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Elementary, my dear Watson!

August 27, 2008 · 9 Comments

Tonight I’m playing the literary detective, trying to figure out the answers to this. My favorite questions would be:

Whose blush could heat bath water?
Which large fruit squashed two women?
Whose amputated leg was returned in a brown-paper parcel?
Which novel opens with seasick passengers singing for a showbiz evangelist?

And, saving the best for last:
Which light-fingered lesbian was imprisoned in a lunatic asylum?

Anyone up for this lit-quiz? Any suggestions are, of course, welcome.

Categories: literature · play
Tagged: ,

9 responses so far ↓

  • me // August 28, 2008 at 2:54 pm

    I know all the above… could do with help on a couple of the others if you fancy swapping ;)

  • pynchonette // August 28, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    Yeah, I know all the above, too. Or so I think. Is the “amputated leg” really from a Boell novel? So I’ve heard, haven’t read that book myself, though I minored in German lit. Anyway, I’m still puzzled about the following: Trains 1 & 4, Madhouses 2, Bodily Oddities 5, Criminals 5. What shall we swap?

  • me // August 28, 2008 at 9:00 pm

    lets start with bodily oddities 5 – Julius Gorner – in “Devil May Care” by Sebastian Faulks :)

    Aeroplanes 1 would be nice to know, thanking you muchly :)

    What do you wanna swap next lol

  • pynchonette // August 29, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    Not completely sure about aeroplanes 1 – still need to check that. It’s a rather obscure poem, couldn’t find it online, but I’ll browse through a copy of the guy’s collected poems later today. If my intuition proves correct, I’ll write a separate post about it :D

  • pynchonette // August 29, 2008 at 3:05 pm

    Mystery solved. Read new post :P

  • me // August 30, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    i think you are 100% correct :D

    What others do you need help with?

  • pynchonette // August 31, 2008 at 8:15 am

    Trains 4 & Criminals 5 would be much appreciated :D

  • me // August 31, 2008 at 11:04 am

    I believe Criminals #5 to be ‘A Doll’s House’ (Ibsen)

    I still need to get Madhouses #2 – then I am completed, I think…..

    Have you managed to find the answers you needed to the questions in your initial post yet?

  • pynchonette // August 31, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    Trains 4 and I’m done, I guess…Did you figure that out?
    I believe Madhouses 2 is “Dark House” in Sylvia Plath’s “Poem for a Birthday” sequence. Dark house, cellars, tunnels, references to the madness of the speaker etc. What do you think?

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