WELD / CO Lit 2012: Beauty is Tlooth, Tlooth beauty
Packet 01
1. In one story in this collection, a man is pursued by a snake-demon who disguises herself as a beautiful
woman. The protagonist of one story in this collection is prevented from fulfilling his vow to return to his
friend on an appointed date, so he commits suicide so that his ghost can fulfill the vow. It also contains a story
about a businessman who returns from a long separation from his wife to find his wife waiting, only to wake
up the next morning and discover that she has been dead for years. In addition to “A Serpent’s Lust,” “The
Chrysanthemum Vow,” and “The Reed-Choked House,” it contains a story about a painter named Kogi who dreams
that he is a carp and subsequently releases all the carp he had painted into the wild. For 10 points, name this
collection of adaptations of Chinese stories of the supernatural by Ueda Akinari.
ANSWER: Tales of Moonlight and Rain [or Ugetsu monogatari]
2. One of his poems notes that a male bear might turn back if a peasant shouts at him, but a female bear will
simply “rend the peasant tooth and nail.” He wrote a poem beginning “The ships destroy us above and
ensnare us beneath” for a booklet about naval warfare which contained six essays, each prefaced by a poem,
some of which were set to music by Elgar as The Fringes of the Fleet. He wrote a poem recounting how he was
struck by the beauty of a Burmese girl while sitting by a pagoda in Moulmein. This author of “Mandalay” wrote a
ballad framed as a conversation between Colour-Sergeant and Files-on-Parade. He also wrote a poem whose first
four stanzas end with the refrain “Lest we forget – lest we forget!” That poem, which was written for Queen
Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, is called “Recessional.” For 10 points, name this poet of “Gunga Din” and “If.”
ANSWER: Rudyard Kipling
3. This play ends with the chilling stage direction “Darkness takes them all.” Failed relationships in this play
are attributed to the fact that we are all “separate people” by some of the major characters. The description
of this play’s setting notes that “people appear and disappear instantaneously … but it is not necessary that
they walk off the stage.” This is because the setting, which contains a single chair underneath the tower of a
concentration camp, is inside the mind of the main character, who often addresses the Listener. In this play, Lou
commits suicide after Mickey testifies against him. The protagonist constantly argues with his first wife, Louise, and
is conflicted about marrying his new love Holga, especially given the failure of his marriage to Maggie. For 10
points, name this play based on the playwright’s marriage to Marilyn Monroe, in which Quentin stands in for Arthur
Miller.
ANSWER: After the Fall
4. This author wrote about a man whose four controversial books on the topic of racial miscegenation attract
the attention of the distinguished American scientist James Levenson in one novel, which is named for the
establishment where Lídio works as a painter. In addition to that novel about Pedro Archanjo, he wrote a
novella whose title character’s friends throw a party for him at sea after he dies, only to have his corpse
thrown overboard in a storm. This author of Tent of Miracles and The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell wrote a
novel subtitled “The Return of the Prodigal Daughter” whose title character returns to the village of Agreste. He
wrote about the conflict between Mundinho and the Bastos in one novel, which also features a romance between
Nacib Saad and the title character in Ilhéus. For 10 points, name this Brazilian novelist of Tieta, the Goat Girl and
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon.
ANSWER: Jorge Amado
5. One figure in this poem says that “you’ll rise then in smoke to the sky” and “have a grave in the clouds”
where “you won’t lie too cramped.” That figure “orders us strike up and play for the dance” while swinging a
rod and commanding people to “jab your spades deeper.” This poem repeats the image of the golden hair of
one woman and the ashen hair of another. In this poem, Death is described as a blue-eyed figure who shoots you
“with shot made of lead” and “level and true,” and an oft-quoted phrase from this poem says that “Death is a Master
from Germany.” The collective speaker of this poem repeatedly describes drinking the “black milk of daybreak” at
different times of the day. For 10 points, name this most famous poem by Paul Celan.
ANSWER: “Death Fugue” [or “Fugue of Death”; or “Todesfuge”]
6. The protagonist of this novel goes to a party which is also attended by someone who he refers to as the
“queer-looking duck.” At the end of one chapter, the protagonist of this novel repeatedly exclaims “Riffraff!”
in anger. One character remarks that gossip is harmless until someone tries to deny it after the protagonist
tries to clear his mother’s name by talking to Mrs. Johnson. Automobiles are derogatorily referred to as “sewing
machines” in this novel, and they are manufactured by the father of a woman who is “almost engaged” to the
protagonist, Lucy. In this novel, Isabel’s relationship with that car manufacturer, Eugene Morgan, is ruined by her
son, the spoiled George Minafer, whose aristocratic status is eclipsed by the rise of new-money families. For 10
points, name this novel about the decline of the title family by Booth Tarkington.
ANSWER: The Magnificent Ambersons
7. This character runs away because she believes that she has accidentally scalped her employer, when in
reality she has just pulled off her wig. Her time in the Calle República is ended by an event known as the
Revolt of the Whores. This character’s godmother gives birth to a two-headed baby, but panics and throws it
down a garbage chute. She refers to porcelain as the Universal Matter, and uses it to make a fake grenade to
assist the guerrillas in breaking some prisoners out of Santa María, an event which she writes into an episode of a
telenovela. She is conceived after a gardener nearly dies of a snakebite and Consuelo comforts him by having sex
with him. For a time she lives with the Turkish shop owner Riad Halabí, and through Huberto Naranjo she meets her
eventual lover Rolf Carlé. For 10 points, name this Scheherazade-like title character of an Isabel Allende novel.
ANSWER: Eva Luna [accept either name]
8. One character realizes this character’s true identity when he claims that he has unexpectedly been called to
the North on business at five o’clock in the morning. This character rescues Juliette Marny and Paul
Déroulède in a sequel called I Will Repay, and other sequels to the first novel in which he appears include
Eldorado and one in which he “leads the band.” He becomes estranged from his wife because she denounces
the Marquis de St. Cyr, but in the end he is reconciled with that wife, Marguerite St. Just. This character’s followers
include Antony Dewhurst and Andrew Ffoulkes. His real name is Sir Percy Blakeney, he is pursued by Chauvelin,
and his symbol is a red flower. For 10 points, name this creation of Baroness Orczy, a mysterious hero who saves
aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution.
ANSWER: the Scarlet Pimpernel [accept Sir Percy Blakeney early]
9. One character in this novel is an author who declares “Literature is a sort of picture, a sort of picture or
mirror.” In a memorable scene in this novel, a man runs after a hearse in the rain as books fall out of his
overflowing pockets into the mud. The dying wish of one character in this novel is to see the sun, but he is
disappointed to find that it is grey and dreary outside. The main female character of this novel buys a copy of
the complete works of Pushkin for that character, and sends a copy of “The Overcoat” to another character.
Ultimately, she marries Bykov, leaving behind the character who has professed his love for her throughout the
novel. This epistolary novel is made up of the letters of Makar and Barbara, cousins who complain to each other
about their living conditions. For 10 points, name this Dostoevsky novel about some destitute people.
ANSWER: Poor Folk [or Bednye Lyudi]
10. This author wrote that “to live is to be uncertain” and “certainty comes at the end” in the poem “You Are
There.” Her non-fiction works include a biography of Henry Miller called The Devil at Large and a book
about witches illustrated by Joseph A. Smith. The protagonist of her most popular novel is also the
protagonist of two follow-up novels, Parachutes & Kisses and How to Save Your Own Life. Her memoir, subtitled
“Writing for My Life,” describes her determination not to join Plath, Woolf, and other female writers who chased
death, and is called Seducing the Demon. Her most popular novel is about Isadora Wing’s affair with a
psychoanalyst in Vienna, and introduced the term “zipless fuck.” For 10 points, name this author of Fear of Flying.
ANSWER: Erica Jong
11. In the first stanza of this poem, the poet rhymes “words” with “words,” which is the only instance in this
poem of a word being rhymed with itself. The subject of this poem is also featured in the final stanza of
another poem by the same author, in which one figure who appears in this poem “summoned Cuchulain to
his side”; that poem is called “The Statues.” This poem, which describes a man who “rode our winged horse,”
claims that “Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart” and asks “Was it needless death after all?” The
central figures of this poem are “changed, changed utterly,” and include MacDonagh, MacBride, Connolly and
Pearse. It begins “I have met them at close of day,” and three of its four stanzas end with the refrain “A terrible
beauty is born.” For 10 points, name this poem about an Irish uprising by W. B. Yeats.
ANSWER: “Easter, 1916”
12. This pseudonym was used for a collection of 144 essays whose ideals influenced the American Revolution,
published in the 1720s by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. An author of this name wrote a collection of
couplets which was a popular Latin textbook in the Middle Ages, known as his namesake “distichs.” In a play
of this name, the sons of the title character are in love with Lucia, and Juba is in love with the title character’s
daughter, Marcia. That tragedy, whose prologue was written by Alexander Pope, is the most famous work of
Joseph Addison. A statesman of this name wrote a historical work called the Origines and the oldest surviving Latin
prose work, De Agri Cultura. For 10 points, give this name shared by two Roman statesmen, the elder of whom
liked to call for the destruction of Carthage and the younger of whom was an opponent of Caesar.
ANSWER: Cato
13. This character shares his name with a king who commiserates with Giocondo about the faithlessness of
women after seeing his wife having sex with a dwarf. He is abandoned by Guidone and Aleria on an island
run entirely by women. This character kills Orillo after cutting off the hair that made him immortal. He is
turned into a myrtle plant by the sorceress Alcina. He defeats the giant Caligorante by making him fall into his
own trap, using the same magical horn he uses to save Prester John from the harpies. His other possessions include a
lance which can unhorse his opponents with a single touch, and a flying horse named Rabicano. Saint John tells this
character to use Elijah’s chariot to travel to the moon, where he finds a bottle containing the lost wits of another
character. For 10 points, name this knight from Orlando Furioso.
ANSWER: Astolfo
14. This character briefly has a job interviewing destitutes to find out if they deserve to be given welfare
money. He has an epiphany about his fear of people while reading The Count of Monte Cristo, and he also
reads Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Samuel Smiles. He tries to take legal action against Mungroo, who
owes him money, but ends up in debt to Mungroo. Nicknamed “the paddler” because he likes to paddle his
own canoe, he is inspired by a headline beginning “Amazing scenes were witnessed” to become a journalist, and
gets a job at the Sentinel. Born with six fingers and an unlucky sneeze, he causes his father to drown when he hides
under a bed to avoid being punished for losing a calf. He lives at Shorthills, The Case, Green Vale and Hanuman
House after unintentionally marrying into the Tulsi family. For 10 points, name this man who eventually comes to
own a house in a novel by V. S. Naipaul.
ANSWER: Mr. Mohun Biswas [accept either name]
15. The last lines spoken in this play begin, “Our drooping country now erects her head, peace spreads her
balmy wings, and plenty blooms.” This play ends with an epilogue spoken by the actress who plays the main
female character, which ends by stating “If you like nothing you have seen today, the play your judgment
damns, not you the play.” The first actor to perform this play’s title character was Thomas Betterton. It was
part of the standard theatrical repertoire until 1838, when William Charles Macready reverted it to a shortened
version of the play on which it was based, fifteen years after Edmund Kean restored the tragic ending. For 10 points,
name this play by Nahum Tate which, unlike the play it was based on, gets rid of the Fool and ends with the title
character regaining his throne and Edgar marrying Cordelia.
ANSWER: The History of King Lear [before Tate is mentioned, accept “Nahum Tate’s adaptation of King Lear”
and prompt on King Lear]
16. One poem by this man says “I can pray all day & God wont come. But if I call 911 the Devil be here in a
minute!” He also wrote a poem which begins, “Lately, I’ve become accustomed to the way the ground opens
up and envelopes me each time I go out to walk the dog.” In one work by this man, a girl says “You look like
death eating a soda cracker.” He wrote a five-part poem chronicling the history of Africans in America,
written in the voice of an African griot. The title of his that poem, Wise, Why’s, Y’s, is reminiscent of the title of
his essay collection Raise Race Rays Raze. This author of Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note blamed Israel
for 9/11 in the poem “Somebody Blew Up America.” His most famous work takes place on a subway, where the
epithet “Uncle Thomas Woolly-Head” incites Clay to grab the arm of Lula, who ultimately stabs him. For 10 points,
name this author of Dutchman.
ANSWER: Amiri Baraka [or LeRoi Jones]
17. In a letter to this novel’s author, John Updike praised its ending, saying that it is an ending that “few
Western novelists would have contrived.” Characters in this novel include the doctor Mary Savage and
Clarke, who frees the protagonist. One character hides a sacred python in a box instead of killing it as he was
supposed to. Another character in this novel dies while performing the role of a night spirit named
Ogbazulobodo. Those characters are two of the protagonist’s four sons, who are named Nwafo, Edogo, Oduche, and
Obika. A conflict in this novel between Nwaka and the protagonist ends when a colonial overseer breaks all the guns
in the warring regions. The protagonist of this novel is imprisoned for refusing to serve under T. K. Winterbottom,
and when he is released, he refuses to call the feast of the yam harvest in Umuaro. For 10 points, name this novel
about the priest Ezeulu by Chinua Achebe.
ANSWER: Arrow of God
18. The last sentence of this novel is “For the first time they had done something out of love,” referring to a
group of townspeople who dismember a man and eat him. The main character of this novel dreams that he is
in a purple salon in a purple castle and wakes up to find that he is in a cave, where he lives for seven years. In
this novel, the marquis de La Taillade-Espinasse theorizes that the Earth gives off a substance called the
fluidum letale, which saps people’s vitality. The main character of this novel works for the tanner Grimal before
apprenticing himself to Baldini, who tries to discover the secret of Pélissier’s Amor and Psyche. Near the end,
Monsieur Papon prepares to execute the main character, but is unable to because he, along with all of the spectators,
is entranced by the smell of that main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. For 10 points, name this novel by Patrick
Süskind about a man who murders women for their scent.
ANSWER: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [or Das Parfum]
19. This play was defended in a pamphlet written by Philippe de la Croix called La Guerre Comique, as well
as being defended by Boileau. The author of this play himself responded to criticism of it by writing a
dialogue in which Uranie, Elise and Dorante defend it against the critiques of Climène and Lysidas. In one
scene, the main character has a conversation with a notary despite not realizing that the notary is there.
Chrysalde acts as a counterpoint to the main character of this play, whose romantic rival is Oronte’s son Horace.
Confusion arises over the fact that the main character is also called Monsieur de la Souche, and at the end of this
play, it is revealed that his love interest is Enrique’s daughter. The plot of this play revolves around Arnolphe’s plan
to marry his ward Agnès and make sure she is too ignorant to cheat on him. For 10 points, name this play by
Molière.
ANSWER: The School for Wives [or L’école des femmes]
20. This collection includes a story in which a doorkeeper blames mites for her inability to sleep, and is kicked
out of the building where she works because the tenants suspect her of colluding with some robbers. In
another story in this collection, Twinkle finds Christian paraphernalia hidden around her house, but her
husband refuses to let her display it. Another story in this collection deals with a couple who tell secrets to
each other in the dark when the power is out. In addition to “A Real Durwan” and “This Blessed House,” this
collection includes a story in which Miranda’s guilt about her affair with a married man is exacerbated when Rohin
defines the title word as “loving someone you don’t know.” This collection contains the stories “A Temporary
Matter” and “Sexy” as well as the title story, whose title character works as a translator in a doctor’s office. For 10
points, name this work by Jhumpa Lahiri.
ANSWER: Interpreter of Maladies
TB. The title of one of this author’s novels plays on the title of a Peter Viertel novel on a similar subject; that
novel fictionalizes his trip to Ireland to collaborate with John Huston on a Moby-Dick screenplay. He wrote a
hard-boiled mystery novel about an unnamed writer who investigates a series of murders in Venice,
California along with the detective Elmo Crumley. This author of Green Shadows, White Whale and Death Is a
Lonely Business wrote about William Halloway and Jim Nightshade, who get involved with a “Pandemonium
Shadow Show” run by Mr. Dark, who is covered in tattoos, much like the title character of one of this author’s short
story collections. He also wrote a nostalgic novel narrating Douglas Spaulding’s summer. For 10 points, name this
author of Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man and Dandelion Wine.
ANSWER: Ray Bradbury