Talk:The Dark Domain

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A fact from The Dark Domain appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 9 June 2025 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that The Dark Domain was said by one critic to have placed its author "within the canon of supernatural greats"?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2025/June. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/The Dark Domain.

Wikipedia

Reviews to locate

There are some reviews I am unable to locate.

This advertisement from Cemetery Dance Publications includes quotes from reviews of the book:

"Moody, atmospheric tales...whose sensibility to the psychological effects of horror was well in advance of the author’s time." (Science Fiction Chronicle)
"The appeal of these stories is surely a measure of their successful translation." - that's Review by Stefan Dziemianowicz (1994) in The New York Review of Science Fiction, July 1994
"This collection is destined to be a classic and belongs on the shelf alongside the likes of Poe and Lovecraft.... [The] translation of this remarkable and relatively unknown writer is superb." (Elegia)" - here I can't even ID the publication venue (Elegia?).
Robert M. Price (1994) in Crypt of Cthulhu, Lammas 1994
Review by Douglas E. Winter (1994) in Worlds of Fantasy & Horror, Summer 1994 , reprinted in: Weird Tales, Summer 1994-Summer 1996 (2003)

There are few more listed in https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1660694 but they appear to be reviews by non-notable people in minor fanzines, so, low priority. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 06:22, 25 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 talk 11:36, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that the short story "In the Compartment," included in Stefan Grabiński's The Dark Domain, eroticizes train travel in an unsettling, modernist style? Source: Clute and Stableford as cited, among others
- ALT1: ... that The Dark Domain, widely considered to be its author's debut in English six decades after his death, has been praised as evidence placing him "within the canon of supernatural greats"? Source: quote from Brian Stableford, cited in article. For widely considered issue, see footnote, and note all other sources call this his debut. Note all reviews I've seen or references to them have been very positive, so the quote is not cherry picked.
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Xiao Yedan
- Comment: ALT0 might be more hooky due to "erotic", but ALT1 is more informative. Shrug.

Created by Piotrus (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 555 past nominations.

_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:10, 27 March 2025 (UTC).[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: I assume good faith on the references that I can't access. Either hook works. SL93 (talk) 22:33, 31 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Piotrus and SL93: There is likely a more clear way to phrase ALT1. Jarvis (2017) says:

THE DARK DOMAIN
In 1986, Miroslaw Lipinski, a Polish American translator based in New York City, published a home-printed journal, The Grabiński Reader. It contained translations of two stories by the early twentieth-century Polish writer of the fantastic, Stefan Grabiński: “The Area” and “Strabismus.” These were the first translations of Grabiński’s work into English. Over the next few years, Lipinski published more Grabiński translations in further issues of The Grabiński Reader and in small press anthologies. Then, in 1993, Lipinski’s Grabiński translations were collected in The Dark Domain, published by UK-based independent press Dedalus.

So the stories had been previously published in what sounds like a zine. The Dark Domain was his first English-language anthology. And it was the first time his work was distributed by a publisher, versus the homemade journal/zine. I feel like there are a lot of ways to make what the book is more clear both in the hook and in the article. The article calls this "the first time Grabiński's works were published in English" and then follows that up with footnote a giving the context above. It would be much more clear to write the article chronologically with the footnote worked into the body text. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 05:34, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii: If you have an idea on how to reword either the article or the hook, WP:BEBOLD :) But I am not sure what you are asking me to do? What I wrote is the best way I've come up with. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:52, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for rambling. I think the "debut in English" hook could be easily read in a way that seems to be false and therefore doesn't meet WP:V. I'm stretched a bit thin on-wiki right now, but if anybody proposes other hooks you are welcome to {{ping}} me. I don't have strong opinions on the other hook, but a strict reading of WP:DYKFICTION would rule it out as well. Good luck, Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 02:50, 19 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'll ping a person more familiar with English than me, to see whether they share your concerns and/or can suggest a new hook or hooks: User:Nihil novi. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:44, 8 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Piotrus, Rjjiii, and Nihil novi: Please note that the nomination times out in less than a week, so any remaining issues need to be addressed as soon as possible, or else the nomination will be rejected. Narutolovehinata5 (talk · contributions) 03:59, 16 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

User:Narutolovehinata5 : The nom was passed long ago by SL93. Other comments are not a review, but general suggestions that were replied too. This nom should be mainpaged long ago, not hurt by the fact that someone made a passing comment and moved on. Commenting from mobile, sorry for formatting. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:16, 16 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Readding approval. I don't see any issues. ALT0 passes the fiction hook issue because of "unsettling, modernist style". SL93 (talk) 13:12, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I keep wanting to promote this but ALT0 doesn't pass as it sounds really odd to say "unsettling, modernist style" in wikivoice. Surely we could attribute that to a source or make it sound like it's a quote rather than fact? ("Unsettling" in particular sounds like someone's interpretation/characterization/opinion as it's awfully specific.) Cielquiparle (talk) 06:53, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cielquiparle I was thinking more about ALT0, and the "unsettling, modernist style" is a summary of the reception which doesn't work per WP:SYNTH. I was really hoping that my hook idea on the DYK talk page would work, and I don't feel like working on a new hook when this is about to time out. SL93 (talk) 22:32, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cielquiparle ALT2: ... that The Dark Domain is said to have placed its author "within the canon of supernatural greats"? SL93 (talk) 00:00, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Also pinging Rjjiii. SL93 (talk) 00:01, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Approving ALT2. Nice solution SL93. Cielquiparle (talk) 05:34, 26 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]