Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Wednesday Quiz I:11 -- Found In Translation


The Wednesday Quiz -- Season I -- Quiz 11

Found In Translation

The Wednesday Quiz is a test of knowledge and intuition. Looking up answers or asking your buddy is unconscionable. Questions about the rules are answered here.

This week's Quiz asks for two pieces of information about several books that, despite having been written in languages other than English, have become popular among some English-speaking intellectual types:

Who wrote it? and What language was it originally written in?

Five points for each correct answer. There are eleven books, making a gross score of 105 or 110 possible. Such a score would be saluted for its total awesomeness, and then rounded down to 100.

1. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
2. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude
4. Anna Karenina
5. The House of the Spirits
6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
7. The Trial
8. The Tin Drum
9. Like Water for Chocolate
10. The History of the Siege of Lisbon
11. Snow
Submit your answers in the comments. (And incidentally, I've only read four of them, myself. )

25 comments:

Cartophiliac said...

I hope spelling doesn't count...

1. Solzynstyn - Russian
2. ? - French
3. Garcia Marquez - Spanish
4. Tolstoy - Russian
5. ? - Spanish
6. ? - French
7. ? - Russian
8. Grass - German
9. ? - French
10. ? - Portuguese
11. ? - Inuit

McGuff said...

1. Alexander Solzenitsen, Russian
2. Italo Calvino, Italian
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Spanish
4. Leo Tolstoy, Russian
5. Allende, Spanish
6. Milan Kundera, Czech
7. Franz Kafka, German
8. Gunter Grass, German
9. ??, Spanish
10. ??, Portuguese
11. ??, ??

Dang, what a weak finish. But I just realized, I've READ the first 8, but not the last 3 and saw the Chocolate movie.

(Phineas)

Christine M. said...

1. Solzynitsin, Russian
2. dunno
3. Garcia Marquez, Spanish
4. Tolstoy, Russian
5. Isabelle Allende, Spanish
6. Milan Kundera, Czech
7. dunno
8. Gunter Grass, German
9. Laura Esquivel, Spanish
10. dunno
11. dunno

Elaine said...

1. Andrei Solzhenitsen /Russian
(sorry, Andre, about your name)
2.
3. Spanish,
4. Leo Tolstoy, Russian
5.
6. English
7.French
8. Hesse, German
9. Spanish
10.Portuguese?
11.
Egad, I may have done worse than the Rock Band quiz! It was fun being on the top ten while it lasted; fare well!

Elaine said...

SHRIEK!
I knew it was Gunter Grass, not Hermann Hesse, and as soon as I hit PUBLISH....!!!!
argh

Elizabeth said...

1. Alexander Solzenytsnzydnshs... whatever. Russian. Have not read more than snippets.
2. Italo Calvino. Italoian. Have not read it.
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Portuguese. Read it and many others by this fantastically offbeat writer.
4. Tolstoy. Russian. Read it a long time ago.
5. Isabel Allende. Spanish. All of her books are wonderful but often very sad.
6. Milan Kundera is the name that comes to mind. No clue on the language. Never read it.
7. Franz Kafka. German. I think I had to read this in high school.
8. Gunter Grass. German. This was an extremely disturbing movie, which I had to watch in high school.
9. Laura Esquivel? Spanish. Cute book, cute movie. Book was better.
10. I have never, ever heard of this book. I'll say that it was written in Arabic.
11. Snow idea. Guessing that it was written in Japanese.

Anonymous said...

1. ?, Russian
3. Marquez, Spanish?
4. Tolstoy, Russian
5. Allende, Spanish
7. Kafka, ?
9. Esquivel, Spanish

mhwitt said...

I'm answering mainly as evidence that I am actually keeping up with LTM5K these days.

1. Solzyneitzen, Russian. I am 100% sure that I have badly misspelled the author's name.
2. [You got me there.]
3. Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Spanish.
4. Leo Tolstoy, Russian.
5. [Dunno.]
6. Kundera, Czech.
7. Kafka, German.
8. [Dunno.]
9. Don't know the author, but the language was Spanish.
10. Don't know the author, and I suspect the language is not Portuguese.
11. Don't know the author. For some reason I'm thinking the language is Japanese.

Elaine said...

Teehee, I am just LOVING the spellings of Andrei's name, and I am pretty sure that so far NONE of us has gotten it right. I can almost see it in my mind's eye, but it won't come clear. THE FIRST CIRCLE was also a fantastic book, but both that and _A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich _ were reads in....hmmm pretty much more than 35 years ago.
I protest because _The Two Husbands of Dona Flor_ (in Portuguese) was not included...because THAT one I've read, even though now I can't come up with the author's name, but what ELSE is new? I need to turn this used brain in for a newer model....

mrs.5000 said...

1 Alexander Solzenitsyn, which of course I can't spell. Russian
2 Italo Calvino, Italian.
3 Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Spanish
4 Leo Tolstoy, Russian
5 Um, Isabel Allende? Spanish
6 Milan Kundera, Czech
7 Franz Kafka...and, OK, he was Czech, right? but for some mysterious reason I am compelled to say he was writing in German.
8 Gunter Grass, German
9 Yeah, why do I want to say Penelope Cruz? Was she in the movie? Oh, I'll say Isabel Allende again (surely one will be right), Spanish.
10 Jose Saramago, Portugese
11 Snow? not Snow Country, or Snow Crash, or Smila's Sense of, just Snow? Never heard of it. Oh, Haruki Murakami. Writing in Danish.

Elizabeth said...

Elaine - Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands was written by Jorge Amado, another favorite of mine, and undoubtedly who I was thinking of re: language when I said Portuguese for Garcia Marquez. If you haven't read "Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon" that's a good one, too.

UnwiseOwl said...

1. Stoltzin or however you spell it, Russian.
2. I'm gonna guess it wasn't the pope, but it was someone Italian.
3. Marquez, Spanish.
4. Tolstoy, Russian.
5. Someone called Jean (aren't they all?), French
6. Kundere, he wasn't Russian, but I think it may have been written in it.
7. Kafka, German.
8. H.C.Andersen, Danish.
9. Esquivel, Spanish.
10. Dunno, Pedro IV, Portugese.
11. Fred Gallagher, Japanese.

Of these, I've only read the Kafka and the Esquivel, but I own the Tolstoy but haven't got around to it yet. Some of these I haven't even heard of. Obviously I've got a bit more reading to do.

UnwiseOwl said...

If you're planning on getting rid of your brain, Elaine, donate it to science or something. It's be interesting to see how the heads of M5000 readers deviate from the norm.

sister jen said...

1 Unknown Russian gentleman; Russian
2 Italo Calvino; Italian
3 Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Spanish
4 Tolstoy; Russian
5 don't remember
6 ??? I'm thinking maybe like French?
7 Kafka; German
8 Gunter Grass; German
9 don't remember but written in Spanish
10 some Portugese person? In Portugese, presumably
11 obscure cocaine addict; Swedish?

Clearly I am playing only to keep up my typing skills.

sister jen said...

I read If On a Winter's Night a Traveler when I was a junior in college and was thrilled by it. Other than the fact that it's written entirely in the second person, I remember nothing else. Time to read it again, clearly.

Eversaved said...

Meh I'm too late anyway, but I feel compelled to answer something given the inclusion of books #3, 5 and 9.
1. Russian. I read it, I don't remember the author's name.
2. ?
3. Spanish. Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
4. Russian. I also read it. I also don't remember the author's name.
5. Spanish. Isabel Allende, niece of former Chilean presidente Salvador Allende.
6. I was just talking about this book and I still don't remember the author's name.
7. ?
8. ?
9. Spanish. Laura Esquivel
10. ?
11. ?

Michael5000 said...

And the winners are...

1. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- by Solzhenitsyn, in Russian
2. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler -- by Italo Calvino, in Italian
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude -- by Gabriel García Márquez, in Spanish
4. Anna Karenina -- by Tolstoy, in Russian
5. The House of the Spirits -- by Isabel Allende, in Spanish
6. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- by Milan Kundera, in Czech
7. The Trial -- by Kafka, in German
8. The Tin Drum -- by Colonel Mustard, with a.... no, wait. by Gunter Grass, in German
9. Like Water for Chocolate -- by Laura Esquivel, in Spanish
10. The History of the Siege of Lisbon -- by Jose Saramago, in Portuguese
11. Snow -- by Orhan Pamuk, in Turkish

Elaine said...

Bah.

Michael5000 said...

Mrs.5000 takes the weekly prize with 95 points, followed closely by Phineas with 90 and Elizabeth with 85.

Michael5000 said...

And with only one more week left in the season, here's the top six contenders:

1. DrSchnell: 741.67
2. la gringissima: 729.16
3. Mrs.5000: 701.67
4. Elaine: 571.67
5. Cartophiliac: 568.33
6. Elizabeth: 526.66

La gringissima has edged up on DrSchnell, who was too scared to play this week, and Elizabeth nudged Ben out of sixth with her strong showing.

The drama of the next week's finish will be a little lackluster, however, as the top three prize-winning spots have already been clinched by the doctor, the gringa, and the wife. The bragging rights at fourth place and sixth place are still wide open, though -- and next week's quiz is gonna be a tough one.

After that, we'll take a week off, reset the scoreboard, and do it all over again.

Aviatrix said...

Bah, I keep missing Wednesdays. I've read the first one in the original, though. It's good.

Elaine said...

Wow, those Top Three really have us eating their dust...and I can hear hoofbeats from that Cartophiliac! If we can just get that woodpecker quiz in there, I can defend my grubby little 4th place standing.

(Is this quiz now my worst showing? Because I feel worse, since I never did know anything but The Beatles in popular music, but I read tons of books! and then, apparently, forget their authors.

Michael5000 said...

Aviatrix: I'm leaving the scoring to Thursday now as a compromise between your "give us a few days" and other peoples' "where are our scores"?!? Scores start over in season 2!

Elaine: This tied your eighth place score, I believe, so your score didn't advance.

Elaine said...

You mean that I totally suck in TWO categories??
Oh.
Well, thanks for being honest.
No matter how heartless and brutal it was, I mean. And what it could possibly do to a fragile, defenseless ego and all.
Don't worry about me.

No, really.

DrSchnell said...

Not scared - rather just spending time enjoying our blizzard (and shoveling snow!) 16 1/2 inches by my measurement.