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

Martin's island only rhymes with Rockall. fiveby(zero) 16:57, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Yeah I'd count that as flashbacks. It describes a long period of action in one. Sort of like a frame story, like The Princess Bride is the kid's grandfather spending some hours describing events that took place over many years. 2601:648:8202:96B0:3567:50D5:8BFF:4588 (talk) 00:52, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

A Catcher in the Rye — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.232.80 (talk) 15:01, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Isn't that set over several days? (a long time since I read it and didn't think much of it then). Alansplodge (talk) 15:49, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, I read it ages ago and think it went on for somewhat longer. 2601:648:8202:96B0:3567:50D5:8BFF:4588 (talk) 09:10, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

I've never read it, but doesn't Proust take literally hundreds of pages in In Search of Lost Time to describe the action of turning over in bed? And isn't that why I've never read it? :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:56, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

All things considered, the Nightmare Song from Iolanthe sounds a lot more interesting. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:08, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

That might be a good example of what I'm asking for, though I haven't read it either and don't have enough ambition to attempt it. 2601:648:8202:96B0:3567:50D5:8BFF:4588 (talk) 09:10, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

I saw one of the later Wheel of Time volumes summarized as "[character] takes a bath" —Tamfang (talk) 01:39, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

It's not quite as short a time (or page length) as some of the others mentioned here, but Mrs Dalloway takes place in a single day (though there are flashbacks) and also has drawn considerable comparison to Ulysses. AmbivalentUnequivocality (talk) 06:42, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

Thanks. That's a pretty famous book that I guess I'll put on my hopefully-read-someday list. 2601:648:8202:96B0:3567:50D5:8BFF:4588 (talk) 09:06, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

See also time loop. 2A00:23C7:F782:C601:C17C:C68E:71A2:8AB6 (talk) 11:52, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

Distance from Iceland to Rockall

While researching the question above, I came across our Rockall article. In the lead paragraph it says: "and 700 kilometres (430 mi; 380 nmi) south of Iceland.". Any takers? Alansplodge (talk) 15:55, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

The nearest point in mainland Iceland to Rockall appears to be in the municipality of Vík í Mýrdal. Using this tool and the latitude and longitude values given in the articles in question results in a distance of about 813 km. So the value looks to be off by 100 km or so. There may be a slightly closer point in Iceland from the values I used from the articles, but only on the order of ~10 km at most. There also may be a smaller islet or island belonging to the country of Iceland which may be significantly closer, but I couldn't find one. --Jayron32 16:16, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Thanks. We have a List of extreme points of Iceland if that helps. On a matter of Wikipedia policy, can we use this sort of calculation as a reference, or is it OR? I see the other distances are referenced only to google Maps. Alansplodge (talk) 16:44, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

I don't know what went wrong there, but when I calculate the distance from Rockall to the closest point in Iceland, the beach near the mounth of the Kúðafljót river, about 42 km east of Vík, I get 697 km, both using that site, when doing the math myself and from Google Earth. To Vík town it's about 10 km more. Coordinates for Iceland (63°27′38″N 18°10′28″W) are from Google Earth and confirmed by a paper road map I happen to have here. PiusImpavidus (talk) 18:33, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Using the site that Jayron used, on the coordinates given in Wikipedia for Rockall and for Vík, the result I get is 709 km. Perhaps Jay accidentally mispasted the coordinates? Using Google Maps, I get the same result as Pius: the closest location in Iceland is clearly a river mouth some tens of kilometers east of Vík (Google Maps does not name the river), and the distance to Rockall is between 696 and 697 km. --76.71.5.208 (talk) 05:36, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

So 700 km is about right, how do we reference that? Alansplodge (talk) 12:00, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

Located about 430 km northwest of Ireland, 460 km off the west coast of Scotland, and 700 km south of Iceland. for the reef. Follett, Christopher (28 November 2016). "Watch out for the big rock: Remembering Denmark's greatest maritime disaster". Copenhagen Post. fiveby(zero) 12:20, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

I must have mistyped my coordinates. It does look like 700 is a reasonable approximation. Carry on. --Jayron32 13:24, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

Blinding work everyone; tapadh leibh (I have a suspicion that he might have pasted that directly from our article, but we know its right now). Alansplodge (talk) 16:18, 14 May 2020 (UTC)