Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In Greek mythology, the gods of the Olympus had a real thing for torturing those who opposed or angered them. Prometheus was bound on a rock and got his liver eaten by an eagle every day, Atlas had to carry the sky on his shoulders in order to prevent it from collapsing with the earth, but who was the unfortunate guy that never succeeded pushing a boulder up a hill?
2. During the Roman era torture was a practice often used to extract important information from people or to aggravate punishment. Which Roman writer prepared young schoolboys with his "Controversiae" for the everyday practice of these cruelties?
3. During his voyage through Hell and Purgatory, Dante witnessed a great number of tortured souls. In the parts "Inferno" and "Purgatorio" from his "Divine Comedy" souls were not just tortured randomly, as each punishment related to the crime they committed. How do we call this form of 'divine revenge'?
4. Shakespeare probably tortured many a high school student with his plays, but he is also accountable for writing one of the most famous torture scenes in literary history. In which play is the Earl of Gloucester being tortured because of his loyalty to the deposed king by the king's ungrateful daughter Regan and her husband the Duke of Cornwall?
5. In the "Treatise on Tolerance" Voltaire utters the stand of the Enlightenment against torture by stating that in war or fights participants should have the same danger and advantage, and specifically should be able to defend themselves. In this text he uses the 'cause célèbre' of Jean Calas who was accused of killing his son but this was only a pretext for punishing what other 'sin' he committed?
6. "Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck. For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, here is a strange and bitter crop" is a part of one of the most famous American poems about the torture and killing of black people in the early 20th century. It was originally written by Abel Meeropol, but became famous after Billie Holiday performed a version which Meeropol had set to music, in 1939. Which poem are we talking about?
7. In the poem "Musée des Beaux Arts", W. H. Auden talks about how people always look away from people in need and don't dare to meddle, not even when people are being tortured or killed. He uses the image of Pieter Breughel the Younger's "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" to demonstrate this. How do we call the process of dramatically describing a picture or image in literature?
8. Patrick Bateman is probably one of the scariest figures of contemporary American literature with his love for torturing and killing people in the most gruesome ways and all of this without a clear reason. Who invented this macabre character?
9. Which English playwright from the late 20th century wrote "Blasted", a play fiercely attacked and highly controversial about topics such as torture, rape and genocide? She turned out to be a tortured soul herself as she committed suicide in 2001 after struggles with depression before ever getting the recognition she would have gotten now.
10. Although many literary critics thought just reading the book was mere torture, E. L. James' "50 Shades of Grey" became a smashing hit all over the world and popularized light torture in the bedroom. In the novel a young girl is introduced in the world of BDSM by a young and wealthy entrepeneur named Christian Grey. What is her name?
Source: Author
akgulvarvara
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looney_tunes before going online.
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