Answers to the Trivia Challenge: 2001

January:
Question: In what city would you hear the crying of Lot 49?
Answer: San Narciso
Winner: P. C., Cornwall, ON
Prize: A. B. McKillop's The Spinster and the Prophet

February:
Question: What was the name of Lady Chatterley's lover?
Answer: Oliver Mellors
Winner: C. N., New Providence, NJ (US)
Prize: Bernard Assiniwi's The Beothuk Saga

March:
Question: Who strikes the first blow in Milton's account of the war in heaven?
Answer: Abdiel
Winner: N. O., Lansing, MI (US)
Prize: Stephen E. Ambrose's Nothing Like It in the World

April:
Question: What is the name of the play Hamlet asks the players to perform?
Answer: Hamlet asks the players if they can perform The Murder of Gonzago (II.ii.531-532). However, when the King asks Hamlet what he calls the play, Hamlet refers to it as The Mousetrap (III.ii.232). I accepted either answer.
Winner: S. G., Marmora, ON
Prize: Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions

May:
Question: What high school does Duddy Kravitz graduate from?
Answer: Fletcher's Field High School
Winner: C. D., Kingston, ON
Prize: Patrick McGrath's Martha Peake

June:
Question: In what year were the Governor General's Literary Awards first presented?
Answer: 1937, to honour the best books of 1936. (This was a bit of a trick question, and I accepted either date. In the first edition of the Canadian Encyclopedia the entry for "Governor General's Literary Awards" begins by saying that they "were first presented in 1936." So if even they got it wrong . . . )
Winner: A. G., Ottawa, ON
Prize: Clark Blaise's Time Lord

July:
Question: For what movie did William Faulkner receive his first screenwriting credit?
Answer: Today We Live (1933)
Winner: M. S., St. John, NB
Prize: Robert Sedlack's The African Safari Papers

August:
Question: What was the Wife of Bath's name and how many husbands did she have?
Answer: Alisoun. Five.
Winner: M. C., Nelson, BC    
Prize: Mick Foley's Foley is Good

September:
Question: Name the islands, in order, that Gulliver visits on his travels.
Answer: This Trivia Challenge aroused more interest, and a greater variety of answers, than any thus far. When I first came up with the question, the only places I had in mind were Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and Houyhnhnmsland (or Houyhnhnms Land). Due to the volume and nature of the response, I felt it necessary to go back and re-read the book to come up with a list that was accurate and complete. To the best of my knowledge, a full answer (excluding England) would be:
- Lilliput
- Blefuscu
- Brobdingnag* (This is not technically correct, since Gulliver points out that Brobdingnag is not an island, but a peninsula.)
- a number of small islands after being set adrift by pirates
- Laputa
- Balinabarbi
- Maldonada* (This one is a little tricky. In the text, Maldonada is simply referred to as a port. On the large map at the beginning of Book III an island to the southwest of Luggnagg seems to be labeled "Maldoneda." However, on the map of Balinabarbi, a port town is labeled "Malonada," and this may be the place Gulliver is referring to. I can't make a lot of sense out of the directions.)
- Glubbdubdrib
- Luggnagg
- Japan
- Tenariff
- Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands
- Houyhnhnms Land
- small unnamed island
Winner: C. H., Brandon, MB
Prize: Julian Rios's Monstruary

October:
Question: What are the names of K.'s two assistants in The Castle?
Answer: Arthur and Jeremiah
Winnner: C. D., Kingston, ON
Prize: England Calling, ed. by Julia Bell and Jackie Gay

November:
Question: What are the names of the two volcanoes in Under the Volcano?
Answer: Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl
Winner: G. S., Vancouver, BC
Prize: Ken McGoogan's Fatal Passage

December:
Question: What breed of dog was Byron's Boatswain?
Answer: Newfoundland
Winner: J. W., Louisville, KY (US)
Prize: Nicholas Basbane's Patience and Fortitude