Persiflage prelims with answers srs and rajeev

1. Persiflage SURESH RAMASUBRAMANIAN AND RAJEEV CHAKRAVARTHI THANKS FOR REVIEWING: AJAY PARASURAMAN, KESHAV ATHREYA, MOVIN MIRANDA, SAMANTH SUBRAMANIAN, NISHA PILLAI, VINOD VISHWANATH

2. Easy decision. Persiflage + Pilferages.

3. Prelims 30 Questions Questions 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 are starred. A sudden death will break any ties Answer two part questions in sequence Key parts of the question are underlined Hints, if any, are italicized Blanks are not indicative of actual length

4. Q1. What is the obvious phrase in this book’s title?

5. placeholder slide

6. A1. An Eye for an Eye

7. Q2. This book introduced a catchphrase to the world According to the book, its goal was to ready its readers “to die for your country, so that when the time comes you may charge home with confidence, not caring whether you are to be killed or not” The book has remained in continuous print and available worldwide since 1908. It, and its translations in over 87 languages, have sold an estimated 100-150 million copies over the years. Name the book. What catchphrase did it introduce?

9. A2. Scouting for Boys. Be Prepared.

10. Q3. Edgar Rice Burroughs invented an imaginary Ape tongue for Tarzan The Apes themselves were called Mangani. The word for Elephant was Tantor. Bolgani was a Gorilla. The Mangani tongue did not have any gender specific words for each of these animals – for instance, the word for both male and female elephants was Tantor. However, for one specific animal, Burroughs named the male Numa and the female Sabor. Which animal was this? why did he do this? If it helps, he did this after he learnt something interesting that he’d ignored earlier in writing his stories.

12. A3. Lion – Numa and Lioness – Sabor There are no tigers in Africa

13. Q4. In Amit Chaudhuri’s third novel “Freedom Song” The protagonist Bhaskar joins the Communist Party in the early 1990s and instead of taking up a job, spends his time sloganeering in rallies, performing street plays and so on. According to Chaudhuri, Bhaskar’s wholehearted embrace of Marxism’s tenets in a world which has rendered them obsolete was modeled on which literary character?

15. A4. Don Quixote “I wanted to make Bhaskar a Quixotic figure, just as Quixote has taken up all the dead chivalric codes of the romance novels in all earnestness, unmindful of their complete irrelevance.” Amit Chaudhuri

16. *Q5. In Sarah Fielding’s“The Adventures of David Simple and Volume the Last”(1744)

17. *Q5 continued .. The English Word. The Insulting Slogan This term that she coined (blanked out) was shortened into an English word particularly detested by brave and honourable schoolboys. The word was further adopted into an insulting slogan during the freedom struggle, which would routinely be yelled by irate crowds at sundry Dewan Sahibs, Rai Bahadurs and other such worthy personalities.

19. *A5. Toady (from Toad Eater) and Toady Bachcha Hai Hai Shaheed (1948)

20. Q6. From Sir Walter Scott’s Quentin Durward Quentin sees a hanged man and doesn’t realize that he has been hanged by the French King’s provost marshal. “Why do you not cut him down?” said the young Scot, whose hand was as ready to assist affliction, as to maintain his own honour when he deemed it assailed. One of the peasants, turning on him an eye from which fear had banished all expression but its own, and a face as pale as clay, pointed to a mark cut upon the bark of the tree, having the same rude resemblance to a fleur de lys which certain talismanic scratches, well known to our revenue officers, bear to a ___ ___ (2 words). This symbol of British royal (and today, government) property is still to be seen across India. What?

22. Broad Arrow

23. Q7. What are we referring to, here? Linnaeus named it Microcosmus marinus in the first edition of his Systema Naturae, adding "Habitare fertur in mari Norwegico, ipse non dum animal vidi". John Wyndham used it in 1953 to describe the awakening threat of alien invaders from a gas giant, who have now colonized a region of Earth that suits their bodies – and now threaten the whole planet. What, in one word, are we referring to here?

25. A7. Kraken

26. Q8. Name the fictional country Italo Calvino’s “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler”includes references to a fictional country X, described as having existed as an independent state between the World Wars. Apparently located somewhere on the Gulf of Bothnia, the country has since been absorbed into its much larger neighbours. Their language X-ian has historically been spoken by an ancient tribe, contemporaneous with the Scythians, that lived in southern Ukraine. Identify this fictional country, which is also to be found in the works of Robert E. Howard, and which can be extrapolated from a Welsh word.

28. Cimmeria

29. Q9. The 1846 tale In 1827, when the author was a US Army private at Fort Castle Island near Boston, he heard about an 1817 duel in which a certain Lt. Drane killed another officer, Lt. Massie. Massie’s friends then lured Drane into the fort’s dungeon, where they had “hidden some expensive liquor”. Drane was chained to the wall and the room bricked up. In 1846, the author turned this into a tale of Italian vendetta, hinting at, but never revealing the motive behind the victim’s immurement. Also a song from a 1976 concept album, if that helps.

31. The Cask of Amontillado

32. *Q10. How do neuroscientists describe this reaction? [remember – lit quiz] Halo Neuroscience is a Silicon Valley startup providing equipment that uses electrical pulses of energy to prime the brain for a more effective workout for athletics. Through its Halo Sport device (image on the next slide), the idea is to provide electrical stimulation to neurons in the motor cortex that send commands through peripheral nerves to the muscles, during actual athletic training sessions. People have been naturally rather hesitant to try this project. This reluctance has been described as the _____ effect.

34. *A10. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

35. Q11. Name this 1942 philosophical essay A philosophical essay written in 1942, it introduces the philosophy of the absurd: the futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an“unintelligible work devoid of God and eternal truths or values.” The final chapter compares the absurdity of man’s life with the archetypal mythical protagonist of meaninglessness. Name the essay, or the character so referenced.

37. A11. Albert Camus’The Myth of Sisyphus

38. Q12. Identify the author Arabia’s fierce sunshine burns the eyes. The Arabs highly value a cooling sensation in the eyes. Such coolness is also a metaphor for “extremely dear to the heart” – with Sir Richard Burton translating this Arabic endearment as “the coolth of my eyes” in several stories of the Thousand and One Nights. Which Sahitya Akademi, Jnanpith award and Sahitya Akademi Fellowship winning elder sister of Indian litterateurs was named for this coolness of the eyes?

40. A12. Qurrat-ul-Ain Haider (Ain Apa)

41. Q13. Identify the book, which is actually about a group of tourists who travel from Paris to see the Fiesta de San Fermin

43. A13. The Sun Also Rises

44. Q14. The original work and its successor The existence of this work was first postulated in Asimov's original 1942 short story "Foundation". This older, more pedestrian work was subsequently overshadowed in popularity by by another work. This other work, while riddled with many omissions and containing apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate content, was slightly cheaper, and moreover, had a very distinctive cover. What was the original work and its successor?

46. A14. Encyclopaedia Galactica and HHGTG

47. *Q15. How did Tom Brown translate this epigram of Martial in 1680? In 1680, Tom Brown was a student at Christ Church, Oxford, when he was expelled by the dean for misbehaviour. The dean, however, took pity on Brown and his future career, and offered to keep him on if he could, impromptu, translate the 32nd epigram of Martial into English. Here’s the Latin epigram. How did Brown famously translate it? Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare; Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.

49. *A15. I do not like thee, Dr. Fell

50. Q16. The Author and the Parody Movie This author, well known for his industrial storylines, was on a plane trip during the 1950s when he got to thinking what would happen if both pilots were to be incapacitated by food poisoning. He promptly turned this scenario into a hit 1956 made for TV movie starring James Doohan, and later novelized the screenplay. This was further turned into a 1957 movie “Zero Hour” that was noted for its stilted and trite dialogue, Zero Hour and its dialogue was parodied into a cult hit 1980 movie that is most famous for an expressed wish that someone not be referred to as female.

52. A16. Arthur Hailey, Airplane

53. Q17. Whose works did Amazon delete? In 2009, Amazon deleted all works by a certain author from the Kindle devices of all their US customers, due to a copyright licensing issue. This deletion also took out all the notes that those Kindle users may have made on their individual copies of the ebooks. A Michigan schoolboy sued Amazon and won, with Amazon promising the judge that they would not delete works from their customers’ Kindle devices again. In what has to be pretty significant irony about major corporate overreach, which author’s books did Amazon delete from Kindle?

55. A17.

56. Q18. Who / What did this incident inspire? In 1962, Sir Frank Soskice, a Labour Party MP and former Advocate General of England, started a petition to grant a posthumous pardon to Timothy Evans, who had been wrongly executed in 1950 for murdering his wife and child, before the actual killer was discovered. In 1964, when Sir Frank became Home Secretary under Harold Wilson, the exact same petition landed on his desk for approval, whereupon he rejected it and denied further investigation of a long dead case. Over a decade later, who / what did this flip flop inspire?

58. A18. Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay Yes Minister

59. Q19. What is this ‘board game’ based on? (larger pics available on the next slide)

61. A19.

62. * Q20. The 1935 work and its author This is the work’s dedication page

64. e.e.cummings,“no thanks” widely rejected and then self published

65. Q21. Give me the opening line of this poem Emperor Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE was reportedly foiled by the miraculous mass death of 185,000 of his soldiers, something described in a Lord Byron poem. The first line of this poem, evoking the mercilessness of the emperor’s attack on a meek and defenceless population, has become proverbial, and widely referenced in literature. eg: “His whole demeanour was that of an _____, who, having _____multiple word phrase___, finds in residence not lambs but wildcats” – P.G.Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit.

67. A21. The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold ‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’ – Lord Byron

68. Q22. Identify the character X. How do we know Miss Lamburn better? According to the actor John Teed, who was their neighbour during his childhood, the model for this character X was the author Miss __First Name_ __Middle Name__ Lamburn’s nephew. She lived quietly with her mother in Cherry Orchard Road, Bromley Common. My family lived next door. In those days it was a small rural village. Miss Lamburn was a delightful unassuming young woman and I used to play with her young nephew Tommy. He used to get up to all sorts of tricks […] Later, she contracted polio and was confined to a wheelchair. Owing to her restricted movements she took her setting from her immediate surroundings which contained many of the features described in her books."

70. A22. Richmal Crompton Lamburn, William

71. Q23. Comedy of Errors, Act III, Scene 1 FITB with a phrase from a recent series of books ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS: Go, fetch me something: I’ll break ope the gate. DROMIO OF SYRACUSE(within): Break any breaking here, and I’ll break your knave’s pate. DROMIO OF EPHESUS A man may break a word with you, sir, and ______________, Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind

73. Words are but wind

74. Q24. The 1967 play and the 1996 movie This 1967 Pulitzer winning play by Howard Sackler, based on the life of a great sportsman, was adapted into a 1970 movie starring James Earl Jones, earning him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Another great from the same sport was so impressed by the movie that he told Jones “That's my story. You take out the issue of white women and replace it with the issue of religion.That's my story!" A 1996 Samuel Jackson movie parodied the play’s title. Name both the 1967 play and the 1996 movie.

76. A24. The Great White Hope / Hype Jack Johnson and Mohammed Ali

77. *Q25. Name these two British kings X reigned from CE 9-35 and before that, was apparently brought up at the court of Augustus Caesar. We know of him mostly because of an apocryphal but popular story about his daughter’s efforts to marry a low born Roman. His son Y, who reigned from CE 43-50, has a name that we know because it is the first name of, for example – 1. One of the founders of a shop dealing in artefacts, such as a furniture “portal” of sorts. 2. The inventor of a car with an onomatopoeic name 3. A cantata in six scenes by Elgar

79. *A25. Cymbeline and Caractacus Shakespeare’s Cymbeline Caractacus Burke – Founder of Borgin and Burkes Caractacus Potts – Inventor of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Elgar’s Caractacus

80. Q26. What did Dr.Borzuy bring back ? As told in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, Borzuy, a doctor at the court of the Sassanid king Khosru I Anushirvan, heard about “a mountain herb that is mingled into a compound and, when sprinkled over a corpse, it is immediately restored to life” and reached India in a quest for this herb. This legend was clearly a version of the Ramayana’s Sanjeevani, and there was no such herb. However, a wise man suggested a different interpretation. “The herb is the scientist; science is the mountain, everlastingly out of reach of the multitude. The corpse is the man without knowledge, for the uninstructed man is everywhere lifeless.Through knowledge man becomes revivified.”. This wise man also suggested a work which, he said, was just such a ‘herb’ , and Borzuy took a copy back with him to Persia. Which work was this?

82. A26. Panchatantra (Karirak ud Damanak)

83. Q27. Whose (5) anthology (5) is this Neil Gaiman work a snide reference to? The original is a 1927 anthology of sickeningly sweet poems with titles like Sneezles, Blinker and Pinker Purr. Eleven poems in this original work use distinctive illustrations by E.H Shepard, in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of two of the poet’s earlier works. While others such as P.G.Wodehouse have gently parodied these poems, Gaiman’s anthology features “sick, gross, vomit inducing” poetry by the likes of Brian Aldiss and Robert Bloch.

85. A27. A.A.Milne,“Now We Are Six”

86. Q28. Identify this fictional trio –what they are (5), name them (5) The first of the trio is clearly named for a fictional fighter pilot in both world wars, who, with his sidekicks, later joins a fictional wing of Scotland Yard. Indeed, this individual from the trio is incogruously depicted wearing a ”British Officer”mustache and a flying helmet. The second of the trio shares his name with one of the five warring warlords in Terry Pratchett’s “Interesting Times” – Hong, Tang, _____, Sung and McSweeney. As for the third, he shares his name with the surname of a Dominican priest who discovered and translated the Mayan creation myth that is today known as the Popol Vuh.

88. A28. The Cardinals from the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition Sketch – Biggles, Fang and Ximenez

89. Q29. Who was Truman Capote making this dismissive comment about? Truman Capote, interviewed on a TV talk show in 1959, airily dismissed a certain author with the statement "He doesn't write, he types". Here is an extract from a letter that this author wrote to his girlfriend Joyce Johnson, who used to live in New York’s Greenwich Village while he was broke and living in his mother’s home in Orlando (she had to loan him $30 so he could catch a bus to New York for his book launch). “I've bought a roll of white teletype paper that reaches from Orlando, Fla. To NYCity,” Who was this author, known for typing his novels in marathon spells?

91. A29. Jack Kerouac

92. *Q30. Publicity mailshot sent out by Bantam Books in 1966 These mailshots were drafted to look like prescriptions, and read: Take 3 yellow __________ before bedtime for a broken love affair; Take 2 red __________ and a shot of scotch for a shattered career; Take ___the book’s title___ in heavy doses for the truth about the glamour set on the pill kick. Just name the book. The first 2 blanks in the ‘prescription’ are the same and form part of the book’s title.

94. *A30. The Valley of the Dolls

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