Garry Gillard > quizzes > Magus 4

Magus 4 quiz answers

4 December 2022

1. A well-known Irish-Australian novelist has just published Fanatic Heart, based on the life of an Irishman. But there already was a book of that title, published in 1997, a biography of a more famous Irishman. For one point each: Who is the novelist? What is the name of his subject? Who is the (Western Australian biographer?) And his subject? And who originated the phrase "fanatic heart"?

Tom Kenneally based the novel based on the life of Irish patriot John Mitchel (pictured). A. E. (Tony) Evans wrote the biography of John Boyle O'Reilly. And the phrase comes from a line of a poem by William Butler Yeats.

2. Who wrote, "Everybody is so clever nowadays. ... The thing has become an absolute public nuisance."?

The clever Oscar Wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest.

3. Which clever writer wrote and which character says, "I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat, and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room."

Raymond Chandler, in Farewell, My Lovely. Philip Marlowe is the detective.

4. Which actor in which film, directed by whom, says, "I’ve been accused of many things, Mrs. Mulwray, but never that [being honest]."

Jack Nicholson, as Jake Gittes, replying to Faye Dunaway (whose husband character thinks Jake is an honest man) in Chinatown, directed by the infamous Roman Polanski.

5. From what clever TV show do these lines come?

Jerry: What community? There’s a community?
Elaine: Of course there’s a community.
Jerry: All these years I’m living in a community, I had no idea.

Seinfeld.

6. Do you know the way to San Jose?

Give yourself a point if you even knew this is a song - plus more points if you thought of Dionne Warwick (sang it), Burt Bacharach (tune), Hal David (lyrics) - California, even. And then take a nap: this song came out in 1968 - you must be old and tired. I know I am.

7. What novel does the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye mention in the first sentence of the book? And what is his name, and those of both novelists?

Holden Caulfield is the first-person narrator of the novel by J. D. Salinger. The first sentence: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." The novel ends with Holden writing, "Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

Charles Dickens wrote the older novel.

8. As I write this question, an "Australian" film is about to win Best Film at the AACTA awards. How is Elvis Australian? No, don't answer that. Instead, name the director, the star, and I'd love you to know the name of the cinematographer.

Baz Luhrmann directed Austin Butler; Mandy Walker shot the film.

9. Shameless plug for local guy. There are several little books called Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne ... Perth, and so on. Kerryn Goldsworthy's Adelaide is excellent. I also really admired the Perth book, written by a guy who lives most of the time not far from me in Fremantle. He more often writes crime stories about a detective named Swann (as in the river?) What is this author's complicated name?

David Whish-Wilson. He has just published The Sawdust House, Fremantle Press, 2022.

10. A film directed a woman has for the first time been voted the best film of all time in the poll regularly by the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound. You might be able to spell her name right if you can remember it, but I'll bet you can't remember the exact full name of the film. What is it? And the name of the single actress, who is on the screen for over three hours?

Chantal Akerman directed Delphine Seyrig in Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.