Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 February 23

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February 23

Literature

What are some examples of extremely beautiful written novels that make readers move emotionally a lot ? For eg, in the Netflix TV drama House of Cards, there's a writer Tom Yates whose writing has such a reputation and some excerpts which are read in the show are simply exhilarating. Is there a real life example of an author whose writing is so beautiful that it smites everyone who reads it ? 2405:205:148C:D372:B01E:7670:E476:FC17 (talk) 06:54, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

As noted at the top, "We don't answer requests for opinions..." Clarityfiend (talk) 08:04, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Is there a joke that is so funny that everyone who hears it almost dies from laughing? If there was one, you would have heard of it.  --Lambiam 08:14, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

That would be the Killer Joke.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:29, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Almost. —Tamfang (talk) 02:33, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Different people are going to find different things moving. It seems unlikely that any writer could potentially affect everyone. Some people don't care for Shakespeare. I'd bet that the closest we could get to universality would involve emotions usually excluded when we speak of being emotionally moved: disgust and horror. Matt Deres (talk) 15:52, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

"Some people may read War and Peace and think of it as a simple adventure story. Others may read the contents of a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe." - Lex Luthor. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:28, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Ancestry of Mustaqeem de Gama

I find in the news about some Mustaqeem de Gama, "Counsellor at the South African Permanent Mission in Geneva". I am curious about his name. From his looks and "Mustaqeem", I guess he has ancestors among the Indian Muslims in South Africa, but "De Gama" throws me out. It is the (at least) Spanish version of Portuguese "da Gama" as in Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese figure in South African history. My question is: is this "De Gama" an adopted name referencing South African history? Does he have Portuguese (or Goan or Portuguese African) ancestors? Thanks for your ideas. --Error (talk) 12:06, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

This is Dr Muhammad Mustaqeem de Gama, who is married to Rafia. She is Pakistani-African, born in Pakistan, from where she moved to Mauritius, Europe and South Africa. On Twitter she describes how our article Calibri was targeted by editors attempting to cover up alleged corruption by the president of Pakistan. We also learn that the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in April 2020 due to coronavirus was the first since bubonic plague in 1349. 95.150.97.145 (talk) 13:42, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

The Arabic term مستقيم "mustaqīm" means "straight, honest, righteous". I have the impression it is a given name, as suggested by an author's expression of indebtedness being formulated as his being "extremely grateful to Professor Mustaqeem de Gama, Professor Gary Sampson, Lina Westin and Christopher Smith",^[1] or even stronger when the names of the Ethics Committee at Stellenbosch University are listed as "Johan Hattingh, Mustaqeem de Gama, Callie Theron, Ian van der Waag, Elmarie Terblanche, Clint le Bruyns"^[2] [underlining added. --L.]. The given name "Muhammad" suggests that he was born into a Muslim family. The version "de Gama" is also found in Portuguese names; for example, Branca de Gama was a 17th-century captain of the donatarie of Santa Maria Island, mentioned in Captaincies of the Azores § Donatary-Captaincy of Santa Maria.  --Lambiam 10:32, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Yes, his wife is from a Muslim family and it is a Muslim marriage with three children. 95.150.9.67 (talk) 11:49, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

There is also a person named "Rafia de Gama" who worked at the University of Stellenbosch,^[3] currently at the University of Geneva.^[4] The Arabic term رفيعة "rafīʿa", the feminine form of an adjective meaning "sublime", is also used as a given name.  --Lambiam 11:49, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Rafia, née Akram, is his wife, as I said before. 95.150.9.67 (talk) 11:54, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks. I suspected that Mustaqeem is an Arabic name, and I guess that most people with Arabic names in South Africa are Cape Malays or South African Indians (Pakistanis?). But how does a South African man with Malay or Indian (subcontinental) ancestry end with a famous Portuguese surname? --Error (talk) 14:01, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

There are quite a few Portuguese South Africans, and the surname "de Gama" occurs more often in South Africa. All that is needed is for one patrilineal ancestor, in a Portuguese ancestry that goes back perhaps more than ten generations on African soil, to have converted to Islam and married into a family of Asian descent. That would by itself not have been particularly remarkable.  --Lambiam 14:33, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Names are funny things, and while we can see trends, we aren't always able to assume that every human on the planet obeys those trends. Even ignoring a bias towards Western European Naming Conventions, we still get oddities. My mother's maiden name, which is very French, comes from her paternal grandfather who was of Blackfoot First Nations ethnicity; we don't know much about his deep ancestry, but none of his relatives were NOT of Blackfoot extraction themselves. Whether he had an unknown ancestor who was French, OR whether an ancestor had adopted the last name for whatever reason, we don't know. All we do know is that here's an indigenous Canadian with a French last name who moved to Massachusetts. Similar to the Mr. de Gama noted above, all that we know is that the Portuguese been in both India and southern Africa; there are a many plausible explanations for how a South African person would end up with an Indian first name and a Portuguese last name. Is it a bit unexpected? Sure. Is it entirely implausible? Not at all. It's a big world and there's been enough history of people moving around the world for hundreds of years that one would expect things like this to happen from time to time. --Jayron32 15:29, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

That would be a white (in South African terms) or (less likely) black patrilineal ancestor converting from Christianity to Islam in a Christian-ruled country while keeping his Portuguese surname and marrying into a Coloured (South Africa) family in a country famous for its former anti-miscegenation customs and laws. It would seem extraordinary to me, but I am not an expert about South Africa.

I was also thinking about some law forcing European (or placename) surnames on people.

Portuguese South African links to Vasco da Gama (council speaker), who is categorized at Category:South African people of Mozambican descent and was born in 1959 in Transvaal.

It seems that I'll have to content with guesses here. Thanks.

--Error (talk) 16:43, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Christianity was the dominant religion among the ruling classes in European colonies, but it was not like it was a state-imposed religion on the population; Mozambique in particular had a significant Muslim minority. Many of the Portuguese South Africans (or an ancestor of theirs) came from Mozambique; an ancestral conversion could have taken place there generations ago. But note that the earliest Muslim community in South Africa, the Cape Malays, dates back to the 17th century; the occasion of the conversion could conceivably have been a marriage into this community. The South African ban on mixed marriages came into force only in 1949.  --Lambiam 12:58, 25 February 2021 (UTC)