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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2123 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm reattempting Scruton's Fools, Frauds and Firebrands. Has been collecting dust for far too long.

Finished Die Staufer. Good read.

Bought and read Astérix en Lusitanie (in German) together with my daughter. She enjoyed it, though I doubt that she understood anything. I thought it was quite decent, though some of the social commentary was tiresome. Yes, "Elonmus" goes to an orgy of rich people, how witty. The multi-page joke where a Garum marketing guy talks to his coporate henchmen using a bunch of latinisms I found comparatively well-done.

Then I picked a book of my shelf at random. It's a maths-physics-chemistry textbook. I open it every evening, read a page, nod sagely, go "yeah, I sure remember that from my studying days and I can still pretend to understand it, with some effort", then close it and immediately forget what I read. Just kidding, I do actually enjoy it and am surprised by how well most of the information sticks. It seems I have not entirely lost my ability to learn. Though of course it's all fairly basic stuff that I have in fact learned before at some point, so the challenge factor is low.

I also picked two other books from my shelf, one about the history of every town, village, hamlet and ruin in the larger region, going back to the earliest records, and the other about local picaresque tales. But I haven't really started on either, preferring for now to subject myself to the aforementioned science textbook.

I didn't realise they were still making new Asterix books.

"Elonmus" goes to an orgy of rich people, how witty

I had a look on Wikipedia, it says the character is called Upwardlimobilus (I assume that's in the English version). Is "Elonmus" your own re-naming? It's hard to tell when apparently there is also a character called Nellia Furtado. Seems odd to put in these kinds of contemporary pop references.

Each localization of the Astérix books uses different naming schemes for the secondary characters.

I get that, I think the successful translation of the character names between languages is pretty essential to its success. But "Elonmus" is so specific and current and implicitly culture-warry. It takes you out of the story. Maybe it works better in German..?

No, it does not. It's just as jarring in German.

FWIW, I don't think we're talking about the same character. Upwardlimobilus, in the German version, is simply named Fetterbonus - "fat bonus". Works, since he's fat. Elonmus is just a name on the guest list for his orgy.

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