KC Family Quiz

The Fabulous World of Books

Dinesh Krithivasan
October 29 2021
• 18 questions in all

• Many questions are courtesy QFI archives and online quizzing groups

• Most answers would be familiar to most of us

• Answers to be submitted via Google forms

https://forms.gle/cuEje6n8xpJ5THa46

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Starting off with my kids’ favourite books!!! Identify the original titles that these
are puns on and the respective authors.

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• A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens • Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

• Call of the Wild – Jack London • Crime and Punishment – Fyodor
• For whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Doestoevsky
Hemmingway • Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

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The Decameron is a masterpiece of early Italian prose written between 1348 –
1353 by Giovanni Boccaccio. The title literally means “ten days” and is a collection
of 100 stories that a group of young men and women tell each other to entertain
themselves during their 10 day stay at a secluded villa outside Florence.

Why were they staying outside the city for those 10 days?

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They were fleeing the Black Death plague that was ravaging Florence at that time

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In Macbeth, the witches prophesy that he shall never be vanquished “until Great
Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him”. This seemingly
impossible prophesy comes true when the armies of MacDuff disguise themselves
with cut trees from the Birnam wood and approach Dunsinane.

A 20th century English author was “bitterly disappointed by the shabby way this
prophesy was made use of in Shakespeare” and resolved to come up with a
situation in his novels where it literally comes true.

Which author and what character(s) did he create?

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J. R. R. Tolkien. He wanted trees to actually march to war and so created the Ents

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Salman Rushdie wrote a 2015 novel titled Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-
Eight Nights. What is the title a reference to?

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One Thousand and One Nights

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

= (2*365) + (31+28+31+30+31+30+31+31) + 28
= 1001 nights

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In Quidditch Through The Ages, Rowling (or rather Kennilworthy Whisp) says that
the game never achieved great popularity in the East – “The Ministries of Magic in
countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Mongolia, all of whom
maintain a flourishing trade in ______ _______, regard Quidditch with some suspicion”.

Fill in the blanks.

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Magic Carpets

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A Pair of Blue Eyes is an early novel by Thomas Hardy
published serially between 1872 – 73. In it is a scene where
the hero falls down a crag and is eventually rescued by the
heroine. This passage was praised as an “indication of Hardy’s
ability to sustain interest in a tense situation”.

A word that (literally) describes this passage is now used in

English to denote any situation where Hardy’s method is
employed to sustain tension and interest. What word is it?

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Cliffhanger

Hardy ends the chapter with the protagonist dangling from the cliff and described
the rescue only in the next instalment.

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A Corner of a Foreign Field is a 2002 book by Ramachandra Guha on the history of
cricket in the Indian subcontinent. One of the covers of the book shows a
photograph from 1950s Mysore of someone playing cricket with some kids – a
particularly apt choice given what first propelled this person to fame.

Who was shown on that cover?

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R. K. Narayan

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In typography, the order of symbols used in footnotes is *, †, ‡, §, ‖, ¶. The first
footnote in a page is denoted by a *, the second by a † and so on.

Which two famous characters are named as a pun on the first two elements of
this order?

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Asterisk (*) and obelisk (†)

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Kalyug is a 1981 Shyam Benegal film depicting the bitter business rivalry between
two groups of cousins of the same family. Shashi Kapoor plays Karan Singh, an
orphan brought up by the patriarch of one of the sides. The movie ends with the
cousins killing each other. The video shows how the Shashi Kapoor character gets
killed.

Identify the inspiration behind the movie in general and this scene in particular.

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The movie mirrors the events of Mahabharatha,

suitably translated to a modern corporate warfare
setting

Karan Singh is based on Karna, and he gets killed

while changing his car wheels just as Karna got
killed when his chariot wheels get mired in mud.

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The thesis of this book is that the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War is merely
a change of seasons. After a brief spring laden with
possibilities, Russian history is irrevocably linked
with that of her dictator Putin.

What “seasonal” 3-word title (taken from a pop

culture phenomenon) does this book have?

The author has long been a vocal critic of Putin but

is best known as arguably the greatest player ever
in a certain sport. Who?

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Winter is Coming by Garry Kasparov

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When challenged by his publisher to produce a book with minimal word count, this
author wrote a classic work with just 50 words. The 50 words are shown here in
alphabetic order with some omissions. Which work?
A Dark House On Them
Am Do I Or There
And Eat If Rain They
Anywhere In Sam Train
Are Fox Let Say Tree
Be Goat Like See Try
Boat Good May So Will
Box Me Thank With
Car Mouse That Would
Could Here Not The You

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Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham

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Of all the languages that the Nobel prize in literature has been awarded in, which
one has the least number of native speakers at just over 300,000? This
distinction is thanks to the 1955 awardee Halldor Laxness. His most famous work,
Independent People, is an account of his country starting with its founding in 854
AD and mostly dealing with the travails of farmers in such an inhospitable
landscape.

Conversely, which language with the most number of native speakers is yet to
win the award?

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Icelandic & Hindi

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This is a 1847 painting by Edwin Landseer that depicts a scene from a Shakespeare
play. Which play is this scene from?

Another Victorian writer who was a student at that time was influenced by this
painting to create a memorable opening scene in his 1865 novel involving one of
the animals seen here. Which novel?

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A MidSummer Night’s Dream
Lewis Carroll was inspired by the fairies riding the rabbits to include a talking one
in Alice in Wonderland

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In 1908, Leo Tolstoy wrote a couple of long letters offering his support for Indian
Independence and advocating non-violence. In the letters, he quotes translations
from a famous 5th century CE work whose name literally translates to “sacred
verses”. These letters were influential in forming Gandhi’s world views as well.

Some of Tolstoy’s translations below:

If, in the morning, a man wishes to do evil unto another, in the evening the evil will return to him.

The punishment of evil doers consists in making them feel ashamed of themselves by doing them a great
kindness.

Which work is this?

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Thirukkural

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This is an excerpt from an English translation of a 1969
French book called La Disparition (“The Disappearance”).
Considered among the most difficult books to translate,
some of the other English translations are titled A
Vanishing, Vanish’d and Omissions. The plot revolves
around a group of individuals looking for a missing
companion named Anton Vowl.

What is unique about the book (or) Why is it so

challenging to translate?

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 The text reads:

Translated from the French by Gilbert

Adair

“The actual book, a parody thriller, is

both fully and curiously moving…You
can read a long way in it before you
even realize the <redacted> which is
responsible for the haunting
strangeness of its tone

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The novel is Georges Perec’s A Void

The novel is written without the letter “e” and in its translations the most common
letter of the respective languages are dropped

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Identify this author/illustrator. His most famous 1969 creation was inspired by
a common office appliance and has sold 50 million copies worldwide. The book
has been endorsed by the Royal Entomological Society for its biological accuracy
and by the American Academy of Pediatrics to promote healthy eating.

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Eric Carle who wrote The Very Hungry
Caterpillar

He was inspired by the hole punch to come up

with the idea of a caterpillar eating through
the book.

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Which 1954 novel is this class
about?

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Lord of the Flies

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These are the chapter names from the 2005 debut novel of an Indian diplomat. We
probably know the 2008 movie adaptation better. Which novel?

• Prologue • 200,000 Murder on the Western Express

• 1,000 The Death of a Hero
• 2,000 The Burden of a Priest
• 5,000 A Brother’s Promise
• 10,000 Thoughts for the Crippled
• 50,000 How to Speak Australian
• 100,000 Hold on to your Buttons
• 500,000 A Soldier’s Tale
• 1,000,000 Licence to Kill
• 10,000,000 Tragedy Queen
• 100,000,000 A Love Story
• 1,000,000,000 The Thirteenth Question
• Epilogue

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Q&A by Vikas Swarup

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 Thanks and Stay Safe.
Hope we get to meet in person soon!!!

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