OT - IWS #67 results

[QuikSand]

IWS 67

Ah, literature.

I’ll start with this. Congratulations to the FOFC crowd, who—as a whole—did us all proud with some well-reasoned and thoughtful answers to what were purposely difficult questions. And shame on you if you love this game but were just too embarrassed to submit your answers. Shame on you and your teachers if you were “stumped.”

With that – here is the usual pithy narrative to unveil the “correct” answers for this set of literary-themed questions. I’m going to refrain from any attacks – some of these were tough, some people sort of missed the mark, but I think it was a good exercise overall.


1. Name a well-known character from American literature

11 Huck Finn
11 Tom Sawyer
2 Captain Ahab
Frodo Baggins
Jay Gatsby
Jesus
Atticus Finch
Moby Dick
Holden Caulfield
Sherlock Holmes
Harry Potter

I predicted this would be all over the map – and was dead wrong. I thought Gatsby would make a real showing, too. Mrs. Q and I made a side wager on this one – which ends up as a push (she said Huck Finn would win, I took the field – I got out lucky, she teaches English). But if you weren’t on board with Mark Twain, this didn’t bode well for your final score.


2. Name a book you think every American seventh grader ought to read

4 To Kill a Mockingbird
4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
3 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
3 Lord of the Flies
2 The Bible
2 The Hobbit
Animal Farm
Profiles in Courage
Great Expectations
1984
Treasure Island
The Diary of Anne Frank
Call of the Wild
The Little Prince
Charlotte's Web
Moby Dick
Of Mice and Men
Romeo & Juliet
Harry Potter
Frederick Douglass

Pretty diverse mix, as expected. Again, Twain is a force – but I think I personally agree that Harper Lee’s classic night not only be the right prediction here, but also the “right” answer. The Diary might have been too tough a call between the two age groups – though it did come to mind for me on this one.


3. Name a book you think every American tenth grader ought to read

6 The Catcher in the Rye
4 To Kill a Mockingbird
2 The Great Gatsby
2 1984
2 The Grapes of Wrath
2 The Bible
2 The Diary of Anne Frank
2 A Tale of Two Cities
2 Lord of the Flies
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Of Mice and Men
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Animal Farm
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Blind Watchmaker
Starship Troopers
DMV Handbook

A good scattering, with a somewhat predictable winner. Actually, Catcher is what I had in mind when setting this one at tenth grade – which seemed to me about right for that book. I was hoping that seventh grade would skew sufficiently young to draw in some of the lighter classics instead. Perhaps the first question should have been a little more separated – like sixth grade and eleventh grade? Alas – a pretty good mix for this one, I think. My personal answer would be Lord of the Flies, but I think I would have submitted the winner in an attempt to score points.


4. Name the greatest American author

15 Mark Twain
9 Ernest Hemingway
3 John Steinbeck
2 Stephen King
Charles Dickens
Arthur Miller
F. Scott Fitzgerald

I didn’t see this coming, honestly. I though there would be a battle with Hemingway against a set of others, with Twain somewhere in the mix but perhaps third or fourth. I certainly don’t agree that Twain was the greatest – but the point was to match other guesses, and 15 of you did better than I would have. In my not-so-humble opinion, the correct answer is Steinbeck – but that’s’ not what we’re playing for here.


5. Name the greatest author who writes/wrote primarily in a language other than English

7 Homer
6 Tolstoy
3 Dostoyevsky
3 Dante
3 Shakespeare
Umberto Eco
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cervantes
Saint-Exupery
Moses
Voltaire
Victor Hugo
Alexandre Dumas
Goethe
Plato

A deliberately tough question. I thought the French (Dumas and Hugo) would do better, and expected to see Tolstoy near the top, but really didn’t know what to expect here. Homer is a good answer who simply didn’t come to me at all until I started reading your answers – makes plenty of sense (especially with film trailers running amok, I suppose – please tell me that some people actually made that connection).

As for William Shakespeare. Well, there are two explanations for folks to hide behind. One is that they simply misread the question as “nationality other than American” rather than “language other than English.” The other is that they are super-savvy IWS players who somehow knew that other people would make that mistake, and wanted to match them. I refuse to open up to another obvious explanation.


6. What is your favorite work of fiction?

9 Lord of the Rings
2 1984
2 The Catcher in the Rye
2 The Bible
2 The Great Gatsby
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Hamlet
The Odyssey
The Stand
Gone With the Wind
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Little Prince
Jurassic Park
Romeo and Juliet
Welcome to the Monkey House
Time for Enough Love
Heir to the Empire
Starship Troopers


I have to take the blame for this one – regrettably this turned out to be a sink-or-swim question, which I really wanted to avoid. However, with all the popular culture phenomenon surrounding the recent films, there’s no surprise at all that The Lord of the Rings managed to come to mind for many people (either as their own favorite, or as a guess as to others’ favorite – as some people painstakingly made clear to me). Flawed question? Maybe – I think the pop culture influence was too strong to overcome, even as we’re supposedly talking about literature. Ten years ago (or any time without the movies) those books might have been well represented, but not a runaway winner, I don’t think.


So, without further ado – that brings us to the moment of truth. I liked the dramatic presentation used last time, and I’ll basically hijack it here…

Here is the list of competitors with their final score – I won’t attach the responses and item-by-tem scores for various reasons this time:


SplitPersonality1 26,730
Raven Hawk 26,730
Glengoyne 17,820
Celeval 11,880
Vince 11,880
Solecismic 7,920
Cartman 5,346
TazFTW 4,752
Oliegirl 3,960
Pyser 2,772
albionmoonlight 2,640
RPI-Fan 1,320
Wademoore 1,215
Chief Rum 1,188
Mordheim 1,155
Corbes 648
Alf 594
Finkenst 594
FishFan 396
kingfc22 330
Desnudo 252
Noop 216
Gstelmack 165
z2+ 56
MIJB#19 36
Silver Owl 28
BishopMVP 18
GoSeahawks 18
Barkeep49 2


And now to our top finishers…

In third place with 41,580 points … Dutch!

In second place, with 55,440 points … Radii!

And I am very glad to see the winner of this iteration is ( in my judgment) one of the very best IWS players we have in our midst, adding to his long list of honors on the IWS “Hall of Heroes,” let’s hear a round of applause for the IWS #67 champion…

TredWel

Congratulations, TredWel – you get the keys to the car, once again.

[Desnudo]

Congrats TredWel and thanks QS for a thought provoking IWS. That's the first one where I literally had no idea what people would write. It was also one where I felt obligated to reply with what I truely felt than with what I felt others would respond with. I think the wide variety of answers shows the quality of thought that went into it for everyone.

[panerd]

"Every American tenth grader should read": DMV Handbook

Classic. I always feel tempted to enter with great smartass answers like this, but always chicken out. Great answer to whoever submitted this.

[QuikSand]

As you give a look to these results - I'd like to ask you to indulge my curiosity. My first draft of questions included a different #6 - intended to be pretty tough:

In responding to this thread, if you'd be kind enough to please post what you would have answered to this question -- please try to take it seriously (do a web search if you would have, that sort of thing) and answer before you see other answers in the thread.

The question appears below, after some spoiler-busting spacers:




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Here is the original final question:

6. For whom does the bell toll?

[Desnudo]

It tolls for thee QS.

[panerd]

Metallica?

[Desnudo]

Metallica?

They did a cover.

[Glengoyne]

It Tolls for Thee.

And Damnit I crashed and burned on the Umberto Eco response. I decided that Homer and Dostoyevski wouldn't cut it. I completely forgot about Tolstoy. I admit that I almost submitted Shakespeare hoping to latch on to some cheap points. I went with Eco because I remember a couple of folks posting about his work in some of the literary threads.

I am a bit embarrased to have actually not read "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "For whom the bell tolls" for that matter. I was really torn between Hemmingway and Twain for greatest American author. I would never have thought of Steinbeck for that honor. I had highschool English teachers that were huge fans of Steinbeck and Faulkner. As a result I am well exposed to their works, and hate them both. "Of Mice and Men" being a huge exception.

Great quiz QS!

[TredWel]

Holy moly ... I did not expect to win this one. This IWS was easily the toughest I've ever entered. Great job, QS, for this one. It was agonizingly fun. And thanks for the praise. Coming from the grand poobah of IWS himself, that's quite an honor.

Now I've got to think of some questions. Won't be as tough, I can pretty much assure you of that. I'll have them up by tomorrow evening.

[Vince]

Wow. I'm amazed I did so well. And completely incredulous that I couldn't come up with The Lord of the Rings as my favorite work of fiction. I even thought about that question longer than the others. Either way...

As for the bell tolling...I would have probably answered Hemingway.

[tucker342]

too bad I missed out on this one...

Good questions Quiksand:)

[Chief Rum]

I have read For Whom The Bell Tolls, and I know the quote-response mentioned as well, but being a former 80s hair band fanatic, I no doubt would have said Metallica to that question, Quik. Sorry for the low brow response. :)

I was surprised the French didn't do better in the foreign question, but I admit I never even thought of the Russians (and even if I did, I still would have picked Dumas or Hugo). Homer? Never came close to picking him. I couldn't remember Marquez. Glad someone else did.

I had Steinbeck, and it was between him and Faulkner and Fitzgerald, and I also thought about Hemingway. I threw out Twain because I thought he wasn't really the best American author, but I should have played it as he was probably the most well-known name (oh well).

panerd: I was the DMV answer guy. To be honest, I am a little surprised not a single other person thought to put a driving related book for a 15-16 year old. I was hoping if Quik got enough of them, he would have to put them all together in one category.

CR

[corbes]

Okay, now I can vent:

The bell tolls for thee.

The greatest writer who wrote primarily in a language other than English is Anton Chekhov. I will entertain debate on the issue, but I am right. ;)

"To Kill A Mockingbird" is a pretty good response for 7th grade. I judged it as 9th grade, and submitted "The Little Prince" instead. I'm glad you all thought 7th graders capable of grasping Mockingbird.

Huck Finn and T. Sawyer never crossed my mind -- I was too obsessed with Jay Gatsby. Those are good answers, though.

No William Faulkners for greatest American writer?

-C.

[finkenst]

The greatest writer who wrote primarily in a language other than English is Anton Chekhov. I will entertain debate on the issue, but I am right. ;)
-C.Corbes, I almost put down the great Russian playwrite, but for the life of me I couldn't remember his damn name... Now, I remember Dostoevsky because I had to C&P as a junior (11th) in HS.

Also, QS, I think 7th/11th may have been a better age range. The only book I had to read in HS in 10th was "The GReat Gatsby". This was in "College Prep" English 10, as opposed to 9th grade where we read, R&J, A Separate Peace, Oedipus Rex, Great Expectations, To Kill a Mockingbird and others in Honors English 9 (good for the breadth of reading, bad for the GPA)...

[GoSeahawks]

I am sort of shocked at how bad I did on this one. I didn't think my answers were bad enough to earn just 18 points. Ah well, I guess I'm not up to date on my 7th and 10th grade literature. Good questions by the way.

[BishopMVP]

I am sort of shocked at how bad I did on this one. I didn't think my answers were bad enough to earn just 18 points.Same here.
1. Holden Caulfield - Figured Sawyer/Finn would split tha vote, so I picked one of the best books and named the main character. Oh well.
2. The Lord of the Flies - Had down Tom Sawyer originally, but changed it last minute
3. Animal Farm - Went with personal bias (every HS'er should read Orwell) and picked the wrong book of his to boot.
4. F. Scott Fitzgerald - No one else at all? Damn. I avoided Twain because of the Samuel Clemens part, and ignored Hemingway for some reason.
5. Fyodor Dostoevsky - Picked the first foreigner that came to mind (other than Shakespeare.)
6. The Great Gatsby - Booo. Can't believe I missed LotR and that people picked The Little Prince, Jurassic Park, Romeo and Juliet, Welcome to the Monkey House, Time for Enough Love, Heir to the Empire, and Starship Troopers over The Great Gatsby!

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[QuikSand]

With the bell tolls question, I expected a smattering of answers, including "thee," Hemingway, Robert Jordan, and perhaps some none-of-the-above stuff. I didn't see Metallica coming-- I wonder if that would have gotten a lot of responses if the question was included under the "literary" heading?

[wade moore]

Metallica would have been my answer too, again sorry for the low brow..

I find it very interesting when I take different strategies to IWS... this time on every question I picked what I thought others would answer, and ended up shooting myself in the foot on a few (like saying Frodo Baggins for american character and he's not even from an american author)... But I am pretty happ with my answers overall because I was in the mix on most of them besides that one...

I am surprised people said lord of the flies for 10th... My girlfriend threw that out there for 10th also, and to me it is very much a 7th grade book... that and Catcher seem to be too interchangeable on grade levels..

On Lord of the Rings... that was a gimme to me.. I almost wonder if the question should have been written with a "besides LOtR" caveat...

[Dutch]

First, I would like to say that if you took this IWS very serious and you are very knowledgable of American literature and fiction work in general, you should have done poorly at this. Obviously, but looking at the answers, there are many ways this could have gone.

I think I faired so well by sticking to my guns with Mark Twain.

For Whom the Bell Tolls? I think I would have gone with Metallica, but I admit I read the ideas for answers before I decided and that probably screwed up my ability to come up with an answer fairly.

[Desnudo]

LoTR never crossed my mind. Maybe it was going from thinking about what should be read in English class to what people enjoy reading day to day.

[albionmoonlight]

As you give a look to these results - I'd like to ask you to indulge my curiosity. My first draft of questions included a different #6 - intended to be pretty tough:

In responding to this thread, if you'd be kind enough to please post what you would have answered to this question -- please try to take it seriously (do a web search if you would have, that sort of thing) and answer before you see other answers in the thread.

The question appears below, after some spoiler-busting spacers:




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Here is the original final question:

6. For whom does the bell toll?
Thee

[MIJB#19]

Lord of the Rings saved the game for me to not go in the bottom three.
I don't even dare to give my answers...

[Radii]

I had the top answer in every category but the favorite book. LotR crossed my mind but I figured I'd go with my 'true' favorite piece of literature, which is 1984 (My favorite book is Jurassic Park, but I was going with well regarded 'classics' here).


Great contest, grats Tredwel.

Oh, and the bell tolls for thee.

[RPI-Fan]

I shockingly nailed three out of the first four, and didn't have a lone-answer on #2, but Saint-Exupery got NO other votes on #5, and I was clueless on #6, so just threw out Le Petit Prince as a wild guess.

[SplitPersonality1]

Shame on me. I completely forgot about To Kill A Mockingbird & Catcher in the Rye. I didn't think people would differentiate between 7th & 10th grade and answered Tom Sawyer for both questions. And that is what did me in.

Congrats Tredwel. Nice job.

Oh yes. It tolls for thee.

[Celeval]

My best showing so far, in only a smattering of entries. Fun stuff.