#oxford online english writing

[professorfoglio]

Writing Tip

The Oxford English Dictionary. Considered to be THE definitive writers' research tool. I was told you had to subscribe to use it online. This is true…OR you can input your Library Card number and use it for FREE! Now I know and you do too.

[cunning-frog]

Holed Stones in English Folk Magic

Sources at the end

Stones with naturally occurring holes in them have many uses in magic all over the world. In England they have been used for protection and luck as well as in medicine. Holed stones are known by many different names, In England they have been and are known by numerous names such as Hag stones, Witch stones, Serpents'/Snakes' eggs, Adder stones, and Lucky stones. For the sake of clarity, I will be referring to them as ‘holed stones’.

Luck and Protection

Holed stones are used as amulets for protection against Hags, witches, faeries, and other spirits, when they are used in this way they are referred to as hag or witch stones. People would hang a holed stone above the door of their home or barn, and sometimes passageways within the home. People would also keep a small holed stone in a pocket for luck and protection.

Holed stones have also been known for being lucky, being worn around the neck for luck or tossed over the shoulder after spitting through the stone's hole to grant a wish. It was also said that is a person tied a holed stone to their house keys, those who resided in the home would be prosperous.

In communities where fishing and/or sailing was common the use of holed stones for protection was common, tying them to the bows of boats or inside of smaller rowing boats for protection while at sea. Holed stones were also used to protect against drowning, Christopher Duffin (2011) writes, “The coxswain of the Ramsay lifeboat [during 1929], also a fisherman by trade, always wore a small discoidal [holed] stone around his neck, threaded with copper wire. The amulet, passed down through three generations of fishermen, was credited with preserving the life of the wearer through terrible maritime circumstances.”

Medicine

As these holed stones protected against hags, witches, faeries, and other spirits they would often be used in medicine, as magic was often thought to be the cause of illness.

One of the illnesses holed stones were used to treat is ‘hag-riding’, in the book A Dictionary of English Folklore it is defined as  “a frightening sensation of being held immobile in bed, often by a heavy weight pressing on one’s stomach or chest […] In folklore, it was thought of as a magical attack, though whether by demonic incubus, ghost, harmful fairy, or witch varied according to place and period.” (Simpson & Roud, 2003) Today hag-riding is understood to be sleep paralysis. To treat hag-riding a holed stone would be hung above the bed of the sufferer or, if the sufferer is an animal, placed in a stable.

This belief applied to both humans as well as other animals; hag stones were often used in the treatment of ill livestock. In Lancashire holed stones would be tied to the back of cows to protect them from all forms of harm, “self-holed stones, termed ‘lucky-stones,’ are still suspended over the backs of cows in order that they may be protected from every diabolical influence.” (Harland and Wilkinson 1873).

Sources:

 Thwaite, A.-S. (2020). Magic and the material culture of healing in early modern England [Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.63593

Vicky, King (2021, November 11). Hag Stones and Lucky Charms. https://www.horniman.ac.uk/story/hag-stones-and-lucky-charms/

Pitt Rivers Museum, Accession Number: 1985.51.987.1 https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-239947 (c) Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, Date Accessed: 21 January 2024

Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653., 2013, A commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written by the blessed apostle St. Peter. By Thomas Adams, Oxford Text Archive, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12024/A00665

Jacqueline Simpson & Steve Roud (2003). A Dictionary of English Folklore. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095941856

Christopher J. Duffin (2011) Herbert Toms (1874–1940), Witch Stones, and Porosphaera Beads, Folklore, 122:1, 84-101, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.2011.537134

Harland, J., & Wilkinson, T. T. (1873). Lancashire Legends: Traditions, Pagents, Sports, & C. With an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract on the Lancashire Witches, & C., &c. G. Routledge. https://archive.org/details/cu31924028040057

Photo source:

File:Hag Stones (8020251781).jpg. (2023, February 2). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 04:11, January 26, 2024 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hag_Stones_(8020251781).jpg&oldid=729610598.

[superlinguo]

New Research Article: Creating Inclusive Linguistics Communication: Crash Course Linguistics

This handbook chapter is a behind-the-scenes of how the Crash Course Linguistics video series came together. I’m really proud that this article includes contributions from the linguistics writing team, including my co-writer Gretchen McCulloch, and our fact checker Jessi Grieser, but also from members of the Complexly team, who produced the show, including Nicole Sweeney, Rachel Alatalo, Hannah Bodenhausen and Ceri Riley. As with the actual videos themselves, this was a dream team. Lingcomm that is inclusive doesn’t just happen as an accident - in this article we discuss some of the ways we set things up to make the best series we could.

This chapter is also a dream project, because it’s part of the excellent double feature: Inclusion in Linguistics and Decolonizing Linguistics, both edited by Anne Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, & Mary Bucholz for Oxford University Press. These books are both be available through digital open access. They include some of your new favouite classics about the state of linguistics in research, education and outreach, even if you don’t know that just yet.

Abstract

This case study vignette provides an insight into the choices made in the writing of Crash Course Linguistics (Complexly/PBS 2020). This series of sixteen 10-minute videos cover core introductory level topics for English speakers who consume online content. We discuss how the topics were selected and arranged into a series order. We also discuss the ways we actively built inclusion into the series workflow and content, including in the team that worked on the content, the language examples selected and topics covered. Throughout we discuss the challenges and benefits of working in a collaborative team that includes a media production company and linguists with a commitment to public engagement and communication linguistics to new audiences. Sharing these observations about putting Crash Course Linguistics together is part of our commitment to using public communication to advance the standard of public engagement with the field, and the field’s approach to inclusive practice.

Reference

Gawne, Lauren, Gretchen McCulloch, Nicole Sweeney, Rachel Alatalo, Hannah Bodenhausen, Ceri Riley & Jessi Grieser. 2024. Creating Inclusive Linguistics Communication: Crash Course Linguistics. In Anne H. Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, and Mary Bucholtz (Eds), Inclusion in Linguistics, 383-396. Oxford University Press. [Open Access]

See Also:

Open Access for the whole Inclusion in Linguistics volume

Crash Course Linguistics on YouTube

Mutual Intelligibility posts for Crash Course Linguistics

[ineffable-opinions]

Ah meant scholarly sources, I have read your posts (well written!) but not watched the videos (it is hard for me to focus on sound). :) thank you

Hey anon, based on your previous ask and this one, here are some scholarly sources that I have saved on the computer I am currently using. [I have more on another computer which I will be able to share those in a week or so. Done!]

How to access these sources?

[For context: 'Problematizing the Problem' section of my post Seme/uke - long response is being discussed and scholarly sources are for the questions (given below) I raised.]

Why would ‘het people’ or any people for that matter think in terms of male-female / masculine-feminine binaries? Do they think in those binaries only and not other binaries such as wen(文)-wu(武)? Why think in binaries and dichotomies at all? Don’t they not think in terms of multiplicity of genders/gender expressions such as various kinds of masculinities and femininities) based off on their local contexts? 

Do queer people not make such/similar conflations? (Hint: they do.)

Is it a problem? While this seems to be the popular notion, plenty of scholars from across the globe has dismantled it.

I must admit that this was written following The Right Way to Be Gay - Who Can Tell? in a manner in which these questions would be treated as already answered. When read as a stand-alone, these questions would remain as food for thought at best.

seme uke - Japan

Cartographies of Desire: Male-male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950 - Gregory M. Pflugfelder

Reimagining male-male sexuality: representations in Japanesemodern literature and gay manga by Nicholas James Hall

The Great Mirror of Male Love - Saikaku Ihara, Paul Gordon Schalow (translator)

Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan - Gary Leupp

In the Company of Men: Representations of Male-Male Sexuality In Meiji Literature by Jim Reichert (199-208)

different takes on queerness from across the globe - LGBTQ+ and others:

Between Men, part of the ‘Key Population Series’, 2003 [link]

Hames, Raymond B.; Garfield, Zachary H.; and Garfield, Melissa J., “Is Male Androphilia a Context-Dependent Cross-Cultural Universal?” (2017). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 132.

Lambevski, S.A., 1999. Suck my nation - masculinity, ethnicity and the politics of (Homo) sex. Sexualities, 2(4), pp.397-419.

Interpretation and Orientalism: Outing Japan’s Sexual Minorities to the English-Speaking World by Mark McLelland

Aneka, B. (2014). Jogappa: Gender, Identity and the Politics of Exclusion.

Stief, M. (2017). The sexual orientation and gender presentation of hijra, kothi, and panthi in Mumbai, India. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 73-85.

Gill, H. (2016). Kothi. The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of gender and sexuality studies, 1-2.

Hossain, A., & Rahman, M. (2024). Beyond homocolonialism: working towards queer decoloniality in Bangladesh. International Politics, 1-16.

different types of masculinities and femininities and queer people (conflations, adaptations, etc.):

Wijngaarden JW de L van. Male Homosexuality in 21st-Century Thailand: A Longitudinal Study of Young, Rural, Same-Sex-Attracted Men Coming of Age. Anthem Press; 2021. [link] [link]

Polmuk, C. (2023). Provincialising Thai Boys Love: Queer Desire and the Aesthetics of Rural Cosmopolitanism. [link]

Vasudevan, A. (2024). From Deficient Masculinity to Relational Plenitude: Language and Ethics among Thirunangai s in Southern India. Men and Masculinities, 27(4), 392-409.

Bakshi, K. (2022). Writing the LGBTIHQ+ movement in Bangla: emergence of queer epistemologies in Kolkata in the early days of queer political mobilizations. South Asian History and Culture, 13(2), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2022.2067636

Halkitis, Perry N., '(Hyper) Masculinity', Out in Time: The Public Lives of Gay Men from Stonewall to the Queer Generation (New York, 2019; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 June 2019), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190686604.003.0007

Kong, T.S.K. (2010). Chinese Male Homosexualities: Memba, Tongzhi and Golden Boy (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203849200

Wang, S. (2020). Chinese gay men pursuing online fame: erotic reputation and internet celebrity economies. Feminist Media Studies, 20(4), 548–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1754633

in relation to yaoi and BL:

Nagaike, K. (2012). Perverse sexualities, perverse desires: representations of female fantasies and Yaoi manga as pornography directed at women. In Fantasies of Cross-dressing: Japanese Women Write Male-Male Erotica (pp. 103-134). Brill.

Yaoi Ronsō: Discussing Depictions of Male Homosexuality in Japanese Girls' Comics, Gay Comics and Gay Pornography Wim Lunsing

Williams, A. (2015). Rethinking yaoi on the regional and global scale. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, 37.

Pužar, A. (2023). " BL"(Boy Love)," GL"(Girl Love) and Female Communities of Practice and Affect in South Korea. Družboslovne razprave, 39(102), 63-84.

Mizoguchi, A. (2008). Reading and living Yaoi: Male-male fantasy narratives as women's sexual subculture in Japan. University of Rochester.

Kristine Michelle L. Santos (2020) The bitches of Boys Love comics: the pornographic response of Japan’s rotten women, Porn Studies, 7:3, 279-290, DOI: 10.1080/23268743.2020.1726204

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In a recent post @dragonsandphoenix mentioned ‘Homoerotic Sensibilities in Late Imperial China’ by Wu Cuncun. I haven't read it but, it sure looks interesting.

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Update! Sorry, it is unsorted.

Kazumi Nagaike - Perverse Sexualities, Perversive Desires: Representations of Female Fantasies and "Yaoi Manga" as Pornography Directed at Women [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42771904]

Akiko Mizoguchi - Male-Male Romance by and for Women in Japan: A History and the Subgenres of "Yaoi" Fictions [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42771903]

Mark J. McLelland - Japan’s Original Gay Boom [https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/145]

McLelland, Mark J., Salarymen Doing Queer: Gay Men and the Heterosexual Public Sphere in Japan 2005. https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/156

McLelland, Mark J., Salarymen Doing Queer: Gay Men and the Heterosexual Public Sphere in Japan 2005. https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/156

McLelland, Mark J., Interpretation and Orientalism: Outing Japan's Sexual Minorities to the English-Speaking World 2003. https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/152

Himanshi Singh and Pradeep Kumar - Hijra : An Understanding https://doi.org/10.32381/JPR.2020.15.01.6

Bithika Mondal , Sudeshna Das , Deepshikha Ray , and Debanjan Banerjee - “Their Untold Stories…”: Lived Experiences of Being a Transgender (Hijra), A Qualitative Study From India [DOI: 10.1177/2631831820936924]

Edited by Mark McLelland, Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker - Boys Love Manga and Beyond

Thomas Baudinette - Japanese gay men’s attitudes towards ‘gay manga’ and the problem of genre - doi: 10.1386/eapc.3.1. 59_1

Jungmin Kwon – Straight Korean Female Fans and Their Gay Fantasies

Narupon Duangwises and Peter A. Jackson - Effeminacy and Masculinity in Thai Gay Culture: Language, Contextuality and the Enactment of Gender Plurality - https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/wjss

Kristine Michelle L. Santos (2020): The bitches of Boys Love comics: the pornographic response of Japan’s rotten women, https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2020.1726204

Yanrui Xu & Ling Yang (2013) Forbidden love: incest, generational conflict, and the erotics of power in Chinese BL fiction - https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2013.771378

Divya Garg & Xiaofei Yang (14 Feb 2024): Beyond a queer utopia: interrogating misogyny in transnational boys love media https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2024.2314186

Bret Hinsch – Passions of the Cut Sleeve

Kristine Michelle L. Santos (2020): Queer Affective Literacies: Examining “Rotten” Women’s Literacies in Japan - https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2020.1825506

Tomoko Aoyama - BL (Boys’ Love) Literacy: Subversion, Resuscitation, and Transformation of the (Father’s) Text - DOI: 10.1353/jwj.2013.0001

Jungmin Kwon - The past, present, and future of Boys Love (BL) cultures in East Asia [Transnational Convergence of East Asian Pop Culture - Edited by Seok-Kyeong Hong and Dal Yong Jin]

Sulaiman TK 2017 - Sexuality Landscape of Modern Kerala: A Discourse on Male Social Gathering among Malabar Muslim Men

Filippo Osella - Malabar Secrets: South Indian Muslim Men's (Homo)sociality across the Indian Ocean - http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/casr20

Caroline and Filippo Osella - Men and Masculinities in South India

Lothar Filip Rudorfer (2023) - Homosexuality and Bara Manga in Japan – Representation of the Psychological State of Mind of the Contemporary LGBT+ Plus Size Men in Japan

Chapter 5 (Exploring Yaoi Fans’ Online Practices in an Online Community by Simon Turner) and Chapter 6 (An Evaluation of Physicality in the Bara Manga of Bádi Magazine by Thomas Baudinette) of Manga Vision – edited by Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou and Cathy Sell

Celia Rose Langford (2019) - Queered Time on the Page: The Micro-level Revolution of the Bishōnen in 21st Century Yaoi Manga

Febriani Sihombing - On The Iconic Difference between Couple Characters in Boys Love Manga – 2011

William S. Armour (2010) Representations of the Masculine in Tagame Gengoroh's Ero SM Manga - https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2010.527922

Zhang Yiyuan - Repressed Sexuality — Disguised Masculinity in Chinese Danmei Adapted Series – 2023

Poramate Parnpiamkiat - Expectation of Fans Towards Thai Boys’ Love Celebrity Couples (2019)

Poowin Bunyavejchewin, Kornphanat Tungkeunkunt, Porntep Kamonpetch, Ketsarin Sirichuanjun & Natthanont Sukthungthong (2024) Socio-demographics, lifestyles, and consumption frequency of Thai ‘Boys Love’ series content: Initial evidence from Thailand https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2307697

Charlie Yi Zhang & Adam K. Dedman (2021) Hyperreal homoerotic love in a monarchized military conjuncture: a situated view of the Thai Boys’ Love industry https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1959370

Xi Tian - Homosexualizing “Boys Love” in China DOI 10.1215/25783491-8163817

Aiqing Wang - Nonnormative Masculinity In Danmei Literature: ‘Maiden Seme’ And Sajiao https://doi.org/10.17572/mj2021.1.106123

Travis S. K. Kong - Sexuality and the rise of China : the post-1990s gay generation in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China (2023)

Junqi Zhang - The Reception of Thai Boys Love Series in China: Consumption, Imagination, and Friction (2021)

Joanna Elfving-Hwang - Not So Soft After All: Kkonminam Masculinities in Contemporary South Korean Popular Culture (2011)

Dredge Byung’chu Kang-Nguyen - The Softening of Butches The Adoption of Korean "Soft" Masculinity among Thai Toms http://www.jstor.com/stable/j.ctv7r429w.7

Ying-Chao Ka - The coloniality of queer theory: The effects of “homonormativity” on transnational Taiwan’s path to equality https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607211047518

Sandeep Bakshi. On Decolonising Queerness with Dr Sandeep Bakshi. 2023 https://hal.science/hal-04183158

Adam Chen-Dedman - Tongzhi Sovereignty: Taiwan’s lgbt Rights Movement and the Misplaced Critique of Homonationalism [ doi: 10.1163/24688800-20221267 ]

[novlr]

As a writer, who's first language is not English, how can I expand my vocabulary so I wouldn't be too repetitive?

I grew up in a bilingual household with a Mother whose first language isn’t English. She is a wonderful writer who creates brilliant and engaging resources for language teachers.

One of the big things she had to work on to get to that point was vocabulary. But not just the words; it was also the context and how to use those words properly. Ironically, we discovered that English as her second language was actually of benefit to her in this, as she had to be more thoughtful about the way she used language than a native speaker would be.

Like any language, the real trick is immersion. So here are some effective strategies for growing your vocabulary to bring more variety and nuance to your writing. There is always room to expand your lexicon and take your writing to the next level, whether you’re a native English speaker or not, and these tips might also help any writer who plans to write in a language other than English! So let’s explore some practical tips for building a rich and diverse vocabulary.

Why expanding your vocabulary matters

Before we dive into the strategies, let’s take a moment to understand why expanding your vocabulary is so important for creative writers:

A diverse vocabulary allows you to express ideas with greater precision and nuance.

It helps you avoid repetition and keeps your writing fresh and engaging.

A strong vocabulary can make your writing more memorable and impactful.

It demonstrates your mastery of the language and can help you stand out as a writer.

Expanding your vocabulary can improve your reading experiences.

It can give you the confidence to explore new genres and styles that you may have previously avoided.

Strategies for expanding your vocabulary

Read widely and consistently

One of the most effective ways to expand your vocabulary is to read extensively. By exposing yourself to a variety of genres, authors, and styles, you’ll encounter new words in context, which can help you understand their meanings and usage. Again, it’s about immersion. Surrounding yourself with language helps develop your understanding, and seeing words in different contexts will cement them as second nature.

Here are some tips for making the most of your reading:

Set aside dedicated reading time each week, even if it’s just for 20-30 minutes.

Choose books, articles, and other materials that challenge you and introduce new concepts and vocabulary.

Keep a dictionary or thesaurus nearby to look up unfamiliar words as you encounter them.

Take notes on new words and phrases that resonate with you, and try writing exercises to use them in context.

Consider joining a book club or discussion group to explore new genres and authors, and to engage in conversations about language and writing.

Don’t be afraid to tackle challenging texts; they often offer the greatest opportunities for growth.

Use word-of-the-day resources

Another great way to expand your vocabulary is to make a habit of learning new words each day. There are many online resources and apps that offer “word of the day” features, which can help you discover new words and their meanings. Some popular options include:

The New York Times

Merriam-Webster

Dictionary.com

Oxford English Dictionary

Britannica

Play word games and puzzles

Word games and puzzles can be a fun and engaging way to expand your vocabulary. When we were growing up, my mother would play these games with us when we brought them home from school, and she said they were a great help in improving her own vocabulary. They challenge you to think creatively about language, can introduce you to new words and concepts, and can be a fun thing to do with friends and family! Some popular options include:

Crossword puzzles

Scrabble or Words with Friends

Boggle

Word searches

Riddles

Games from websites like the New York Times

Use a thesaurus (but use it wisely)

A thesaurus can be a valuable tool for finding new words and phrases to use in your writing. However, it’s important to use it wisely and avoid simply replacing words with their synonyms without considering the context and connotation. Here are some tips for using a thesaurus effectively:

Find words that more precisely convey your intended meaning rather than just avoid repetition.

Consider the connotation and tone of the words you choose, and make sure they fit the context of your writing.

Don’t overuse obscure or overly complex words just for the sake of it. Clarity and readability should always be your top priorities.

Use a combination of a thesaurus and a dictionary to ensure you fully understand the meaning and usage of new words.

Practice writing with your new vocabulary

Finally, the best way to solidify your new vocabulary is to put it into practice in your writing. As you learn new words and phrases, make a conscious effort to incorporate them into your work. Here are some ideas for practising with your new vocabulary:

Set yourself a challenge to use a certain number of new words as a writing prompt.

Write short stories or poems that focus on a particular theme or concept inspired by a new word you’ve learned. Use your new vocabulary to explore it in depth.

Revise older pieces of writing and look for opportunities to replace overused words with more precise or evocative alternatives.

Keep a journal or notebook where you jot down new words and reflect on how and when you might use them in your writing. Write down contextual snippets. This can help you internalise their meanings and make them a more natural part of your vocabulary.

[jeannereames]

Dr. Reames, a simple question from someone interested in history but who is not part of the academic world: in order to study Alexander the Great and Ancient Greece in general, how much Ancient Greek does one have to learn? Would you need to learn Demotic Greek or the many other dialects, such as the one from Macedonia? As in, you’d need to learn one or more versions of Ancient Greek?

Thank you in advance! I always enjoy your responses!

How Much Greek Do I Need to Read about Alexander?

It depends on how far you want to go…what’s your end-goal?

If you’ve no desire to make it a profession, the good news is you need very little Greek.

Most ancient Greek and Latin texts are available in translation in the major languages of (European) Classical studies: English, French, German, Italian. Now, if you want them in Polish, or Japanese, or Bengali, you’ll have more of an issue. But the Loeb Classical Library (and LOEB ONLINE) has English translations of virtually all extant (still existing) Greek and Latin sources, and if you’ve got access to a (larger) college library, they probably have them, even if you have to ask them to get things out of storage. Latin is red (PA6156); Greek is green (PA3612). Budé is the French version of Loeb, btw.

Loeb texts also have Greek and Latin on the facing page, but I mention them because they’ve got translations of (almost) everything. One can find cheaper versions without the Greek/Latin from Penguin, Oxford, et al. But those don’t have, say, Aelian, or Athenaeus, or the obscure texts of Plutarch’s Moralia. Loeb does. That said, the Alexander histories (Arrian, Curtius, Plutarch, Diodoros, and Justin) are all available in relatively cheap translations. Much earlier, in answer to a different ask, I listed our main sources on Alexander, extant and lost. It’s a longer read, but perhaps of interest.

(See below for more online sources in translation.)

So, no, you don’t need Greek. But, if you’re at least moderately serious about reading beyond pop history, you will want to learn a few Greek words to better “get” Greek sensibilities. Say, timē (τιμή), which means honor/public standing/esteem, but has all these attendant connotations. If you start reading the Serious Stuff (articles and academic books), authors will throw these around so it’s useful to know them, as they tend to carry an entire freight of meaning we don’t want to explain every time we use them. These are words I make my students learn in my intro to Greek History class (2510), so there aren’t many. (Undergrads put up with only so much, ha.) For Alexander, it’s also useful to know the Greek names of some units, such as the Somatophylakes (the royal Bodyguard of 7), or the Hypaspists (the specialist hoplite phalanx, not the same as the Foot Companions), or even the name of the long pike (sarissa). But you can make do quite well with a vocab of maybe 30± Greek terms.

It's only if you want to pursue research at the advanced (graduate) level that you’d need Greek. Even then, it’s mostly Attic Greek. The only time you’d need dialects is for quite specific study and/or epigraphy (inscriptions). Epigraphers are language specialists. Most of us, even the “pros,” don’t work at that level. But yes, if you’re getting into extensive examinations of passages, it’s good to understand the language for yourself, not have to trust a translation. Translations are, by definition, interpretations.

I hope that encourages some folks to embark on reading the original (primary) sources. Of more import for these is to understand HISTORIOGRAPHY. Even those who can read the Greek, but lack historiographic training, tend to take stuff at face-value when they shouldn’t.

Go HERE for a discussion of historiography (with regard to Alexander). Again, it’s part of a specific ask, but I explain why we need to know something about the historians who are writing our texts, in order to understand those texts. It’s another longer read, but essential.

Almost forgot! If you prefer video, I've also talked about the sources on TikTok: Part I: Intro & Lost Alexander Sources and Part II: Extant Alexander Sources

Some Useful Online Sources to Bookmark:

Perseus (at Tufts.edu): clunky as hell because it’s old (in internet years), but indispensable. English/Greek/Latin/other texts in translation and original language, plus all sorts of other tools, including an image bank. Pitfall: these are translations outside copyright, so old and sometimes problematic. Still, it’s free, and so-so much stuff here. Every person dealing with the ancient Med world has this one on speed-dial. (You can find other online sources with various texts, but Perseus has, again, almost everything; it’s the online Loeb.)

Stoa Org Static: a version of the original where you don’t have to sign in. Takes you to various super-helpful pages, including the Online Suda (a Byzantine encyclopedia you can search: look up “Hephaistion” there. *grin*) Bunch of other helpful links.

Wiki Digital Classicist hypertext list of topics ranging from the Beasley Library (of pottery) to the Coptic Gnostic Library and various online journals. Just click around, see what’s there.

Topos Text: clickable map of places which includes all references to them in ancient sources. So if, say, you want to know where X places is, mentioned in Arrian, you can find it on the map.

PHI Searchable Greek Inscriptions: I have used the tar out of this. It’s much easier than Inscriptiones Graecae, and comes with English translations.

More Online Resources: more links. This is just one of various collections out there.

Again, ALL this stuff is free. Even when you may have to pay (like Loeb Online), the amount of material you can now lay hands on even without a uni library is fantastic.

JSTOR: requires a subscription, but, if you’re a college student or can get access via a uni library, you can look up material for free. Problem: JSTOR has different subscription packages, and only the really big Class-A Research schools have large holdings for Classics. I’m regularly foiled in things I need, as my library is smaller. I use ILL (Interlibrary Loan) a lot. If you can’t get what you want via your school JSTOR or ILL, sometimes you can purchase a solo copy of an article via JSTOR Google Scholar. But (hint) always check the journal’s website itself. It might be cheaper there! (The Ancient History Bulletin, for instance, is super-cheap; check their archives. Karanos [Macedonia only] is FREE.) Same thing sometimes with books. Certain publishers have rental options, Open Access, etc.

Also Academia.edu first: Your savior…if the author is a member, and has uploaded the paper you want. We frequently face restrictions on what we’re allowed to upload, and when. Yet we may list an article we can’t yet release publicly. That doesn’t mean we won’t send it to you privately via email if you message us and ask nicely. 😊 Especially if you’re not providing an entire wishlist, or asking for a book for free. It depends on the person, and whether they have a PDF.

[thetavolution]

Modern Day AU

I spent a moment to think what everyone would be up to in a modern day AU.

Astarion: He was pre-law when he got caught up with Cazador. It's less a vampire spawn situation and a more straightforward abuse situation. I think in the AU he was also much younger when Cazador found him. Once he breaks free of Cazador, he might go back into law. He'd end up in therapy and he'd probably have to take a step back to re-evaluate what he wants in life.

Gale: Of course he's a professor. With magic off the table in this particular AU, he'd probably teach as many subjects as they'd let him. Students would constantly have deja vu seeing him in so many classes. He'd be teaching somewhere like Cambridge or Oxford. The subjects that came to mind were English, History of Art, Linguistics, Philosophy, and for reasons I can't explain, German.

Shadowheart: Her ass would be in a cult. She was kidnapped into some kind of Gloriavale situation as a kid. She'd eventually get a taste of freedom and leave the cult for good, especially if a Tav comes her way. Then she'd write a tell-all book and do a lot of Ted Talks about it. As she got older, she'd become more reclusive. She'd write books from her little countryside house full of animals.

Halsin: Halsin would still be a tree-hugging hippy. He'd have an environmentalism related job, like wind turbine technician, environmental technician, or solar installer. (I imagine he'd want something very hands on.) He'd 100% be part of a nudist colony. He'd still be poly, and he'd be very choosey about who he lets into the polycule.

Lae'zel: She'd go to university where she'd be expanding her world. It would force her to unpack her unhealthy home life is. She was probably raised in a jingoistic family. After discovering the power of friendship and self-discovery, she'd make better choices for herself. She'd still be INCREDIBLY disciplined so I imagine she'd be an athlete. Either she'd do professional rugby or MMA. She might do pro wrestling. She wouldn't join the theatrics on purpose. They'd just tap into her natural persona for her character.

Karlach: She worked for Gortash before he made a name for himself in politics. I'm still trying to work out exactly what would happen to her. I imagine he framed her in this universe and she spent 10 years in prison instead of Avernus. Now she's out and wants revenge... but also would love to get her life back. Possibly she has a chronic illness that, if untreated, could kill her. It's not a 1-to-1 for her heart situation, but close.

Jaheira: She refuses to ever retire from her work. She's been a part of almost every humanitarian world org that'll have her, like The Peace Corps. She now runs her own organization that travels the world for humanitarian efforts. She's a widow and she's still the mother to several adopted children.

Wyll: He was on track to make his father proud. He was going to Oxford to study politics until he realized how much he hated it. His father is the mayor of a major city. I'm hesitant to say London because it feels too obvious. Instead, Wyll drops out to pursue humanitarian work. This is where his path crosses with Jaheira as he joins her organization. His father just doesn't get it and they're at odds over it.

Minthara: Military brat who grew up to join the British Military. In her off time, she's in the BDSM scene.

Orin: She is either running a true crime podcast or being talked about on one. Either that or she's a CEO of a drug company a la The Fall of the House of Usher (2023).

Gortash: This dude is running as a Tory and you know it. He left a huge trail of problematic behavior on his Twitter. He made an anonymous Reddit account to post relationship problems on, but everyone figured out it was him almost immediately.

Barcus: This poor man is so tired. He never found his "dream" and he's been going from job to job for decades. After he starts to stand up for himself, he opens an online store based on all his interests and thrives.

I might do more later, but this is all I could think of for now.

[leiflitter]

I've figured out the You’re Almost Home Timeline so for the gang who care about the passage of time it's under the cut.

Firstly, I have chosen to totally ignore the gravestone dates because of Reasons, including "okay look I started writing this when it wasn't on streaming and this is mostly so it makes sense to me" and "time is an illusion I just need to know this so I can say what year it'll be on NYE". Felix has a January birthday in my little canon and nobody can stop me.

So let's go!

2007

Felix is in Expensive Rehab Facility until Christmas. Sir James and Lady Elspeth have pulled a lot of strings to make sure that Felix's accident won't impact him in any way, shape or form. This mostly means getting him an expensive tutor and essentially permission to submit all of his work online. No need for tutorials because he's had a hard time and is a very special boy. Felix takes this chance to essentially do as much work while he's stuck in the facility as he can because there's fuck all else to do, and he's being made to quit smoking so he's mad about that. Farleigh's back as if he never left, and Venetia is being an absolute rock.

Oliver returns to Oxford, makes contact with the Student Counselling Services, and throws himself into studying so hard it hurts. He needs to distract himself. They allow him to switch tutors and move to a different dorm where he turns into a studying hermit. If he sees any of the Alpha Hotties, he hides. He becomes invisible again, even more than before. His new tutor helps him switch to an accelerated degree program.

2008

Felix turns 21 and does the Spring and Summer terms. His parents decide to go on a tour of Europe to celebrate Felix getting back on the horse. They also know he's going to graduate, because the Special Little Boy measures are in place for him so all he has to really do is log on to Moodle and submit one of his pre-written essays every so often. He's burned a few bridges because he's being very twattish. Felix decides to sack off Christmas term and heads to Bali in late July/early August. Sir James has made sure he has internet access, so what's the point of even being in Oxford? He meets Lucia, who is 18 and on her Gap Year. Because it's the end of the summer, there aren't many options, so Felix sticks with her. Harry is part of the group from maybe like... week three? Luckily, Lucia is on a cleanse, so although they're partying, she isn't drinking or indulging in anything else. In November, Lu gets food poisoning- or so they think, until the doctor Felix hauls her to gives them the news. Felix contacts his parents in a hurry, and they are flown back to the UK and subjected to a major parental conference. Felix proposes to Lu at a Catton Christmas party.

Oliver graduates early. He doesn't go home for the holidays, saying he needs to keep studying. He decides on teaching because it won't be sustainable to be a student forever. His tutor is a major help; he's from Newcastle, although you wouldn't know it because his accent has long since faded and has taken Oliver under his wing. He remains Oliver's main advisor throughout his studies and is probably the reason he gets the job- he's keeping an eye on him so he knows there'll be a Northern Lad Professor once he eventually retires. They're not exactly friends, but there's a lot of mutual respect there.

2009

Felix turns 22 and marries Lu shortly after. He briefly returns to Oxford, but mostly to make sure he graduates. Harry is born in on the 10th of April and he gets his degree in absentia. Lu gets pregnant with Ru maybe a little too soon afterwards, and Rufus is born prematurely on the 27th of November. Oopsie.

2010

Oliver gets his Masters degree in english literature.

2011

Sir James dies of a heart attack in May.

2013

Ellie is born on the 1st of August. Felix gets a vasectomy.

2014

Oliver gets his PhD. His thesis was titled "Narrative Accessibility and Diversity within Academia".

2015

Lady Elspeth passes away in her sleep.

Then a bit of a time jump until

2020

Oliver is finally an associate professor after being in postdoc for 6 years.

Farleigh finally hits on a startup that works- a designer resale app that offers item verification for an add-on fee. It's wildly successful, mostly because he's been hobnobbing in America hardcore and is getting a ton of celebrity endorsements.

2025

Venetia is diagnosed with lung cancer.

2026

Venetia passes away. Felix is bereft.

Harry gets her A level results and Oxford place, despite being 17- Lucia, having not got a degree herself, is adamant that her children be highly educated as fast as possible... and Harry will turn 18 in her first year anyway. Harry doesn't mind this, as she has a fake ID and cannot wait to be away from boring boarding schools.

Oliver Quick receives an email notifying him that, amongst others, he will be tutoring Harriet Catton.

And then Felix Catton walks into his office, and they proceed to go bonkers.

[mariacallous]

Mindlessly scroll through TikTok long enough and you’re bound to stumble on one: An older person, possibly a boomer, gesturing blithely at something—maybe it’s a B&B, maybe it’s a set of blinds—and unfurling a litany of Gen Z slang. “Northumberland Zoo hits different”; “slay”; “no cap”; “It’s giving literate.” To date, there are nearly 4,000 of these videos, and they’ve been viewed millions of times.

Each view feels like a nail in some sort of linguistic coffin.

That’s not to say the “Gen Z writes the marketing script” videos aren’t cute. They are. Most of them even feel earnest, their cringeyness intentional. But as anyone on the internet, or anyone who has experienced adolescence, will tell you: Once anyone over, idk, 35 starts using your slang—maybe once they’ve heard it, even—it’s over.

Perhaps it should be. What becomes more evident as this meme multiples is that a lot of this slang isn’t actually Gen Z’s. “It’s giving,” “slay,” “serving”—these terms are decades old, filtering from Black/Latinx ball culture and into the mainstream via shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race. “Rizz,” the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year in 2023, is newer, but when it’s being used to tout the collection of the Royal Armouries, it’s far removed from the Twitch streams of Kai Cenat, who popularized the term.

Intergenerational razzing happens all the time, especially online. When “OK boomer” took off in 2019, The New York Times said it was the “end of friendly generational relations,” a sign that Gen Z was fed up with being looked down on by the older cohort. Millennials, still Very Online, were too burned out to really pick fights, but Z seemed willing to speak its mind, to become the internet’s culture engine. Sometimes this manifested in the adoption or appropriation of what came before; sometimes it meant creating language and humor that’s all but impenetrable.

When Gen Z then started looking down on Gen X, however, the refrain quickly became that this was the one age group that was not to be fucked with. Latchkey kids grew up touching grass, and getting insulted online hits them differently. They may reply to your TikTok, or possibly just send their most notorious and most polysyllabic white rapper after you.

Now, boomers and Gen Xers are getting on TikTok and turning Z’s slang into a marketing ploy, something that feels both funny and antithetical to the younger generation’s self-proclaimed hipness and Xers’ anticapitalist bent.

“Gen Z writes the marketing script” isn’t the first TikTok trend to go viral by sending up the ways various generations speak online. Two months ago it was about asking Gen Z staffers to edit your video and then posting their quick-cut compilations of awkward “ums” and pauses.

What’s happening with the marketing script videos feels different, something full-circle from the days of “OK boomer.” All of the generations are on TikTok now, and if anyone wants to keep their in-group chatter to themselves, they’ll need to go somewhere else. (Ask Gen Alpha. Maybe they know the place.) Language flourishes online; it also becomes its most muddied and misused self there. When someone from an older generation gets on TikTok to recite the new generation’s slang, the gag is obvious. It’s just not always clear who the joke is on.

[fleetinglanguages]

Language Links - ENGLISH - in construction.

♥

Websites for Word Lovers

American Copy Editors Society

American Dialect Society

Arnold Zwicky’s Blog

Chicago Manual of Style Online

Daily Writing Tips

Dictionary of American Regional English

Fritinancy

Grammarist

Grammar News in the New York Times

Language Corner

Language Log

Linguist List

Linguistic Society of America

Sentence first

Oxford English Dictionary News

Separated by a Common Language

The Slot

Verbivore

Word Detective

Wordnik

World Wide Words

You Don’t Say

American English Website

Check out our books about the English language.

Source: Grammarphobia

[tchaikovskyed]

Hi! I am an Arthurian prof and I saw your post about Malory Daily. I have a few suggestions on editions!

Most scholarship these days focuses on the Winchester Manuscript version of the Morte, whereas most popular modern English editions use the Caxton version as their source. Any public domain versions of the Morte will use Caxton. Winchester is considered closer to Malory's original text (but it's not The original), since Caxton (often heavily) edited the text to better serve his mercantile audience. For example, he makes heavy cuts to the Roman War as well as the Pentecostal Oath. If you're looking to include scholarship with each day's post, I recommend taking this into account, as most contemporary scholarship is going to focus primarily on Winchester!

With that in mind, I have a few recommended editions, although these are not in the public domain:

For Middle English (ME), PJC Field's edition through DS Brewer is the only (as in best) option. There's a paperback edition that costs ~$25 that is a BRICK but it is the best bang for your buck while also just straight up being the best version. There's also a hardcover set of the Morte and accompanying notes that is like $350 and is considered the scholarly standard, but the paperback edition is the exact same thing minus the notes. If you haven't read ME before, Malory is a great place to start because it is VERY LATE ME. He was writing in the century after Chaucer, and it's much easier to read than good ol Geoff. This is the version that most scholarship will be citing; the journal Arthuriana requires all Malory quotes to be from this version. Field in general is a great expert on all things Malory as well.

For modern English, I recommend the translation by Armstrong from Parlour Press. I believe it's also ~$25. Dorsey Armstrong is currently the editor of Arthuriana and she quite literally wrote the book on gender in the Morte. Her translation is really accessible and sticks extremely close to the ME. In my opinion, this is going to give you the closest experience to reading the ME without having to read the ME.

Future editions: at some point a translation from Whetter and Tolhurst is going to come out. K.S. Whetter is one of the big names working directly with the Winchester Manuscript (literally wrote the book on it too, studied under Field, etc) so this is bound to be a great version for anyone who wants an experience closest to the manuscript.

I hope this is helpful!

Thank you so much for this, it's been extremely helpful! I was going to make a short post about different editions but this has been 100% more coherent than anything I was going to write, and I will include all your notes in the blog's about page!

Unfortunately because I'm not too sure about copyright issues, it's easiest for the Substack to include a public domain version (more specifically the version on Project Gutenberg), with an accompanying post comparing the differences between this version and the Oxford World Classics Helen Cooper (which I'll make available online via a big ol' resources GDrive) and the Complete Works edited by Eugene Vinaver (which I have a physical copy of).

Seconded on the P.J.C Field edition which was my bible when I was writing my dissertation, although I've had a look online and it's close to impossible to access unless you are affiliated with a university in some way. I had no idea a new edition was in the works but that is really exciting!

[theoxfordamerican]

Donna Tartt: An OA Retrospective

Oxford American has been a window to the American South for over a quarter-century and has racked up quite a roster of contributing authors and artists. So, why not feature some of our past and present OA contributors whose work has proved foundational to the story of our magazine? First up, Donna Tartt, an audacious literary figure who has found a new generation of ardent readers with the surge of “dark academia” aesthetics on the internet. 

Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, Tartt has always connected intimately to the South. She is perhaps best known for her debut novel, 1992’s The Secret History. Her sophomore effort, The Little Friend (2002), took readers on a journey into the heart of a Southern family grappling with an unsolved murder. Over a decade later, she returned with The Goldfinch (2013), which earned her the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Tartt first attended Ole Miss, where her talent caught the eye of Willie Morris, another OA contributor and venerable Southern literary figure. Morris would serve as a friend and mentor for years to come.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what exactly is dark academia? In a 2023 article for English Studies, Prof. Simone Murray concisely defined it as a “vibrant online subculture centered upon readers’ performances of bookishness.” Think leather-bound books, neogothic architecture, and tweed jackets. Tartt’s The Secret History could be considered a sacred text. Although Tartt attended Ole Miss and Bennington College in the 1980s (and writes of that era), the narrative has struck a chord with younger generations over thirty years later. Case in point: #DarkAcademia has over 2.3 million posts on Instagram and over 5.2 billion views on TikTok. 

And yet, some of Tartt’s contemporary fans probably have no idea of the treasure trove that is the OA archives! Here is a list of the various Tartt contributions featured in our issues. Do you have these on your shelf? 

Issue 2: Basketball Season: Requiem of a Mississippi Cheerleader Issue 4: “True Crime” (poem)  Issue 6: In Melbourne Issue 11: Murder & Imagination Issue 26: The Belle and the Lady Issue 29: Tribute: Willie Morris Issue 30: Spirituality in the Modern Novel Issue 41: Spanish Grandeur in Mississippi Issue 72: Tribute: Barry Hannah

[electric-english]

Reading as an articulating axis and practices involving Educational Technologies

If you've read my last post, you know I'm very into writing. But reading has always been an even more serious matter for me. My dad and I read together every night before I went to sleep until I was 6 or 7 years old. This is a core memory for me since that's when my love for books began. ⚡

When I started taking English classes at a language institution, I absolutely hated it! I thought about giving up uncountable times. It was only when books were introduced in the classes that I felt like I could learn the language.

From that point on, I never stopped reading in Portuguese and in English. At school, my English teacher used a technique called "skimming" to help us read and learn vocabulary in English. I stick to that strategy until nowadays when teaching my students, it's great!

The textbooks my English teacher at school used had a really good match with BNCC, from what I can remember. Looking back, I'm able to identify many similarities such as critical reading. During our English classes at school we discussed themes like grafitti, and were able to give our own factual opinions about it.

BNCC defines the reading axis in the English language in two simple parts: reading for research and reading for general meaning. Inside these competencies, many other abilities are required, and are to be developed by the students and their teacher.

Reading is still a huge part of my life, and my current and past students have been benefiting positively from this interest of mine. I'm excited to learn more about how to teach the reading axis, and BNCC has been helping my learning process a lot.

To help other teachers looking for resources to use in their classes, and thinking about BNCC's directions, I've decided to suggest the Oxford Bookworms books. They are leveled to the student's fluency level and are fitting for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students. You can find them as PDFs online, or on Oxford's official website:

https://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/graded_readers/oxford_bookworms_library/?cc=br&selLanguage=pt&mode=hub

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for the next posts!⚡

[studysmth]

I'm starting my #30dop challenge 😎

08/12/23 to-dos:

Laundry

Cook yourself normal breakfast

English class 9am-1pm

Finish to read "American Crime Stories"

Write a review about "Oxford Bookworms" books

English homework:

"Practical Grammar" exercises

Online preparation for the assessment

Revise conditional sentences

[squarebracket-trickster]

Happy STS! What are your go-to/preferred writing tools? Favorite pen types, notebooks, keyboards, etc, but it doesn't have to be limited to just those things. Writing programs, favorite reference books, thesauruses, dictionaries, TTS software, whiteboards, corkboards, flash cards, encyclopedias, anything goes!

Happy uhhh... Story Telling Smonday!!

90% of all my writing is just done on Microsoft Word 365 Dark Mode with Times New Roman 11pt. I am very boring that way but I find anything more visually stimulating than that overwhelms me.

For brainstorming I have two whiteboards, one classroom-sized and one about 1x.5m, and like 15 different colours of whiteboard markers in two sizes.

For maps and concept art I just use a plain old mechanical pencil and sketch or printer paper (whatever I have on hand). I have tried a bunch of different online map-making software but nothing beats a pen and paper in terms of sheer creative freedom.

In terms of other resources: wordhippo.com my beloved for synonyms and similar phrases and Wikipedia (who doesn't?). Weirdly enough I ended up using a physical Oxford English-Français dictionary too look up Old English and Old French words for place names in WIPVII.

[drfaustus]

hey, my name is lynne. i saw a screenshot of one of your posts on pinterest and i was so excited because i recently got into Marlowe, and your profile looked like you knew the guy’s works well.

i joined tumblr just to talk to you for a sec. do you know if there are any good marlowe annotations i can buy? im pretty young and its difficult for me to understand most of his writing. i read Dr faustus and Hero & leander so far but it was definitely a struggle

and just any other tips for reading his work? what order, stuff to know, whatever?

thanks dude

hey!! it’s so exciting to hear you’re getting into marlowe! ☺️ faustus and hero and leander were a great place to start. early modern english is difficult to read when you’re not used to it so congrats on getting this far! i promise it gets easier with practice.

my answer has turned out quite long so i'm going to put it under a keep reading to avoid clogging my follower's dashboards, you can just click "keep reading" to expand the post to see it.

in terms of a reading order going forward, i’d suggest you continue on with edward ii, then if you want to keep going you can go to the jew of malta and tamburlaine. edward ii is up there with faustus in terms of how often it gets read, so there will be more information online if you get stuck.

my best advice is to start with reading a summary of the play, preferably act by act, before reading the actual play. it does mean you’ll be spoiling yourself but doing this was so useful for me when i was getting used to reading early modern plays because you already have the base understanding of the plot which takes away the stress of having to figure that out on top of the difficult language. wikipedia often has good summaries, or you can use a site like sparknotes or litcharts if you find wikipedia isn't helpful enough. the easiest way to find them is to just look up "(play title) summary" and find one that helps you.

unlike shakespeare there sadly aren’t many productions of marlowe’s work available to watch online, or else i’d suggest that too. (if you want to get into shakespeare that's also a good tactic for reading his work.)

now for your question about annotated editions, i can offer you two suggestions based on my personal experience. these are the only two academic editions of marlowe's plays that i have read.

1. new mermaids: i was assigned the christopher marlowe four plays edition for my british literature 1 class when i was first reading marlowe and i found the footnotes helpful. they have also published individual editions of each play. i am confident in this one's academic legitimacy since my professor chose to assign it to us for class. if you can get your hands on this one i'd recommend it.

2. oxford english drama: i used this edition to write my undergraduate thesis on edward ii and found the annotations to also be useful, but unlike the mermaid editions this one has endnotes which means you'll have to be flipping back and forth to read the notes. (that might sound weirdly specific but i have a grudge against endnotes... they're so annoying) but it is still a great edition and i bought this one in person at barnes and noble so it might be easier to find (but don't quote me on that).

in terms of background information i could turn this post into a novel getting into that for you. if you have any specific question about marlowe or early modern england generally shoot them at me. beyond that, the introduction to most academic editions like the ones i suggested should have helpful context that will help with reading.

enjoy!