Very Short Literature Quiz

Answers at the end

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1. Fill in the blank

• Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

• For thus hath the Lord said unto me, ____________ , let him declare what he seeth.

• And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:

• And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:

2. X?

X was written by a former Entertainment Weekly writer, who has said that the construction of the character of the primary ‘antagonist’, was to challenge the traditional perception of women as being innately good. The novel also explores the effect of economic downturn on marriage; and lying between partners in marriage. The antagonist was played on-screen by an ex-Bond girl.

3. Lit Spat 1: X and Y, please I have been bitten, I must avoid infection

Or else I’ll be as dead as _______’s fiction

Read his last novels, you’ll see just

what I mean

A lethargy, approaching the obscene

The model is more ho-hum than Dickens

The essays have more bite

They scatter chickens like critics, but

each stabbing phrase is poison

Since he has made that snaring style

a prison

The plots are forced, the prose

sedate and silly

The anti-hero is a prick named Willie

Who lacks the conflict of a Waugh or Lawrence

And whines with his creator’s

self-abhorrence

The poem on the right, called the Mongoose, was written by the Nobel Laureate X , to attack another laureate Y (The Blank), during a famous literary spat. Who are X and Y, and why the name, the Mongoose?

4. Pretty Simple: ID Novel

• “She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was ____ in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always ______”

• The second blank gives the answer.

5. Give Y?

• Max and the cats is a 1981 novella about Max, a Jewish-German who faces the wrath of the Nazis for having an affair with a married woman. He runs off on a ship for Brazil.

• Y, a 2001 novel, is ‘inspired’ by what happens next in ‘Max and the Cats’, as the author himself has acknowledged, saying he was inspired by a review of the book. While the plotlines are very similar, critics have said that while the plot summaries are similar, their content, length and structures are different.

6. Of Big Cats in Novels

X’s sacrifice in this 1950 book is an allegory for Christ’s crucifixion. Like Christ, he sacrifices himself for a traitor, he is then seen resurrected by two women, just as Christ was. The novel also borrows heavily from Norse and Greek mythology. Before the second world war, several children had been evacuated to the English countryside, and three girls came to live with the author in his house near Oxford. What novel?

7. Lit Spat 2: X and Y?

The image on the right is of X, after being punched (blackeye) by Y, at a Mexican cinema at a showing of Superviventesde Andes, about the infamous 1972 flight disaster. The altercation was due to X’s closeness to Y’s wife, Patricia. X won the Nobel in 1982, and Y in 2010. Y also ran for president of his country.

8. X, pictured below on a website, where he answered questions from readers recently in 2015. These included questions on his works, but

also relationship advice and general chit-chat. ID X, who is notoriously known for being reclusive, so much so that a documentary exists,

‘_____: In search of this reclusive writer’, which talks to his translators and his fans, and traces artifacts and tropes from his world (like the

ones below) , and tries to build a picture of him.

ANSWERS FOLLOW QUESTIONS NEXT

1. Fill in the blank

• Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.

• For thus hath the Lord said unto me, ____________ , let him declare what he seeth.

• And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:

• And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:

Go Set a Watchman

2. X?

X was written by a former Entertainment Weekly writer, who has said that the construction of the character of the primary ‘antagonist’, was to challenge the traditional perception of women as being innately good. The novel also explores the effect of economic downturn on marriage; and lying between partners in marriage. The antagonist was played on-screen by an ex-Bond girl.

Gone Girl

3. Lit Spat 1: X and Y, please I have been bitten, I must avoid infection

Or else I’ll be as dead as _______’s fiction

Read his last novels, you’ll see just

what I mean

A lethargy, approaching the obscene

The model is more ho-hum than Dickens

The essays have more bite

They scatter chickens like critics, but

each stabbing phrase is poison

Since he has made that snaring style

a prison

The plots are forced, the prose

sedate and silly

The anti-hero is a prick named Willie

Who lacks the conflict of a Waugh or Lawrence

And whines with his creator’s

self-abhorrence

The poem on the right, called the Mongoose, was written by the Nobel Laureate X , to attack another laureate Y (The Blank), during a famous literary spat. Who are X and Y, and why the name, the Mongoose?

X-Derek Walcott; Y-Naipaul

The Mongoose were brought to the Caribbean from India by the British.

4. Pretty Simple: ID Novel

• “She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was ____ in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always ______”

• The second blank gives the answer.

Lolita

5. Give Y?

• Max and the cats is a 1981 novella about Max, a Jewish-German who faces the wrath of the Nazis for having an affair with a married woman. He runs off on a ship for Brazil.

• Y, a 2001 novel, is ‘inspired’ by what happens next in ‘Max and the Cats’, as the author himself has acknowledged, saying he was inspired by a review of the book. While the plotlines are very similar, critics have said that while the plot summaries are similar, their content, length and structures are different.

Life of Pi

Both are about being ship-wrecked on a boat with an animal. The former has a Jaguar, the latter, a Tiger.

6. Of Big Cats in Novels

X’s sacrifice in this 1950 book is an allegory for Christ’s crucifixion. Like Christ, he sacrifices himself for a traitor, he is then seen resurrected by two women, just as Christ was. The novel also borrows heavily from Norse and Greek mythology. Before the second world war, several children had been evacuated to the English countryside, and three girls came to live with the author in his house near Oxford. What novel?

The Lion, the with and the wardrobe: From the Chronicles of Narnia series

7. Lit Spat 2: X and Y?

The image on the right is of X, after being punched (blackeye) by Y, at a Mexican cinema at a showing of Superviventesde Andes, about the infamous 1972 flight disaster. The altercation was due to X’s closeness to Y’s wife, Patricia. X won the Nobel in 1982, and Y in 2010. Y also ran for president of his country.

X- Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Y-Mario Vargas Llosa

8. X, pictured below on a website, where he answered questions from readers recently in 2015. These included questions on his works, but

also relationship advice and general chit-chat. ID X, who is notoriously known for being reclusive, so much so that a documentary exists,

‘_____: In search of this reclusive writer’, which talks to his translators and his fans, and traces artifacts and tropes from his world (like the

ones below) , and tries to build a picture of him.

Haruki Murakami