May I Have A Word...or Five. Trivia Quiz

Answer: "Of Mice And Men" - 'The Iliad'

"Of Mice And Men" comes from the Robert Burns poem "To A Mouse" - it's an apology for the farmer having disturbed its nest; the line is 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.' {often go amiss}. A 1939 film was based on the novel and starred Lon Chaney, Jr. and Burgess Meredith.

"East Of Eden" refers to the passage from Genesis after Abel was slain, 'and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.' {KJV} The 1952 film "East of Eden" starred James Dean.

"Grapes Of Wrath" is from the line 'He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored' in the Battle Hymn. The 1940 film starred Henry Fonda.

"The Winter Of Our Discontent", Steinbeck's last complete novel, is from "Richard III". Hallmark Hall of Fame produced a television version of this in 1983 starring Donald Sutherland, Tuesday Weld and Teri Garr.

Answer: "The Tempest"

"O, brave new world that has such creatures in it!" is said by Miranda when she first encounters people she has never seen before. This is ironic as she is witnessing people at their worst behavior. The 1932 dystopian novel "Brave New World" takes place in 2540 A.D., and concerns the 'perfect society' where everyone is happy {taking soma, the great equalizing drug, and being programmed during sleep}; reproduction and many other processes are handled by the government, and live breeding is illegal, as births must conform to a ration of Alpha, Beta and so on classes of people. Each one has his life and purpose predetermined.

The main characters in this novel have names created from other names by the author, such as 'Benito Hoover' {Benito Mussolini + Herbert Hoover}.

There appears to be some inspiration from H.G. Wells, D.H. Lawrence and other writers of the period.

Answer: Virgil's "Aeneid"

'Arma virumque cano..." begins the first line in Latin, of "The Aeneid". 'I sing of arms and the man...' which is the story of Aeneas, son of Anchises, ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. The story follows Aeneas' adventures after the Trojan war.

"The Iliad" is the story of the Trojan War, written in Greek, allegedly by Homer. "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" were written by John Milton. "Julius Caesar" is the Bard's stylized version of the assassination of Rome's dictator for life.

Answer: "The Second Coming" - W.B. Yeats

"Things Fall Apart" is from this much quoted and chilling poem by Yeats, and is the title of a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, published in 1958.
"The Center Cannot Hold" has also been used as a book title, by Elyn Saks, Professor at the University of Southern California Gould Law School, which is an autobiographical novel subtitled "My Journey Through Madness" published in 2007. Author Harry Turtledove also titled a book "The Center Cannot Hold" about an alternative history of Earth, particularly from WWII on.
The Second Coming: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer, Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds, The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle. And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" {'Spiritus Mundi'= the spirit of the world. I've capitalized the first word in the beginning of each line of the poem.}

Answer: James Joyce

James Joyce's 1922 "Ulysses" is a real challenge to read as it is written in the stream-of-consciousness style with little punctuation. It is the story of one day in the life of Leopold Bloom in Dublin, Ireland. 'Bloomsday' is still celebrated on June 16th by fans of the work.

Answer: The Bible

Both Isaiah and Revelation mention "a stranger in a strange land". Heinlein's sci-fi novel was published in 1961, and is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human born and raised on Mars, and trained in transcendental powers. He comes to Earth and gradually establishes a 'Church of All Worlds' which has many followers. Valentine uses the word 'grok' to indicate various levels of understanding as it is practiced on Mars, and the word spread after the book became popular. So it's best to read the whole book to 'grok the full meaning' of it.

Heinlein died in 1988, but his work gave inspiration to songwriters such as Billy Joel {"We Didn't Start The Fire"} Iron Maiden, U2, Spock's Beard and 30 Seconds To Mars, etc. Other sci-fi works such as Arthur C. Clarke's "3001: The Final Odyssey" in which there's a 'stranger in a strange time' may also have benefited.

Heinlein and his wife also invented and produced for their own use many ultra modern gadgets now commonplace in the home.

Answer: The Bible

Beelzebub is translated as 'Lord of the Flies'. A group of English schoolboys of various ages are stuck on an otherwise abandoned island and realize they must fend for themselves. At first they try to follow what they've been taught and organize a society with leadership and rules, but it begins to disintegrate when baser motives and feelings come to the forefront. A gradual anarchy takes over, and the island forest catches fire - which, however, leads to the boys being spotted and rescued. It is too late for some of them. You'll know what that means or have to read the book to find out.
"The Devil's Dictionary" is by Ambrose Bierce, and is also worth a read.
"The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston is a fictional account of what might happen if the Ebola virus managed to travel into new areas of the world. Ebola is an African hemmorhagic fever, and has almost 100% mortality very quickly which is why it usually is not transmitted to many others.
"The Andromeda Stain" is what happened when I left my coffee cup on the book to hold the page down.

Answer: "Macbeth"

"The Sound and The Fury" was published in 1929, and is a Southern Gothic novel about the moral and financial decline of the Compton family. The story is told primarily by four members of the family, each from his own point of view. Most of their rambling and often confusing tales are stream-of-consciousness or otherwise difficult narrations during a period of thirty years. Faulkner later included another portion after the main novel to help explain the tale.

Answer: "Meditation XVII" - John Donne

John Donne provided many quotations that were taken from his works, among which are "Death be not proud...", and "Go and catch a falling star..."
Donne lived from 1572 to 1631, and was considered an excellent metaphysical poet. His early works were more centered on 'earthly delights', but he gradually came over to a more spiritual view. The quotation cited is, "No man is an island entire of itself...Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Hemingway's novel takes place during the Spanish Civil War, and follows the life of Robert Jordan, who questions the justification of taking life, the concept of death in general and suicide {'death before dishonor'}. Jordan realizes that death is imminent in the completion of his duties, which is a theme that runs through much of Hemingway's work.

Answer: Scottish folk song

J.D.Salinger's best known work was published in 1951. It concerns teenager Holden Caulfield and his painful awakening to the world around him. The book has been banned, censored, made required reading, made forbidden reading, and caused criticism, praise and controversy from its publication well into the 21st century. Robert Burns converted the song into a poem, but it is unclear what the original words were and what they meant; some think it's a bawdy barroom ditty. The book includes some objectionable language, situations and attitudes, but it remains a classic.

The title evolves from Holden's misinterpretation of the old Scottish song, "Comin' Thro' the Rye", whose melody has been used for many other songs around the world. Holden hears a little boy singing, "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye..." {"If a body meet a body comin' through the rye..." is the usual lyric}. Holden pictures a 'Catcher' in the rye, and takes it to mean himself, and that his purpose is to catch playing children before they fall off a cliff {lose their innocence}.