KQA Pilferages 2014

PILFERAGES 2014
Our Books, Their Books
A Quiz on Popular Fiction by
VENKATESH SRINIVASAN and
VIVEK KARTHIKEYAN

THIS QUIZ IS ABOUT
 James Joyce Hadley Chase
 Sidney Poitier Sheldon
 John Steinbeck Grisham
 Harold Pinter Robbins
……….

SOME GROUND RULES
 40 questions, all-written, for Teams of 2
 *-marked questions to resolve ties
 No negatives, please take guesses
 All parts carry one point each, a total of 54 points to be made
 Prizes for the Top 3 teams

1.
Ari Hiltunen is an author who has written a book that
analyses what the great philosopher Aristotle was trying
to say about the nature of drama and storytelling.
According to one of his observations, “Aristotle's concept
of fear can best be understood by the word _______. The
audience are aware of threatening danger and would like to
warn the character but of course cannot do so.”
Fill in the blank with a word that is relevant to
this quiz.

2. Connect with an author’s name.

Ken Follett
- Torus
- The Man from St.. Petersburg
- Hammer of Eden
- Hornet Flight

3. Identify the lady character from these three
different depictions.

4. Originally published in 1993, this set of books can be
considered India’s first English crime fiction output.
Identify the author, who has gone on to make a name
for himself as a prolific writer in another genre, and as a
TV series writer.

*5. Identify the name of
this magazine. Published
continuously from 1924 to
1995, it featured real-life crime
and criminals. It also published
work by authors like Dashiel
Hammett. This two-word
name has become familiar the
world-over because of an
unrelated hunt for a serial killer
in Louisiana.

6. Fill in the blanks in the last line of this book.

Alexander Mcall Smith
- Author of #1 Ladies Detective Agency
- Author of a new version of Emma

8. Who is credited as
the author in this
re-imagination of his
1975 ‘work’?

Robert A Zimmerman (0.5 for Bob Dylan)

9. This book reached the
highest position for a debut
author in the US bestseller
list, since JK Rowling. The
essential plot element is the
alliterative condition suffered
by the protagonist, Christine
Lucas, similar to the
condition suffered by a
couple of Sanjays in
Tamil/Hindi cinema. What?

*10. Which book is being reviewed?
Forget the movie, forget handsome sexy Burt Lancaster and beauteous
Deborah Kerr canoodling on the sand, forget another awful acting
performance by ham-actor Frank Sinatra, forget the over-melodramatization
by director Fred Zinnemann, this book is full of
violence, boredom, drunkenness, suicide, gambling, whoring, existential
crises, self-loathing, ugliness, and degradation in Hawai’i in the months
leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. And it’s long, 850 pages of the
stuff, with an unrelenting style of malleable words in its narrative and
dialogue. Reminded me a bit of Celine, unmitigated pressure, a cross
between hell and purgatory set against the backdrop of paradise in the
Hawaiian Islands. If Jones didn’t have Dante in mind when he wrote this,
I’d be surprised.

11. Piranha to Scurfy is the title of this collection of short
stories by this famous British crime writer, published in
2000. It is named after the first story in this collection, in
which the protagonist is obsessed with finding factual
mistakes in published books, and uses a number of
reference books for the same. He also has a dominating
mother, who in a fit of rage he kills using something he
finds on his study table.
Who is the author? What does the story title
refer to?

Ruth Rendell
Volume of the Encyclopædia Britannica

12. This is a 1983 film
adaptation of a novel of the
same name by which
author?
The same novel was adapted
into a Hindi film that year.
Which film?

13. This is the first version of
the book and was self-published
by the author. After
Westland acquired the rights
to this and published it, what
change happened, which is
reflected in the newer
version of the book and the
author’s subsequent books?

Ashwin Sanghi reverted to his original name

14. This is a 2013 film adaptation of the first book of
which bestselling series (of 6 books)? Also, name the
author.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

*15. Identify the speaker and the character being
discussed.

Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling
Cormoran Strike

16. The protagonist of this book cranks
out “penny dreadful” prose, first in the
form of a weekly newspaper serial called
“The Mysteries of _____” — his
hometown — and later, under the
pseudonym Ignatius B. Samson, in a
monthly series of books entitled “City of
the Damned,”. Published in Spanish and
translated into English, the book follows a
bestseller by the same author set in the
same city, and is also centred around a
book obtained from the “Cemetery of
Forgotten Books”. Name the first book
and the city the two books are set
in.

The Shadow of the Wind
Barcelona

17. Which author (writing
under a pseudonym)? Which
author’s work is he reviving?
The opening lines are, "It was one
of those summer Tuesday
afternoons when you begin to
wonder if the earth has stopped
revolving. The telephone on my
desk had the look of something
that knows it's being watched.
Traffic trickled by in the street
below, and there were a few
pedestrians, too, men in hats going
nowhere."

John Banville
Raymond Chandler

18. VardiWaala Gunda starts with the corrupt activities of Inspector
Deshraaj at Prataapgarh (a fictitious police station in a Southern
state of India) where a foreign militant organization - Star Force has
set terror for years. The militants get financial aid and arms (and of
course, instructions) from their orgn. active in a neighbouring
country - Sri Ganga. Star Force is planning to assassinate a popular
leader - Chiranjeev Kumar upon whose instigation, the Indian
armed forces had been sent to Sri Ganga to crush Star Force.
How Chiranjeev Kumar is assassinated despite all his security
arrangements, how Tejasvi himself becomes the next chief minister
of the state, how he eradicates Star Force himself as well as reveals
the true identity of Black Star and finally how himself gets killed
afterwards, forms the remaining part of the novel.
This is the synopsis of one of India’s best-selling pulp works, 1.5 Mn
copies, in 1992. Who is the author and what is the book
based on?

Ved Prakash Sharma
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE

19. A graphic novel that was released to promote a 2012
film, which was itself using the title of a 1977 film.
Name the film / the protagonist of this novel.

*20. Apparently considered by
Agatha Christie as the
sub-continent’s only original
detective fiction writer, he
wrote under the pen name that
means “son of the righteous”.
He has a 120-book work titled
the Imran Series about Ali Imran,
the secret chief of the Secret
Service and another 125-book
series called Jasoosi Duniya,
which he wrote from 1952 to
1979. Identify the author.

Ibn-e-Safi (whose real name was Asrar Ahmed)

21.
In anatomy it is a small tubular gland, pit, or recess. Its
other meaning of an underground room or vault beneath
a church, used as a chapel or burial place, comes from the
old Greek and Latin words for ‘hidden’.
What is this term that is typically seen in horror
anthologies?

Crypt, from the Greek kryptos
As in the1950s EC Comics series

22.
His varied journalistic assignments as a crime reporter
inspired the Just Men series, and foreign correspondent
assignments to places like the Belgian Congo
triggered Sanders of the River.
His novel, The Gaunt Stranger, was turned into a stage play
by Sir Gerald who was the son of French novelist, artist
and Punch illustrator Sir George—father of an equally
accomplished Dame.
Who is the writer, and which is the other famous
family? (1 + 1)

Edgar Wallace
The du Mauriers

23.
Writing under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross, they
created a fictional detective—a retired Shakespearian
actor who left the theatre because he lost his sense of
hearing.
This character’s name is also the name of a West End
theatre site, possibly the oldest theatre site in the
London still in use.
For a point each, tell us who are Barnaby Ross
and what’s the name of the detective?

24.
His is one of the first names
that come to mind when
thinking of pulpy novels, but
his earlier ones were
masterpieces. They include a
heart-breaking 1951 story
about the coming-of-age and
misspent youth of a Jewish
kid. This movie is based on
the book.
Name the author and the
book. (1 + 1)

*25.
In this, his first appearance
back in 1925, he solves a
murder mystery in his own
Honolulu. He doesn’t speak
his first words until page 82,
and they are typically
ungrammatical: “No knife are
present in neighbourhood of
crime.”
Who?

26.
C.W. Grafton, better known as Sue Grafton’s dad,
embarked on one of detective fiction's most original
title patterns with the critically acclaimed The Rat Began
to Gnaw the Rope followed by The Rope Began to Hang
the Butcher, a ten-volume series about a Kentucky
Lawyer Gil Henry.
That he stopped after just two volumes is regrettable.
What would have been the title of the third book
had he continued writing?

The butcher began to kill the Ox
Following the nursery rhyme:
The rat began to gnaw the rope
The rope began to hang the butcher
The butcher began to kill the ox
The ox began to drink the water
The water began to quench the fire
The fire began to burn the stick…

27.
Who, talking about what in this paraphrased interview?
There are several reasons. First, every ______ has a good story. We
get involved with people who have messed up their lives, and their
mistakes make fascinating stories. Street ______ see the underbelly
of society. Corporate ______ see high-stakes shenanigans... ______
think they can add a twist here and a subplot there and produce a
real thriller. Second, most ______ would rather be doing something
else. The profession is overcrowded and the competition is fierce.
Most of the work is terribly boring. There is tremendous
dissatisfaction within the profession, and almost every ______ I
know is looking for a way out.

John Grisham on the rash of lawyer-written
suspense novels

28.
The basic plot is about an attorney who catches a rapist
Max Cady in the act, testifies against him and is
instrumental in Cady going to prison. Cady holds a deep
grudge and after he gets out he stalks the lawyer’s family,
and his vendetta escalates to killing anyone Cady thinks
is close to the lawyer and his people.
Based on a psychological thriller by John D MacDonald,
the story was made into two movies carrying the same
name, one each in 1962 and the other in 1991.
What were they called?

29.
Settling down in the borderlands between North
Carolina and Kentucky, the family divided into three
clans—“Smoky Mountain”, “Cumberland Gap” and
“Clinch Mountain”.
There is also the “Flatland” clan, but they make rare
appearances. The Smoky Mountain breed produce some
of the most memorable characters, including William Tell
and his brothers Tyrel and Orrin.
Who are we referring to?

The Sacketts
by Louis L’Amour

*30. For one point each, name an author, a character (the
first set of pics) and what connects him with the second
set of pictures? (a few words in explanation)

Tom Clancy
Jack Ryan
Ryan issued a foreign policy doctrine which largely
defined his administration's international perspective,
similar to the Monroe Doctrine

31.
Mr. Romance is a 2005 US reality TV show which aired
on Oxygen. It was created by Gene Simmons and hosted
by Fabio Lanzoni.
It featured twelve contestants and each week they would
take part in a series of events.
What were the events, which would ultimately
lead to a lucrative assignment as a grand prize?

Photo-shoots for romance novel covers

32.
This book is based on two sources—
an account of a 10th-century Muslim
who travels with a group of Vikings to
their settlement, and a 3182-line-long
work which is in a manuscript known
as the Nowell Codex, located in the
British Library.
Which work, said to be the oldest
such work that is still surviving,
will one find in the Nowell Codex?

33.
His first non-fiction work, The Sea Hunters, was
released in 1996. The Board of Governors of the
Maritime College, State University of New York,
considered The Sea Hunters in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis and
awarded him a Doctor of Letters degree in May, 1997.
Which internationally recognized authority on
shipwrecks wrote it?

34.
The 1961 film adaptation of the book inspired the name
of the series on the right. Which series that ran for a
lengthy twelve years from 1984-96?

*35.
Connect the four movies.

All based on works by Ira Levin

36.
Carr’s mastery saw this novel selected as
the best of all time by a panel of writers.
This book could also be used as a tutorial.
In Chapter 17, Dr Gideon Fell, a detective
gives an extensive explanation of the
nuances of something which many writers
have tried to master.
What circumstances that are also
seen in Dorothy L. Sayers's Have His
Carcase and Georgette Heyer's
Envious Casca among others?

37.
An author and his character cannot have a more
prominent resemblance to each other, than these two.
Was the hero made after his own image, we don’t know.
Name both (1 + 1).

George Simenon and Inspector Maigret

38.
In 1984, when a new wing was proposed for the National
Gallery of London, Prince Charles is said to have
remarked that it was a “monstrous _________ on the
face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” likening it to a
large boil, infected and with pus.
This meaning of the word comes from the fact that the
boil looks like an unfaceted stone, of which we are all
familiar with a specimen in a cooler shade.
What word?

39.
What thorough entertainment started in 1955 with
the one on the left and ended with the one on the right
in 1986?

*40.
The link between violence and X was established in the
mid-19th century, for the simple reason that they (X)
became available only in that time period. An early
example is Xavier de Montepin’s narration in P.L.M. Rigolo
in 1886.
Belle Epoque crime stories often hesitated to make the
link, because they did not want to risk implicating a
symbol of progress and modernity with nefarious
circumstances.
What was this link that some writers loved?

KQA Pilferages 2014

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