Zoned Out Brilliant Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

"The Old Man and the Sea", published in 1952 is a wonderful telling of the tale of Santiago, a quiet and weather beaten fisherman who seemingly endures Christ-like suffering in his life. He wrestles for days on end with a giant marlin only to see it eaten by sharks as he makes his way into port. One must wonder if Hemingway was looking into a mirror as he wrote the story. Ernest, not unlike Santiago, suffered a series of misfortunes and freak occurrences during his life - the Paris skylight accident, the tearing of his cornea when his baby son poked a finger into his eye, the plane crash whilst on safari and the subsequent crash of the plane that rescued him.

Hemingway suffered from depression and whether or not the above incidents were part of the cause is difficult to say but they certainly didn't help. He turned to hard drinking but this only deepened his disease and, in the process damaged his liver and may have been a trigger to his diabetes. Despite this Hemingway's contribution to American literature is outstanding, not just in the impressive body of his work but in the inspiration that he provided to a countless number of other writers. As Hemingway often wrote "il faut d'abord durer" - first, one must last.

Answer: A tendency to melancholy

Speculation leans toward Lincoln developing his melancholia from a number of issues that he endured as a child. The incidents generally put forward include the passing of his new born brother, though Lincoln was only three at the time, and the death of his mother when he was nine.

At the same time he also lost an aunt and uncle who were dear to him. The image that is generally painted of Lincoln is that of a man with a morose exterior and one with a belief in fatalism and superstition. Lincoln, however, was a man of great humour and delighted in telling tales that generated belly laughs and, whilst he may well have been afflicted with some form of depression, there is doubt that it manifested itself as clinical depression. Those who favour this argument indicate that if he was as such it would have made him incapable of running the country though the alternate argument is that the President was able to evolve with his turmoils and developed methodologies to manage them.

Answer: Germs

Raymond D. Fowler PhD conducted a psychological autopsy on Howard Hughes at the behest of the estate's attorney. He concluded that Hughes' fear of germs stemmed from his early childhood and his mother's fear that her child might contract polio. As a result he was kept isolated, checked daily and caution was exercised in respect to whatever he ate. All of these were traits that Hughes would take to extremes later in life.

At one point he wrote an instruction manual to his staff that outlined how they should go about opening a can of peaches.

These included directions on how to remove the label, scrubbing the can down to bare metal, rewashing the can and, finally, how to pour the peaches into a bowl without the can touching the bowl. Hughes inherited a fortune while still in his teens and then built on it by funding films in Hollywood.

His real success, however, was achieved in the designing and building of planes and he was noted for a number of innovations in this field, including the creation of the first retractable landing gear.

Answer: Absinthe

You mention the name Van Gogh and people's thoughts leap to classic works such as "The Potato Eaters", "Starry Starry Night" and "Sunflowers". Alternatively it may trigger images of "that dude who cut off his own ear and tried to shoot himself". Van Gogh was a man of extremes - on the one hand he produced amazing works of art at an incredible pace and displayed great passion for his religion.

At the other end he endured great periods of depression that has led many to suggest that he suffered from a bipolar disorder. Vincent was also a prolific writer of letters (leading to some speculation that he endured hypergraphia) and from these historians have noted his love affair with absinthe.

There are also reports that he regularly consumed the oils and the turpentines that he used in his work, which may have also led to his epileptic episodes.

Answer: Charles VI

Charles VI of France, who gained the throne at the tender age of eleven years and in the midst of the Hundred Years' War with England, was also known as the "Beloved". Whilst he ascended the throne early he wasn't allowed to assume power until he turned twenty one.

The running of the country, in the meantime, was conducted by a committee that consisted of his four uncles. The uncles, who were essentially "in it for themselves", undid all the good work that had been done by his father, Charles V, and nearly brought the country to revolt when they set about raising taxes that would only serve to fill their personal coffers. On assuming power Charles dismissed his uncles and re-instated the "Marmousets", a group of trusted advisers that had served his father well and he soon turned the country's fortunes. Soon after this Charles began his descent into madness.

While touring the countryside he rounded on his entourage and, without warning, killed four of his knights. For almost half a year he refused to bathe or change his clothes.

He could not (or would not) recognise his own children or his wife and, according to Pope Pius II, he developed a "glass delusion" and painstakingly detailed plans so that he wouldn't end up broken.

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

Griswold and Poe's relationship could be best described as enigmatic. To a degree the pair fed off each other and, outwardly at least, portrayed a veneer of friendship. Internally though they were suspicious of each other. Griswold's description of Poe's madness was dismissed but the stain remained. Poe, for his part, did not help his own cause.

Whilst his stories dealt with tortured minds and the macabre he fuelled the madness rumours with his wild drinking and statements such as "My life seems wasted, the future looks a dreary blank".

A couple of years prior to his death Poe's wife, Virginia, succumbed to a six year battle with tuberculosis. During that period, the inevitability of his wife's passing was torture for Poe and he sought refuge in alcohol, often drinking himself into stupors and suffering from wild hallucinations.

The loss of his wife hit him deeply and he became desperate to replace her, chasing every woman in sight, without success. Poe's exit from the world was not dissimilar in nature to the many stories that he wrote. Admitted to hospital in a delirious state after another drinking binge Poe talked incessantly to imaginary creatures that he saw on the walls until, quite suddenly, he appeared to relax, sighed "Lord, help my poor soul" and passed away.

Answer: John Nash

John Nash entered Princeton in 1948 to study pure mathematics. He chose not to attend lectures so that he wouldn't get his information "secondhand". He also steered clear of text books and relied on his own abilities to develop the topics and, as a result, created his own individual approach to the subject. The following year he would produce a paper on game theory that would earn him a Nobel Prize some forty five years later. In the mid to late 1950s cracks began to appear in his mental state. One day he walked out of a class that he was teaching and when he returned some weeks later he was holding a copy of "The New York Times" and claimed that there were encoded messages that aliens had built into the stories and that only he could decipher them. What were previously seen as eccentricities were now causes for concern. By 1961 his condition worsened to the point that his family had him committed to the Trenton State Hospital where he would undergo treatment that was both radical and, at times, risky. Whilst it took time, Nash did improve and returned to teaching. By 1990 he was deemed cured of his schizophrenia but during all his travails his ability to produce mathematics of the highest order never deserted him.

I was saddened to hear that, as I was putting this quiz together, John Nash was killed in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike (May 23, 2015).

Answer: Beethoven

It is commonly believed that one of the world's greatest composers, Ludwig van Beethoven suffered from a bipolar disorder. Some, such as psychiatrist François Martin Mai, also indicate that he was suicidal and a hypomaniac (one who could compose several works simultaneously). Mai points to Beethoven's sudden changes in musical mood during his "Eroica - Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major" as being consistent in temperament with that of a hypomaniac. We all tend to associate Beethoven with his deafness but many do not realise that the man was profoundly deaf by the age of twenty eight.

Some raise the argument that, for a musician, this would have been fuel for depression. Others indicate that the beatings and exploitation Beethoven endured from his alcoholic father were the major triggers coupled with a lifetime of chronic illnesses. What is remarkable is that he was able to make these detriments play second fiddle to his composing of such beautiful music that held the power to lift human spirits.

Answer: Sir Isaac Newton

The British artist, William Blake, painted a picture of Sir Isaac that rather aptly depicted him sitting naked on a rock. As the beauty of the naked form can be matched by its vulgar rawness so too did Newton's depression push him to boundaries of perfectionism and people away from him.

His mania, however, also fueled a strong drive to prove himself right. He has been described as highly strung and egotistical, while Newton's own notebooks document bouts of low self-esteem, suicidal tendencies and sadness.

His family recorded his mood swings from episodes of violent rage to periods of intense remorse. Historians lean toward him being manic depressive, with doses of schizophrenia and place him on the autism scale because he had an inability to connect with people.

Despite all this he paved the way for us to measure speed, distance and weight, explained gravity to us and, as mentioned above, introduced us to the reflecting telescope and calculus. Genius!

Answer: Tennessee Williams

Gene David Kirk beautifully recorded of Williams that he was a man who "sits at the typewriter each morning and unzips his heart". A remarkable achievement for a man burdened with depression or, perhaps, it was this very ability that provided him with his coping mechanism (speculation).

He was born into a family that possessed a catalogue of serious mental issues but, beyond this, there were two events that really shoved Williams into the depths. During the 1940s Williams' schizophrenic sister, Rose, was lobotomised on the orders of their mother. Williams saw this as a cruel way to have his sister censored for her wayward sexual leanings and he continued to hold a grudge against his mother for this for the rest of his life.

In 1961 Williams lost his long-time lover and it pushed him, in his own words, into his "stoned age", a stormy period of dark depression and substance abuse.

Despite this and a growing welter of poor critiques his output was unflagging and his perceptive eye was still able to capture humour in the blackest of situations.