THE SOME-POASYUM QUIZ

Participants who signed up for the full weekend were invited to take part in a quiz featuring 56 cryptic questions on the work of Russell Hoban, for which prizes were handed out at The Troubadour on Sunday evening. If you'd like a(nother) go, the questions are reproduced below. (Alternatively, download the quiz in PDF format here.) A link to a page giving the solutions is at the bottom of this page.

PART ONE - MASTERMIND: THE GAP

1) Complete the title of an early Hoban essay published in 1972: "Time Slip, Uphill Lean, Laminar Flow, Place-to-Place Talking and ..."
a) Sailing with the Winds of Change
b) Hearing the Silence
c) Stirring the Primordial Soup
d) Climbing the Waves

2) Who says, "...there's nothing on the other side of nothing but us" ?
a) Fremder Gorn
b) Neaera H.
c) Max Lesser
d) the mouse child

3) What technology allows the protagonists of Fremder to jump from one galaxy to another?
a) flicker drive
b) beaming
c) leaps of the imagination
d) anamorphotic distortion

4) What is Mr Rinyo-Clacton's real name?
a) Hans Zucker
b) Dieter Scharf
c) Theodor Kandis
d) Wolfgang Pfeffer

5) Which work of art does Harold Klein sell to support Melissa's study of emotional dysfunction in men?
a) Odilon Redon's Pegase Noir
b) Bruno Schulz's Eunuch with Stallions
c) a Meissen figure of a girl with a golden ball
d) Alfred Rethel's Death as a Friend

6) Who wrote the ghost story The Beckoning Fair One which colours Peter Diggs's perception of Amaryllis?
a) H. P. Lovecraft
b) Edgar Allan Poe
c) Margaret Oliphant
d) Oliver Onions

7) What happens when you tune in to the Medusa frequency?
a) you hear a voice reciting a poem by the German poet
Rainer Maria Rilke
b) Medusa speaks to you
c) you get turned to stone
d) the Head of Orpheus appears to you

8) Pilgermann is aware that story isn't necessarily the most important part of an action. Complete his explanation "One: Samson in the vineyards of Timnah; Two: the lion comes roaring at Samson; Three: Samson tears the lion apart. That's a story but actually the main part of the action may have been that..."
a) there was a butterfly in Samson's field of vision the whole time.
b) he felt a blister on the sole of his left foot.
c) a flee bite tempted him to abandon the lion and scratch his itch.
d) he was aware that his mother was watching his every move.

9) How tall was the model used to represent King Kong in the original film with Fay Wray?
a) 12 inches (30 cm)
b) 18 inches (46 cm)
c) 24 inches (60 cm)
d) 36 inches (91 cm)

10) Which inscription was NOT on one of Amaryllis's T-shirts?
a) How clever of God to put two holes in the skin of the cat exactly where the eyes are.
b) Unnatural practices yes
c) WALKING SPANISH
d) Whichever way you turn, your arse stays always behind

11) Which novel is this quotation from? "At length Klein, with a Godfather gesture, index finger pointing upward, says, 'I look at you and I see myself twenty-five years ago, always greedy for more love and other love. Always unfaithful.'"
a) Amaryllis Night and Day
b) Angelica's Grotto
c) Her Name Was Lola
d) The Bat Tattoo

12) Which famous poem helped to name two of Hoban's heroines, i.e. Neaera and Amaryllis?
a) John Milton's "Lycidas"
b) Alfred Tennyson's "The Kraken"
c) Wallace Stevens's "The Worms at Heaven's Gate"
d) the first of Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies

13) Under whose foot must Apasmara stay so as not to annoy people?
a) Krishna
b) Kali
c) Shiva
d) Ganesa

14) Which director did Russell Hoban collaborate with to create the two animated short films Deadsy and Door?
a) Gösta Kraken
b) Tom Tykwer
c) Aki Kaurismäki
d) David Anderson

15) Which owl does Pilgermann encounter, flying towards him in the twilight?
a) A tawny owl
b) An eagle owl
c) A veiled owl
d) The lesser-spotted German Büchereule, or “book owl”

16) Who built the 12th Century stronghold of Montfort in Galilee, which was part of Russ’s inspiration for Pilgermann?
a) The Teutonic Order of Saint Mary
b) Baldwin and the Order of the Knights Templar
c) Bohemond of Taranto and the Franks
d) Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Byzantium

17) “I know what happens/I read the book…” This partial quote from the Donald Fagen song The Goodbye Look from the album ‘Nightfly’ appears in which of Russell Hoban’s adult novels?
a) Angelica’s Grotto
b) Kleinzeit
c) Fremder
d) Her Name Was Lola
 

PART TWO: ANAGRAMS

Unscramble the titles of these Russell Hoban works.

18) A Shallower Amen

19) Canberra – Fame and Fjords

20) Cannibal-Chief on a Bad
Jazz Joint, Ho Ho

21) Ein Kitzel

22) First-Floor Necromancy

23) Handy Admiralty Signal

24) Hid Outlandish Scheme

25) I'm the Menaced Cow

26) Merchants Defy Queue

27) Mr Freed

28) Octagonal Tigers

29) Pan Gremlin

30) That Boat Tote

31) The Month Entered
Momentum

PART THREE: CHAPTER TITLES

Are the following chapter titles from The Medusa Frequency or Kleinzeit?

32) Ponce
33) Am I Orpheus?
34) To Borrow the World
35) Remains to be Seen
36) Roughage
37) Could Go Either Way
38) Where Do We Go From Here?
39) The Visit
40) Eurydice Looked Ahead
41) Nnnhh, Zurff, Kruljjj

And are these chapter titles from Amaryllis Night and Day or Angelica’s Grotto?

42) OLD WOMAN AS BLACK CAT
43) RUBICON GROVE
44) WALKING SPANISH
45) LAST TANGO IN FULHAM
46) BOWL OF CHERRIES
47) THE BECKONING OTHER
48) SECOND SESSION
49) THE SECOND TIME
50) MEMORIES OF YEW
51) CATCHING THE BUS
 

PART FIVE: YES AND NO

From which books are the following phrases OR chapter titles taken?

52) Boilermakers No
53) Unnatural Practices Yes
54) Magic No
55) Migrants Yes
56) Zonk No

Click here to view the answers (in a new window)

Quiz questions set by Yvonne Studer, Chris Bell, Roland Clare and Richard Cooper