2. Question 1.
• ’X’ or ‘The Woman’ was born in New Jersey in the 1850s.
She followed a career in opera as a contralto, performing
at La Scala in Milan, Italy, and a term as prima donna in the
Imperial Opera of Warsaw. It was there that she became
the lover of Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von
Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and King of
Bohemia, who was staying in Warsaw for a period. The King
describes her as "a well-known adventuress" (a term widely
used at the time in ambiguous association with “courtesan”
)and also says that she had "the face of the most beautiful
of women and the mind of the most resolute of men". The
King eventually returned to his court in Prague. ‘X’, then in
her late twenties, retired from the opera stage and moved
to London. Who is ‘X’ ?
4. Question 2.
• Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was an Engish
writer, Mathematician, logician and
photographer. His famous works contain
examples of the genre of ‘literary nonsense’.
How is he popularly known?
5. Answer 2.
• Lewis Carroll- author of Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
7. Answer 3.
• James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, are
both creations of author Ian Fleming.
8. Question 4.
• Bellyfeel
• Ungood
• Unperson
• Crimethink
• Duckspeak
• Ownlife
• Thoughtcrime
• Ingsoc
These are words from a fictional language created by ‘X’ for
his1949 dystopian novel strongly influenced by
contemporary political developments. Name X and the
language.
9. Answer 4.
X- George Orwell
Language is Newspeak created for his book
Nineteen Eighty Four.
10. Question 5.
• The case of Ed Gien of Wisconsin influenced
two popular fictional killers. Ed Gien lived with
his domineering mother and was charged for
the murder of two women in the 1950s. He
was also known to have exhumed the bodies
of various women and made trophies and
keepsakes from their skin and bones. Name
the two fictional killers he inspired.
12. Question 6.
• Kautilya, author of Arthshastra has often been
referred to as the Indian X. This comparison
springs from their matching political
pragmatism and their encouragement of
harshness in a leader. Give X.
14. Question 7.
“Then the worst thing happened, that big, dark, hunky boy, the
only one there huge enough for me, who had been hunching
around over women, and whose name I had asked the minute
I had come into the room, but no one told me, came over and
was looking hard in my eyes and it was X ... And then it came
to the fact that I was all there, wasn't I, and I stamped and
screamed yes ... and I was stamping and he was stamping on
the floor, and then he kissed me bang smash on the mouth
and ripped my hair band off, my lovely red hairband scarf
which had weathered the sun and much love, and whose like I
shall never again find, and my favorite silver earrings: hah, I
shall keep, he barked. And when he kissed my neck I bit him
long and hard on the cheek, and when we came out of the
room, blood was running down his face.”
Id the speaker and X.
17. Answer 7.
• The title for the book ‘Things Fall Apart’ was
taken from a line in the poem ‘The Second
Coming’ by W.B. Yeats.
• “Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”
19. Answer 8.
• Truman Capote’s name has been blanked out.
• Many believe that Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a
Mockingbird’ was actually written by Truman
Capote. These tweets followed the
announcement that Harper Lee was finally
publishing a new book.
20. Question 9.
• 10:04 – Ben Lerner
• All My Puny Sorrows – Miriam Toews
• Department of Speculation – Jenny Offill
• Dust – Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
• Family Life – Akhil Sharma
• How to Be Both – Ali Smith
• Nora Webster – Colm Toibin
• Outline – Rachel Cusk
Connect
22. Question 10.
• “The parameters: English language novels
published anywhere in the world since 1923.....
• ... Lev Grossman and I each began by drawing up
inventories of our nominees. Once we traded
notes, it turned out that more than 80 of our
separately chosen titles matched. We decided
then that we would more or less divide the
remaining slots between us. That would allow
each of us to include books that the other might
not have chosen....
23. Answer 10.
• The making of the TIME Magazine All-Time
100 Novels List.
24. Question 11.
• In The Boy Next Door, Jennifer Lopez stars as a high school
classics teacher who becomes involved with her younger
neighbor, a student.
• In one scene, he gives her a “first edition” copy of an epic
which he supposedly found at a garage sale.
• Sadly for the film’s fans, this particular epic, was composed
around 700BC, long before the invention of the printing
press in 1440. The oldest complete text is from the end of
the 10th century, the Venetus A manuscript, with the work
not widely disseminated in English until George Chapman’s
17th-century translation, immortalised by John Keats’s
poem.
• Id this piece of writing.
26. Question 12.
• “There is more than one way to burn a book.
And the World is full of people running about
with lit matches”
• This is what the author X had to say about
censorship and banned books.
• Id. X
28. Question 13.
• “Perumal Murugan, the writer is dead. He will
not resurrect as he is not God. He also has no
faith in rebirth. He will live as an ordinary
teacher, P Murugan,”
• This was posted by Tamil author Perumal
Murugan on his Facebook page sometime in
January. Give funda.
29. Answer 13.
• This ‘obituary’ was posted by Murugan after
he was forced to pull down his book
Mathorubhagan following protests by fringe
Hindu groups.
30. Question 14.
• 1973- The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell
• 1974- The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer
• ____ - X – Y
• 1988 - Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carrey
• 1995 – The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
• 1999 – Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee
32. Question 15.
One afternoon in August 1937, X strode into the New
York office of a Scribner’s editor and slapped a book
across Max Eastman’s face. He then “bared his chest to
Mr. Eastman and asked him to look at the hair and say
whether it was false,” Next, he “persuaded Mr.
Eastman to bare his chest and commented on its
comparatively hairless condition.” The cause of the
literary tussle? X was simply very pissed off about a
manhood-challenging review that Eastman had written
for The New Republic four years earlier. Eastman
repeatedly jabbed at X, saying that his literary style is
the equivalent “of wearing false hair on the chest.”
Id X
34. Question 16.
• X takes its title from 17th century Haiku poet
Matsuo Basho's famous Haibun, Oku no
Hosomichi, best known in English as X, the
novel is epic in form and chronicles an
Australian century, with one horrific day at its
heart on the Burma railway in August 1943.
As that day builds to its climax, the novel
grows to encompass the post war lives of
Japanese and Korean prison guards as well as
Australian far East prisoners of war.
38. Question 18.
• In the Marvel comics, she is Loki’s mother. Her
name has an uncanny resemblance to a
prominent figure in Hindu Mythology. In
Norse Mythology however, the genders of
Loki’s parents is actually reversed, X actually
being the name of Loki’s father.
41. Question 19.
• X was an American author of novels and short
stories, whose works are the paradigmatic
writings of the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as
one of the greatest American writers of the 20th
century. X is considered a member of the "Lost
Generation" of the 1920s. X was also the first
cousin of Mary Surratt, hanged in 1865 for
conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. In The
last years of X he had an affair with Sheilah
Graham, the Hollywood gossip columnist, which
became the theme of the movie Beloved Infidel.
45. Question 21.
• Piloting gave him his pen name, X, from, the
leadsman's cry for a measured river depth of ___
fathoms, which was safe water for a steamboat. Hence
we got one of the most recognisable names in English
literature
• X also patented three inventions, including an
"Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for
Garments" (to replace suspenders) and a history trivia
game.[ Most commercially successful was a self-pasting
scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages needed only
to be moistened before use.
49. Question 23.
In 1908 X wrote, and Y read, A Letter to a
Hindu, which outlines the notion that only by
using love as a weapon through passive
resistance could the native people overthrow
the colonial Empire. Y wrote to X seeking
advice and permission to republish A Letter to
a Hindu in his native language, ______. X
responded and the two continued a
correspondence until X's death.
51. Question 24.
• “I don’t know Urdu, but have a knowledge of
detective novels of the sub-continent. There is
only one original writer – X.”
- Agatha Christie
• Id X
53. Question 25.
X were a tribe of 3,000 amiable black pygmies who have
been imported by Mr. _______ from 'the very deepest and
darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had
been before.' Mr._______ keeps them in the factory, where
they have replaced the sacked white workers. ________’s
little slaves are delighted with their new circumstances, and
particularly with their diet of chocolate. Before they lived
on green caterpillars, beetles, eucalyptus leaves, and the
bark of the bong–bong tree."
This depiction of X by Y landed him in trouble. Y was
accused of racism . Y ultimately offered an apology and
change the depiction of X to their present state. Give X and
Y.
55. Question 26.
• The X is a collection of largely Scientific
writings by Y. The X is named after Thomas
Coke, later created Earl of __________, who
purchased it in 1719. Of Y’s 30 scientific
journals, the X may be the most famous of all.
• Id X and Y
56. Answer 26.
• X – The Codex Leicester
• Y – Leonardo da Vinci
59. Question 28.
During The Emergency, Jayaprakash Narayan had
attracted a gathering of one lakh people at
the Ramlila grounds and recited X's famous poem
. The present Prime Minister of India, Narendra
Modi wrote a message appreciating the
translation of Rashmirathi into English by the
Mauritian cultural activist Leela Gujadhur Sarup.
In 2008, as a mark of respect for him, his portrait
was unveiled in the Central Hall of Parliament of
India by the then Prime Minister of India, Dr.
Manmohan Singh on his centenary.
61. Question 29.
• An English librarian named Abel Joshua X established X after
allegedly arriving in India as a British stowaway. X is India's oldest
bookstore in existence which was renamed X from Wesleyan book
shop in 1844.In March 1859, in a letter to Lord Macaulay, Lord
Trevelyan, the Governor of Madras wrote:
• “Among the many elusive and indescribable charms of life in
Madras City, is the existence of my favourite book shop 'X' on
Mount Road. In this bookshop I can see beautiful editions of the
works of Socrates, Plato, Euripides, Aristophanes, Pindar, Horace,
Petrarch, Tasso, Camoyens, Calderon and Racine. I can get the latest
editions of Victor Hugo, the great French novelist. Amongst the
German writers, I can have Schiller and Goethe. Altogether a
delightful place for the casual browser and a serious book lover.”
63. Question 30.
Most nursery rhymes are known to have dark
origins. This rhyme dates back to 16th Century
Britain when persecution of Catholics by the
zealous protestants was common, forcing
them to say their prayers in secret ‘priest
holes’. This rhyme served to teach a lesson to
those who didn’t say their prayers ‘right’.
64. Answer 30.
Goosey Goosey Gander
• Goosey Goosey Gander where shall I wander,
Upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his
prayers,
I took him by the left leg and threw him down
the stairs.
