/lit/ - Literature

Answers do not matter so much as questions, said the Good Fairy. A good question is very hard to answer. The better the question the harder the answer. There is no answer at all to a very good question.

— Flann O’Brien, ‘At Swim-Two-Birds’


One hundred questions to identify, some of which have answers. Translations marked [*]. A certain amount of non-fiction (mostly philosophy, for obvious reasons). In one instance an obscure original author has been quoted by better-known figures; I’m attributing the quotation to the original person.

Hints on request.


The authors:

[Unknown Author] x 2

Douglas Adams, Edward Albee, Dante Alighieri, Aristotle, Jane Austen

Samuel Beckett, Saul Bellow, Ambrose Bierce, Boccaccio, J. L. Borges, Richard Brautigan, Robert C. O’Brien, Thomas Browne, Robert Browning, Anthony Burgess, Robert Burton

James M. Cain, Thomas Carlyle, Lewis Carroll, Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Geoffrey Chaucer, G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Wilkie Collins

Osamu Dazei, Philip K. Dick, Emily Dickinson, Joan Didion, Isak Dinesen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Arthur Conan Doyle

George Eliot, T. S. Eliot, B. E. Ellis

Edward Fitzgerald

William Gibson, William Golding, William Goldman, Robert Graves

Thomas Hardy, Thomas Harris, Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Robert A. Heinlein, Joseph Heller, Russell Hoban, Anthony Hope, Horace, Ted Hughes, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley

Shirley Jackson, William James, James Joyce

John Keats, William Kennedy, Rudyard Kipling

Stanislaw Lem

Thomas Malory, Thomas Mann, Walter de la Mare, David Markson, Christopher Marlowe, Cormac McCarthy, Herman Melville, A. A. Milne, John Milton, Michel de Montaigne

Vladimir Nabokov, Eugene O’Neill, Friedrich Nietzsche

George Orwell

Fernando Pessoa, Harold Pinter

W. V. Quine

Ayn Rand, Damon Runyon

Rafael Sabatini, A. de Saint-Exupéry, Saki, J. D. Salinger, Arthur Schopenhauer, Seneca, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Smart, Snorre, Laurence Sterne, Suetonius

Dylan Thomas, James Thurber, J. R. R. Tolkien, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain

John Updike

François Villon

Oscar Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Gene Wolfe

1)
A curious thing about the ontological problem is its simplicity. It can be put in three Anglo-Saxon monosyllables: ‘What is there?’


2)
O, what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?


3)
“Hey, listen,” I said. “You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?” I realized it was only one chance in a million.


4)
Who is John Galt?


5)
Ever since the distinguished Mr. T. S. Eliot’s widely discussed play came to town, I have been cornered at parties by women, and men, who seem intent on making me say what I think ‘The Cocktail Party’ means, so they can cry “Great God, how naive!” and then go around telling people that I probably don’t even know the significance of the pumpkin in ‘Cinderella’. I have learned to spar for time, with a counter-question of my own. “Do you believe in the innocence of the innocents in ‘The Innocents’?” I asked Grace Sheldon.


6)
Question, Have women a soul? Answer, Yes. Question, Why? Answer, In order that they may be damned. Very witty.

[*]


7)
“When I meet someone for the first time, I ask myself this question: Given the Caesarean environment, which of the Caesars would this person resemble — Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero?”


8)
‘What does the Crocodile have for dinner?’


9)
Who cleft the Devil’s foot?
When did the Fifty Danaids come with their sieves to Britain?
What secret was woven into the Gordian Knot?
Why did Jehovah create trees and grass before he created the Sun, Moon and stars?
Where shall Wisdom be found?


10)
‘The Emperor counsels simplicity. First principles. Of each particular thing, ask: What is it in itself, in its own constitution? What is its causal nature?’

‘That doesn’t mean anything to me.’

‘What does he do, the man you want?’

11)
Fathers and teachers, I ponder, “What is hell?”

[*]


12)
Big people like the numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never question you about the basics. They never ask you, “What is the sound of his voice?” “What games does he prefer?” “Does he collect butterflies?” They ask, “How old is he?” “How many brothers?” “How much does he weigh?” “How much does his father earn?”

[*]


13)
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?


14)
Do I dare to eat a peach?


15)
“Actions punishable by jail sentences are not the only crimes. If we knew the antonym of crime, I think we would know its true nature. God ... salvation ... love ... light. But for God there is the antonym Satan, for salvation there is perdition, for love there is hate, for light there is darkness, for good, evil. Crime and prayer? Crime and repentance? Crime and confession? Crime and ... no, they're all synonymous. What *is* the opposite of crime?”

[*]


16)
“How much?”
“Nach beliebe.”
“How much?”
“Nach beliebe.”
“How much?”
“Nach beliebe.”
“How much?”
“Nach beliebe.”
“How much?”
“Nach beliebe.”
“How much?”
“Nach beliebe.”


17)
Tell me frankly: do you think it is possible Frau Stöhr knows how to make twentyeight different kinds of fishsauces?

[*]


18)
If our world be small in respect, why may we not suppose a plurality of worlds, those infinite stars visible in the Firmament to be so many Suns, with particular fixt Centers; to have likewise their subordinate Planets, as the Sun hath his dancing still round him?


19)
Have you ever had a witch bloom like a highway
on your mouth?


20)
What are the Rights of Man and the Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men’s minds and opinions but Loose-Fish? What is the principle of religious belief in them but a Loose-Fish? What to the ostentatious smuggling verbalists are the thoughts of thinkers but Loose-Fish? What is the great globe itself but a Loose-Fish? And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?

21)
When did I lose my freedom? For once, I was free. I had power to choose. The mechanics of cause and effect is statistical probability yet surely sometimes we operate below or beyond that threshold. . . .


22)
Did ye drink me doornail?


23)
“Our price is always the same: one thousand roubles a day.”
Pahom did not understand.
“A day? What measure is that? How many acres would that be?”

[*]


24)
What is in Room 101?


25)
“Yes, yes, father abbot, thy fault is high,
And now for the same thou needst must die;
For except thou canst answer me questions three,
Thy head shall be smitten from thy bodie.

“And first,” quo’ the king, “when I’m in this stead,
With my crown of gold so fair on my head,
Among all my liege-men so noble of birth,
Thou must tell me to one penny what I am worth.

“Secondlie, tell me, without any doubt,
How soon I may ride the whole world about;
And at the third question thou must not shrink,
But tell me here truly what I do think.”


26)
“Why are there, um, copies of the Style section all over the place?”


27)
“There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, ‘Do trousers matter?’”

“The mood will pass, sir.”


28)
And now, resuming the statement with which we commenced, since all knowledge and moral choice grasps at good of some kind or another, what good is that which we say *policy* aims at? or, in other words, what is the highest of all the goods which are the objects of action?

[*]


29)
“Why do you say it’s ten speeds when it’s only got seven gears?”


30)
We sipped our loaded coffee. I looked at Vivian’s face in the mirror back of the coffee urn. It was taut, pale, beautiful and wild. Her lips were red and harsh.

“You have wicked eyes,” I said. “What’s Eddie Mars got on you?”

31)
What a dump. Hey, what’s that from? “What a dump!”

How would I know what . . .

Aw, come on! What’s it from? You know . . .

. . . Martha . . .

WHAT’S IT FROM, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE?


32)
Why is the lamp of wrong always sheltered from the wind?


33)
Should I marry Pratt and strangle her?


34)
And next: “The propositions old and new
Impelling your conclusion: is there aught
Confirms their discourse as divinely true?”

And I: “The proof which led me to this thought
Relies on acts which surely, when assessed,
Cannot be stuff the forge of Nature wrought.”

There followed: “Come: what is there to suggest
These works were real? Corroboration starts
And ends in just the thing we wish to test.”

[*]


35)
But where are the snows of yesteryear?

[*]


36)
“Well, the point is, have you seen a Spotted or Herbaceous Backson in the Forest, at all?”


37)
Time out of mind. Which is a phrase I suspect I may have never properly understood, now that I happen to use it.

Time out of mind meaning mad, or time out of mind meaning simply forgotten?


38)
By their talk to each other they understood that they shared a belief in the brotherhood of the desolate; yet in the scars of their eyes they confirmed that no such fraternity had ever existed, that the only brotherhood they belonged to was the one that asked that enduring question: How do I get through the next twenty minutes?


39)
“Hey, one question. Between friends, are these actual miles?”


40)
What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness in which a few moments picked apparently at random, shine?

41)
“Amazing,” he said. He just whispered it.

“What?”

“This. Fresh eggs. Toast. Coffee. This valley. You, all by yourself. You are all by yourself?”

It was sort of a key question . . .


42)
‘Whose was it?’
‘His who is gone.’
‘Who shall have it?’
‘He who will come.’
‘Where was the sun?’
‘Over the oak.’
‘Where was the shadow?’
‘Under the elm.’
‘How was it stepped?’
‘North by ten and by ten, east by five and by five, south by two and by two, west by one and by one, and so under.’
‘What shall we give for it?’
‘All that is ours.’
‘Why should we give it?’
‘For the sake of the trust.’


43)
I read those miraculous words with an emphasis which did them justice, and then I looked him severely in the face. “Now, sir, do you believe in Robinson Crusoe?” I asked, with a solemnity, suitable to the occasion.


44)
But what has it got in its pocketses, eh?


45)
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?

[*]


46)
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

[*]


47)
What but ruin and disaster could be the end of this grotesque pretension? How could it be hoped that England would ever swallow such a Perkin? And it was on his behalf, to uphold his fantastic claim, that these West Country clods, led by a few armigerous Whigs, had been seduced into rebellion!

“Quo, quo, scelesti, ruitis?”

He laughed and sighed in one . . .


48)
“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”


49)
What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?


50)
“The only thing we can do now,” said Benji, crouching and stroking his whiskers in thought, “is to try and fake a question, invent one that will sound plausible.”
“Difficult,” said Frankie. He thought. “How about What’s yellow and dangerous?”
Benji considered this for a moment.
“No, no good,” he said. “Doesn’t fit the answer.”
They sank into silence for a few seconds.
“Alright,” said Benji. “What do you get if you multiply six by seven?”
“No, no, too literal, too factual,” said Frankie, “wouldn’t sustain the punters’ interest.”
Again they thought.
Then Frankie said: “Here’s a thought. How many roads must a man walk down?”
“Ah,” said Benji. “Aha, now that does sound promising!” He rolled the phrase around a little. “Yes,” he said, “that’s excellent! Sounds very significant without actually tying you down to meaning anything at all.”

51)
“What is he thinking of?” asked Lincoln.

Mira thought for a little. “Well,” he said, “there are only two courses of thought at all seemly to a person of any intelligence. The one is: What am I to do this next moment? — or tonight, or tomorrow? And the other: What did God mean by creating the world, the sea, and the desert, the horse, the winds, woman, amber, fishes, wine?”


52)
CUI BONO? [Latin] What good would that do me?


53)
What is this world of perception besides being my representation? Is that of which I am conscious only as representation just the same as my own body, of which I am doubly conscious, on the one hand as *representation*, on the other as *will*?

[*]


54)
Whom can you show me who values his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who grasps that he is dying daily?

[*]


55)
Then said Ganglere: Whence comes the wind? It is so strong that it moves great seas, and fans fires to flame, and yet, strong as it is, it cannot be seen. Therefore it is wonderfully made.

[*]


56)
“Now, what name was I given? Let me know the worst.”

“Being the eldest son you were naturally christened after your father.”

“Yes, but what was my father’s Christian name?”


57)
What Song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, though puzling Questions, are not beyond all conjecture.


58)
. . . Tell me, my daughters
(Since now we will divest us both of rule,
Interest of territory, cares of state),
Which of you shall we say doth love us most?


59)
“What’s your name? Your Turing code. What is it?”


60)
As he gazed, the great face grew to an awful size, grew larger than the colossal mask of Memnon, which had made him scream as a child. It grew larger and larger, filling the whole sky; then everything went black. Only in the blackness before it entirely destroyed his brain he seemed to hear a distant voice saying a commonplace text that he had heard somewhere, “Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of?”

61)
“What’s it going to be then, eh?”


62)
Nothing irrevocable had yet been spoken, but there was only the barest margin of safety left them; each of them moving delicately along the outskirts of an open question, and, once spoken, such a question — as “Do you love me?” — could never be answered or forgotten.


63)
“Who’s in the next room? — who?
A figure wan
With a message to one in there of something due?
Shall I know him anon?”


64)
Bobby’s voice rose excitedly.

‘You see, you’ve asked the same question that Carstairs asked. Why didn’t they ask the parlourmaid? Why didn’t they ask Evans?’


65)
“How can you contrive to write so even?”


66)
Do you see me then as the too-successful one, like a colossus whose smug thighs rise obliviously out of sorrow? Or as the detestable all-female, who grabs and devours, invulnerable with greed?


67)
“Pray, my dear,” quoth my mother, “have you not forgot to wind up the clock?”


68)
Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?


69)
. . . And thus years amid furniture, objects, that we had both touched, in air that still remembered her breathing? In the name of what? The hope of her return? I had no hope. Yet expectation lived on in me — the last thing she had left behind. What further consummations, mockeries, torments did I still anticipate?

[*]


70)
GOLDBERG: No society would touch you. Not even a building society.

MCCANN: You’re a traitor to the cloth.

GOLDBERG: What do you use for pyjamas?

STANLEY: Nothing.

GOLDBERG: You verminate the sheet of your birth.

MCCANN: What about the Albigensenist heresy?

GOLDBERG: Who watered the wicket in Melbourne?

MCCANN: What about the blessed Oliver Plunkett?

GOLDBERG: Speak up Webber. Why did the chicken cross the road?

71)
A human head atop a horse’s neck! — imagine a painter working so; or spreading variegated plumage over various limbs, all taken from every part of the animal kingdom; or ending a beautiful woman in the tail of an ugly fish . . . Could you, my friends, faced with such a sight, refrain from laughter?

[*]


72)
What is the world, O soldiers?


73)
Quietly: ‘Is it safe?’ he said.


74)
“Which do you pay for more dearly, the lie or the truth?”

[*]


75)
Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?


76)
I was still chilled from the hike across the fields, but, thinking of Jacqueline and Mexico, I got to grinning again. That's the *animal ridens* in me, the laughing creature, forever rising up. What’s so laughable, that a Jacqueline, for instance, as hard used as that by rough forces, will still refuse to lead a disappointed life? Or is the laugh at nature — including eternity — that it thinks it can win over us and the power of hope?


77)
“For who can change the opinion of these people?” as our Divus Imperator says.


78)
. . . . The child observed, in flashes bright,
His friends all put against the wall to die.
He asked the officer: “This watch — may I
Return it to my mother, sir, at home?”

[*]


79)
“Fred and Mary! are you ever coming in? — or may I eat your cake?”


80)
‘Listen,’ he says, ‘do you know anybody in Europe?’

Well, this is a most unexpected question, and naturally I am not going to reply to unexpected questions by guys from Philly without thinking them over very carefully, so to gain time while I think, I say to Kitty Quick:

‘Which Europe do you mean?’

81)
Saladin [...] having an urgent occasion for a good sum of money [...] called to mind a rich Jew, by name Melchizedek [...] and presently concluded to do him a violence coloured by some show of reason.

Accordingly he sent for Melchizedek and receiving him familiarly, seated him by himself, then said to him, ‘Honest man, I have understood from divers persons that thou art a very learned man and deeply versed in matters of divinity; wherefore I would fain know of thee whether of the three Laws thou reputest the true, the Jewish, the Saracen or the Christian.’

[*]


82)
Where’s your tambourine, O bear that just stands there?

[*]


83)
You’re lying to yourself again. You wanted to get rid of them. Their contempt and disgust aren’t pleasant company. You’re glad they’re gone. . . . Then Mother of God, why do I feel so lonely?


84)
How gat ye this sword?


85)
And if the seekers after dark things find them, may not the seekers after bright find them as well? And are they not more apt to hand their wisdom on?


86)
The silences of space decamped, space flitted in every direction —

Where is the Black Beast?


87)
. . . And now he was gone from her sight, from her touch, from her hearing for ever, without even a thought to flash between them for all the dreary years that she should live, and these things of canvas and pigment and wrought metal would stay with her. They were her soul. And what shall it profit a man if he save his soul and slay his heart in torment?


88)
“In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only word that must not be used?”

[*]


89)
Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside,
And naked on the Air of Heaven ride,
Were’t not a Shame — were’t not a Shame for him
In this clay carcase crippled to abide?


90)
But all of a sudden she looked at me, and I felt a chill creep straight up my back and into the roots of my hair. “Do you handle accident insurance?”

81)
Saladin [...] having an urgent occasion for a good sum of money [...] called to mind a rich Jew, by name Melchizedek [...] and presently concluded to do him a violence coloured by some show of reason.

Accordingly he sent for Melchizedek and receiving him familiarly, seated him by himself, then said to him, ‘Honest man, I have understood from divers persons that thou art a very learned man and deeply versed in matters of divinity; wherefore I would fain know of thee whether of the three Laws thou reputest the true, the Jewish, the Saracen or the Christian.’

[*]


82)
Where’s your tambourine, O bear that just stands there?

[*]


83)
You’re lying to yourself again. You wanted to get rid of them. Their contempt and disgust aren’t pleasant company. You’re glad they’re gone. . . . Then Mother of God, why do I feel so lonely?


84)
How gat ye this sword?


85)
And if the seekers after dark things find them, may not the seekers after bright find them as well? And are they not more apt to hand their wisdom on?


86)
The silences of space decamped, space flitted in every direction —

Where is the Black Beast?


87)
. . . And now he was gone from her sight, from her touch, from her hearing for ever, without even a thought to flash between them for all the dreary years that she should live, and these things of canvas and pigment and wrought metal would stay with her. They were her soul. And what shall it profit a man if he save his soul and slay his heart in torment?


88)
“In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only word that must not be used?”

[*]


89)
Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside,
And naked on the Air of Heaven ride,
Were’t not a Shame — were’t not a Shame for him
In this clay carcase crippled to abide?

[*]


90)
But all of a sudden she looked at me, and I felt a chill creep straight up my back and into the roots of my hair. “Do you handle accident insurance?”

91)
“Is love the only thing?” she asked, in low, sweet tones that seemed to bring a calm even to my wrung heart. “If love were the only thing, I would follow you — in rags, if need be — to the world’s end; for you hold my heart in the hollow of your hand! But is love the only thing?”


92)
What have we in common with the rosebud, which trembles because a drop of dew is lying upon it?

[*]


93)
Who could fail to read the sermon in the stones of Newport? Who could think that the building of a railroad could guarantee salvation, when there on the lawns of the men who built the railroad nothing is left but the shadows of migrainous women, and the pony carts waiting for the long-dead children?


94)
Lordings, this question would I aske now,
Which was the moste free, as thinketh you?


95)
How cud any 1 not want to get that shyning Power back from time back way back? How cud any 1 not want to be like them what had boats in the air and picters on the wind? How cud any 1 not want to see them shyning weals terning?


96)
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you — Nobody — Too?


97)
“What! art thou, too, one of them? Thou, my son!”

[*]


98)
The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail, Forever and Ever . . . I know where *I* came from — *but where did all you zombies come from?*


99)
What’s that by your trough, Mr. Pugh?


100)
Some years ago, being with a camping party in the mountains, I returned from a solitary ramble to find everyone engaged in a ferocious metaphysical dispute. The corpus of the dispute was a squirrel — a live squirrel supposed to be clinging to one side of a tree-trunk; while over against the tree’s opposite side a human being was imagined to stand. This human witness tries to get sight of the squirrel by moving rapidly round the tree, but no matter how fast he goes, the squirrel moves as fast in the opposite direction, and always keeps the tree between himself and the man, so that never a glimpse of him is caught. The resultant metaphysical problem now is this: DOES THE MAN GO ROUND THE SQUIRREL OR NOT?

3) Catcher in the Rye
4) Atlas Shrugged, right?
14) T.S. Eliot's Prufrock
20) Moby Dick
26) American Psycho
44) The Hobbit
56) The Importance of Being Earnest
68) Catch-22?
75) Paradise Lost (and epigraph in Frankenstein)
84) Le Morte D'Arthur

>>22704627
And we're off to a fine start.

>3) Catcher in the Rye
>4) Atlas Shrugged, right?
>14) T.S. Eliot's Prufrock
>20) Moby Dick
>26) American Psycho
>44) The Hobbit
>56) The Importance of Being Earnest
>68) Catch-22?
>75) Paradise Lost (and epigraph in Frankenstein)
>84) Le Morte D'Arthur

All correct. Milton is in the author list, Mary Shelley isn't, so it's Paradise Lost for #75, but Frankenstein has to be worth a valuable BONUS PRIZE.

Catch-22 is parodying someone (who is also in there).

#84 was one of the harder ones, I thought. With short nondescript things like this there's always the danger someone will find a legitimate alternative answer (although the Author List makes it less likely, I guess).

>>22704369
46 - Book of Job
>>22704373
58 - King Lear

>>22704945

>46 - Book of Job
Correct. (I had this as one of the 'unknown authors'. Dunno if there are any theories.)

>58 - King Lear
Correct.

Bump.

Number 50) = Douglas Adams. Great idea/game!!

Nice to see you again anon. Apologies for the ones that have been said already.

>>22704361
12 is Saint-Exupéry
15 is Osamu Dazi
18 is, I believe, Robert Burton
20 is Melville
>>22704365
23 is Tolstoy
24 is Orwell
26 is Brett Easton Ellis
27 is P.G. Wodehouse
28 is Aristotle
>>22704369
44 is Tolkien
45 is Montaigne
>>22704373
53 is Schopenhauer
54 is Lucilius
58 is Lear
>>22704376
67 is Sterne
>>22704393
81 is Boccaccio

>>22706236

>Number 50) = Douglas Adams.
Correct, Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. They got the Answer (42) millenia ago but their project to find the Question hits a snag so they decide to just fake one up.

>>22706339

A fine haul. I have a good feeling about this quiz. I think /lit/ is going to reach the summit and proudly plant its flag, if it can agree on a flag. How about a Cute Anime Girl lying asleep on a pile of books?


>12 is Saint-Exupéry
Little Prince. He might have written something else but no-one cares.

>15 is Osamu Dazi
No Longer Human.

>18 is, I believe, Robert Burton
I believe it is too. Anatomy of Melancholy (did he write anything else?) Randomly capitalizing nouns is the path to power.

>20 is Melville
Correct, although (unexpectedly) you're not the first on the scene.

>23 is Tolstoy
It is. How Much Land Does A Man Require? Not that much, it turns out.

>24 is Orwell
Right. You're the first although it's one of the easier ones I would say.

>26 is Brett Easton Ellis
Paul Allen's last words.

>27 is P.G. Wodehouse
Of course, but which one? Maybe another anon can pinpoint the work and you can split the Valuable Prize.

>28 is Aristotle
Nichomachean Ethics

>44 is Tolkien
Right, The Hobbit (although again someone got there first).

>45 is Montaigne
Correct. Anyone know which bit of Montaigne?

>53 is Schopenhauer
Right. The words "Will" and "Representation" are a good clue to the work.

>54 is Lucilius
Well, sort of. Lucilius isn't in the authors list. It's someone writing *to* Lucilius.

>58 is Lear
Correct.

>67 is Sterne
Tristram Shandy, of course.

>81 is Boccaccio
Right. Decameron, third story on the first day. (IIRC the first lot of stories are just a random mixture. Then subsequently they decide on a theme for each day.)

>>22704361
>13)
This is Christopher Marlowe Faust when he sees Helen of Troy.

>>22707234

>13)
>This is Christopher Marlowe Faust when he sees Helen of Troy.
Yes it is.

>>22704369
>48)
Mad Hatter. Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

>>22707259
>48)
>Mad Hatter. Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
Correct. Obviously never meant to have an answer, but so many people asked for one that LC invented one: "Because it produces a lot of notes, although they are very flat. . . " [OK, I guess] ". . . and it is never put with the wrong end in front!" [Huh?]

Sam Lloyd (a famous puzzle composer) came up with a better answer: "Because Poe wrote on both".

Bump. Current progress: 26/100

I tried to mix the tricky and less tricky answers; there are just two blocks now (31-40 & 91-100) without any answers. A few hints for these:

— 32, 33 & 92 are /lit/ meme authors

— 93 & 96 are female authors

— there are two title drops (both short stories from the USA)

>>22708517
96) The dashes make me think Emily Dickinson. Dunno if there's a specific title, though.

>>22708886
>96) The dashes make me think Emily Dickinson.
Yes, it is indeed /lit/'s favourite recluse.

>Dunno if there's a specific title, though
It's usually called "I'm Nobody! Who are you?", but probably ED didn't give it the name. She didn't really believe in titles.

>>22709035
Well now that that anon figured out 96, the that means 93 must be the other female Jane Austen and I will hazard a guess of Pride and Prejudice

>>22704365
>29)
I'll be honest I have only seen the movie but isn't this a scene from A Scanner Darkly by PK Dick?

>>22709051
>the other female
But there are more than two female authors. (Don't tell the other anons, but I think there are actually EIGHT.)

>>22709057
>29)
>isn't this a scene from A Scanner Darkly by PK Dick?
It sure is. Two gears at the front, five at the back. Clearly a seven-speed bike.

>I'll be honest I have only seen the movie
I think it's about the best PKD adaptation (in terms of being faithful to the material).

Bedtime bump.

>>22704373
>59)
It's been ages since I've read Neuromancer but I see William Gibson on the author list and Turing Code screams cyberpunk to me and PKD has already been done.

>>22704369
is 47 Neal Stephenson in Quicksilver? I know that had an important segment about the Monmouth Rebellion

>>22704373
could 60 be The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton?

>>22704381
73: Tolkein?

>>22707179
I'm honestly beginning to think Little Prince is an underrated masterpiece.
>Not that much, it turns out.
Kek
>Paul Allen's last words.
Yeah, I got it from the movie honestly.
>which one?
Sorry, I only really knew it from the name Jeeves.
> Anyone know which bit of Montaigne?
Apology for Raymond Sebond, right?
>Well, sort of. Lucilius isn't in the authors list.
Ohh I just loosely recalled it from Burton quoting him I think. My bad.
>How about a Cute Anime Girl lying asleep on a pile of books?
Let's do it!

>>22709920
>59
>It's been ages since I've read Neuromancer but I see William Gibson on the author list and Turing Code screams cyberpunk to me and PKD has already been done.
Yes, it's Neuromancer. When Case is on the beach with Linda and he meets the young boy who turns out to be the one the book is named after.

>>22709995
>is 47 Neal Stephenson in Quicksilver? I know that had an important segment about the Monmouth Rebellion
Monmouth Rebellion is right. Neal Stephenson isn't in the author list, though.

It's an adventure novel, probably not read much now.

>>22710013
>could 60 be The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton?
It certainly could be. The climax of the book really.

>>22710021
>73: Tolkein?
Fellowship Of The Ring does sound a bit like this, but not quite the same. (When Gandalf goes off to investigate about the ring at the beginning, he says "But keep it secret, and keep it safe!")
#44 is definitely The Hobbit, though, and there are 100 different authors, so it can't be Tolkien.

It's not a particularly well-known book but this line is famous from the film adaptation.

>>22710868
>s not a particularly well-known book but this line is famous from the film adaptation.
Got to be Marathon Man then.

>>22710136

>Sorry, I only really knew it from the name Jeeves.
Yeah they're all the same anyway. It's Code of the Woosters.

>Apology for Raymond Sebond, right?
Right. 12th essay in the second volume. It's quite long so it gets missed out of a lot of "Selected Essays".

>Ohh I just loosely recalled it from Burton quoting him I think. My bad.
The author in question is quoted a lot by both Burton and Montaigne.

>Let's do it!
Up to 30/100 now, although that pesky 31-40 block is holding out like Malta in 1565.

>>22710878
>Got to be Marathon Man then.
Right. William Goldman.

>>22704351

Bump. Things started well but momentum seems to have dropped off. A few hints:

6 & 78 have the same original language.
17 & 92 have the same original language.

9 & 98 authors have the same first name.
10 & 63 authors have the same first name.

Not very useful hints admittedly. Maybe better hints are the answers to some of the questions!

10: He covets.

36: No, because there's no such thing. (Someone just can't spell.)

88: 'Chess', of course.

99: It's a theological work, my dear. [It isn't really.]

Bump.

bumping for the betterment of society

>quotes from the literary classics, foundational texts and profound philosophers
>mfw trying to figure out which is from Winnie the Pooh

>>22714533
>trying to figure out which is from Winnie the Pooh
One of the hints applies to the A. A. Milne question (which might or might not be from WtP).

Bumpity umpity
Over the humpity

>>22715083
>One of the hints
You better not be calling my Pooh man the meme writer hint.

>>22716369
Well some meme writers are good, but no, A A Milne is not a lit meme author.

>>22705172
I remember once reading that Job was written by Moses. I'm not entirely sure this is true but it's plausible, as in the beginning of the book, God says there is not a man like him on earth, which leads to speculation Job's life happened within the years the Israelites were in Egypt and there was no "important" biblical figure

>>22716416
You better not be calling my boy Pooh writer the female authors hint.

Bump.

79 is middlemarch--just finished teaching it today. I'll look at the rest later

>>22718825
>79 is middlemarch
Sure is. The question itself isn't really of any importance in the book, but I thought it being the last line makes up for that.

>31: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf
>34: Is it the Torrance terza rima Dante translation? I remember he uses 'impel' for just about everything...Sayers translation?
>39: Carver. Title is in the quote
>40: Updike, I think. What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness in which a few moments picked apparently at random, shine?
>>22718830
"but why always Dorothea?" gets me every time lel

>>22718871
Good stuff; someone finally breaks the resistance of that mulish 31-40 block.
>31: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf
Correct. Edward Albée. Best known from the film of course.


>34: Is it the Torrance terza rima Dante translation? I remember he uses 'impel' for just about everything...Sayers translation?
It's Dante, yes. Paradiso. Saint Peter questioning Dante on his theology.

>Torrance
>Sayers
It's my translation.


>39: Carver. Title is in the quote
Correct. "Are These Actual Miles?" Really great with the needling overtone.


>40: Updike, I think. What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness in which a few moments picked apparently at random, shine?
Correct. "The Astronomer" (hence the nature of the metaphor). It's a less-well-known story I guess so getting the author is good enough.

>>22718871
Good stuff; someone finally breaks the resistance of that mulish 31-40 block.


>31: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf
Correct. Edward Albée. Best known from the film of course.


>34: Is it the Torrance terza rima Dante translation? I remember he uses 'impel' for just about everything...Sayers translation?
It's Dante, yes. Paradiso. Saint Peter questioning Dante on his theology.

>Torrance
>Sayers
It's my translation.


>39: Carver. Title is in the quote
Correct. "Are These Actual Miles?" Really great with the needling overtone.


>40: Updike, I think. What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness in which a few moments picked apparently at random, shine?
Correct. "The Astronomer" (hence the nature of the metaphor). It's a less-well-known story I guess so getting the author is good enough.

Hey, I have an idea for one of your quizzes, if you don't already have it planned or have made it previously.

Pop culture references but in literature.
The quotes will have a reference, mention, or quote some other book/novel. You will have to guess the novel where this quote is, and as perhaps some added challenge, specifically what piece of writing is the quote alluding to.
What do you think?

>>22719821

>Pop culture references but in literature.

This sounds as if you mean literature making references to pop culture. The trouble with that is that pop culture is all modern, so the books referring to it would have to be even more modern, so you'd be very restricted.

It works better the other way round — i.e. modern popular things making references to old things. I did basically this in two recent quizzes, where I gave lots of random (often modern) texts quoting Shakespeare & the Bible. Both those quizzes were more than half completed. I've also considered a more general version, where people in books quote poetry, and you have to identify both the book and the poetry being quoted.

Another way that texts quote other texts is in epigraphs. I covered that (last year, IIRC) where I gave a hundred epigraphs and people had to say which books they were used for. I didn't give the list of authors at the start, though, which made it much too hard. I might recycle it with the author list.

The most useful intersection of literature and popular culture has to be cinema. I did one quiz a few months back where I gave extracts from a bunch of books (often quite obscure ones) which are much better known as films. It was possible to have a good range of difficulty because books get changed for films. It wasn't close to being completed though. (I gave the authors and directors at the beginning.)

>>22720057
I meant is as books making the equivalent of pop culture references of their times. Your Bible and Shakespeare tests come to mind, but i meant about other classical works in general. It could be allusions, books quoting other books, namedropping other writers or books, or similar stuff.
I sai pop culture since it would be the equivalent of saying "wow this is just like The Godfather" but talking in terms of books instead of movies. Perhaps now I have made myself clearer

>>22720145
Yes this would be possible but the references have to be to well-known things. If it's contemporary in-jokes no-one's going to pick up on them. If you look at e.g. a companion to Ulysses you see he's referring to all sorts of popular songs of the period, etc, which just aren't widely known any more.

just finished the exact book this morning and somehow only that part caught my eye when opening the thread. was a refreshing quick read with unique prose to say the least
30 - the big sleep

>>22720377
>30 - the big sleep
Correct. The names help but the tone is quite distinctive too.

>>22720321
I like the occasional quizzes when you deviate from quotes like that chapter title quiz one.