The_Continental's TC #5. win a free sealed MvC2 (xbox) KAW WINS IT!(again)

The coolest thing about this question is that I'm learning all kinds of stuff about Africa's political history that I never knew before. It's very cool. Although I thought this would be an easy one, it's starting to seem that this is the toughest one I've asked yet.

I'll say it again though, that every part of the question is important in some way, and that there is only one answer that fully addresses each part of the question.

Another hint is that the answer to this question is very similar in structure to my previous questions - y'know - all these different people, what ties them together?

Remember, every part of the question is important, right down to the grammar.

[quote name='user']I don't think he's in the habit of giving nods, Logan...in fact I'm starting to enjoy how elusive our quizmaster is with his replies :)

while I'm stumped, T_C, here's another amusing connection I thought of while flipping through my DVD collection last night. I'm pretty sure this isn't what you're looking for, but it's a nice bit of trivia that fits the question...

Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein are the Pullitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporters who collaborated on the book All the President's Men, a fictionalized account of the Watergate scandal. After the release of the movie version featuring Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman (respectively), many people referred to the reporters as the singular "Woodstein" (which would be a 20th century reporter).

now a lesser known fact about the film is that the Publications Control Board of South Africa nearly banned it. they demanded dozens of bizarre cuts be made before it could be approved for wide release. this really pissed Redford off, and he supposedly threatened the SA government with a Hollywood boycott of ALL South African theaters for films made by American directors/producers. the movie ended up being released, unedited...

This was 1976; and, as we know now, the South African apartheid government was deep in the midst of its information scandal (SA equivalent to Watergate), the result of which caused Prime Minister John Vorster to resign in '78, being replaced by Botha, the Chief of Army. Regarding the censures, SA's apartheid regime didn't want to risk the public seeing the movie uncut and go on to investigate the administration in their own country, thus exposing the corruption amidst Department of Information (which is precisely what happened).

anyway, goodluck to everyone else, and kudos to whomever solves this puppy...hope you manage to get it before 9PM tonight![/quote]
 
[quote name='The_Continental']
Remember, every part of the question is important, right down to the grammar. [/quote]

Does that mean there is significance to the phrase "South African white racists" instead of saying "white South African racists?" Just thinking out load for everyone's benefit...
 
Alex Haley, born in Ithaca, NY became a reporter, then assistant editor, and then editor for the Coast Guard publication "Helmsman".

Alex Haley is best known for writing the Novel "Roots", but also helped write the Authobigraphy of Malcolm X, which became a movement standard of the Black Panther party.
 
something I said in an earlier post - "That said, I suppose I need to drop another clue - by saying "literary connection," I am referring to a connection between those in literature, not those who create literature. That is - characters. "

[quote name='kaw']Alex Haley, born in Ithaca, NY became a reporter, then assistant editor, and then editor for the Coast Guard publication "Helmsman".

Alex Haley is best known for writing the Novel "Roots", but also helped write the Authobigraphy of Malcolm X, which became a movement standard of the Black Panther party.[/quote]
 
Could be.

[quote name='Backlash'][quote name='The_Continental']
Remember, every part of the question is important, right down to the grammar. [/quote]

Does that mean there is significance to the phrase "South African white racists" instead of saying "white South African racists?" Just thinking out load for everyone's benefit...[/quote]
 
To clarify the question on that post - I'll do it by example.

"literary connection" = "The Legend of Hell House" (Matheson) and "The Haunting" (Jackson) both involve a team of investigators that spend a period of time in a haunted house.

Does that help?

Also, this question is designed so that once someone posts the correct answer, everyone will be able to verify it. Looking it up specifically however, should prove very difficult.

[quote name='deathcabforcutie']haha your trivia even has members looking to other boards for help...

http://forum.teamxbox.com/archive/index.php/t-301236.html[/quote]
 
btw, my first 2 years of High School were in ithaca.

edit- Oh, wait, you and I have already had this converastion Kaw.

[quote name='kaw']Alex Haley, born in Ithaca, NY became a reporter, then assistant editor, and then editor for the Coast Guard publication "Helmsman".

Alex Haley is best known for writing the Novel "Roots", but also helped write the Authobigraphy of Malcolm X, which became a movement standard of the Black Panther party.[/quote]
 
[quote name='The_Continental']Thanks for the bump.

MvC 2 is still up for grabs in this contest. This should be easy for people that read a lot of fiction.[/quote]

Yeah, extremely easy. Or extremely tough, one or the other.
 
The following is from a pm conversation with Backlash - I think everyone can benefit from it:

Ahhhh - but the Northern States of are Europe Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, but The Sun Also Rises takes place in Paris.

You are however, on the right track as far as the structure of the answer. The answer is exactly like that.

"Northern States" refers to America.

You mind if I post this to the thread?

[quote name='Backlash']The Power of One is about racism in South Africa, and the main character is a boxer. In The Sun Also Rises, the main character is a journalist (a US ex-pat living in Europe, but I have heard the northern half of Europe referred to as the Northern states) and also a boxer. Also, Hemingway was an avid boxer. So, the main character as a boxer is the literary tie.

[quote name='The_Continental']It's not what I'm looking for, but what did you have in mind for how those books address the question?

Remember, every single part of the question is important.

[quote name='Backlash']***Removed at the request of Backlash***[/quote][/quote][/quote]
 
I read a few books about Africa in Ap English once....most boring crap ever. Poisonwood Bible and HEart Of Darkness. I swear I wanted to die during the whole lesson plan. This doesn't have anyhting to do with trivia....but at least you know to avoid those books.
 
I have never heard of Poisonwood Bible, but Heart of Darkness isn't totally without merit. It was ok, but is also the basis for Apocalypse Now (which I hated, but most people like).
 
The literary connection to me looks to be alternate-reality books by Harry Turtledove.

In "The Guns of the South" South African racist time-travelers sell guns to General Lee of the Southern States to turn the tide of the Civil War.

In another Turtledove book "How Few Remain", thanks to the efforts of journalists like Northern States journalist Samuel Clemens, the nation witnessed the clash of human dreams and passions. In 1862, the Confederacy won the War of the Rebellion (not by interference of time travelers, as in Turtledove's Guns of the South, but by their own skillful military and diplomatic efforts). The defeated North has stewed for nearly 20 years. In this alternate history, the South exercises an opportunity to purchase Sonora and Chihuahua from the bankrupt Mexican Empire, having already wrested Cuba from Spain. James G. Blaine, now president of the United States, arrogantly seizes upon this pretext and invades with the aim of reunification. Lincoln has become an outcast of the Republican Party and preaches socialism while Custer is a frustrated and embittered colonel on the frontier, Samuel Clemens a fiery Northern States newspaper editor in San Francisco, and Rosecrans the inadequate head of the Union Army.

The literary connection are the Harry Turtledove books titled, "The Guns of the South" (Fantastic Civil War series) and "How Few Remain" (Great War series), both of which dealt with an alternate history of the Civil War.

Please be right ... [-o< ... Please be right.
 
Oh Oh OH! half-right!

"Guns of the South" by Turtledove is, in fact, the "white south African racists" reference. And, yes, they did travel back in time to change the outcome of the civil war.

"How Few Remain" is not the other book however. The book required for the answer is very similar to GOTS - that is, the literary connection is much more concise. The only clue I can offer in that regard is that Clemens is a northern states reporter, not a Northern States reporter. I'll leave it at that.

but you've left me with an interesting problem. You've done most of the legwork for this question, and I'd hate for someone to steal the prize out from under you. Good luck to all I guess.


[quote name='kaw']The literary connection to me looks to be alternate-reality books by Harry Turtledove.

In "The Guns of the South" South African racist time-travelers sell guns to General Lee of the Southern States to turn the tide of the Civil War.

In another Turtledove book "How Few Remain", thanks to the efforts of journalists like Northern States journalist Samuel Clemens, the nation witnessed the clash of human dreams and passions. In 1862, the Confederacy won the War of the Rebellion (not by interference of time travelers, as in Turtledove's Guns of the South, but by their own skillful military and diplomatic efforts). The defeated North has stewed for nearly 20 years. In this alternate history, the South exercises an opportunity to purchase Sonora and Chihuahua from the bankrupt Mexican Empire, having already wrested Cuba from Spain. James G. Blaine, now president of the United States, arrogantly seizes upon this pretext and invades with the aim of reunification. Lincoln has become an outcast of the Republican Party and preaches socialism while Custer is a frustrated and embittered colonel on the frontier, Samuel Clemens a fiery Northern States newspaper editor in San Francisco, and Rosecrans the inadequate head of the Union Army.

The literary connection are the Harry Turtledove books titled, "The Guns of the South" (Fantastic Civil War series) and "How Few Remain" (Great War series), both of which dealt with an alternate history of the Civil War.

Please be right ... [-o< ... Please be right.[/quote]
 
In "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove South African racist time-travelers sell guns to General Lee of the Southern States to turn the tide of the Civil War.

In "Bring the Jubilee" by Ward Moore the main character Hodge Backmaker picks up an education as apprentice to a cynical printer (of the Northern States) who supports the underground 'Grand Army' (the North hopes to rise again). Eventually our hero, a self-taught historian, joins an eccentric community of scholars and has a turbulent affair with a brilliant female physicist working on the mysteries of time.

She offers Hodge his big research opportunity: to visit 1863 and study the Battle of Gettysburg from a safe vantage point. Hodge ends up changing the course of the battle and the war.

The literary connection is "The Guns of the South" and "Bring the Jubilee" deals with two sets of time travelers (South African white racists and the Northern States reporter), who both ultimately turn the outcome of the Civil War.
 
Kaw,

You've won yet again - I might as well skip the trivia and go ahead and just send you games from now on ;)

A free sealed copy of MvC2 is yours. Unfortunately, I've purged my pm box since the last time you won, I'll need you to pm me your address again.

I must ask though - how did you come to your answer? - do you read as much sci-fi (SF) as I do? lastly, now that you've come to the answer - do you feel it was a fair question?

Congrats!

[quote name='kaw']In "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove South African racist time-travelers sell guns to General Lee of the Southern States to turn the tide of the Civil War.

In "Bring the Jubilee" by Ward Moore the main character Hodge Backmaker picks up an education as apprentice to a cynical printer (of the Northern States) who supports the underground 'Grand Army' (the North hopes to rise again). Eventually our hero, a self-taught historian, joins an eccentric community of scholars and has a turbulent affair with a brilliant female physicist working on the mysteries of time.

She offers Hodge his big research opportunity: to visit 1863 and study the Battle of Gettysburg from a safe vantage point. Hodge ends up changing the course of the battle and the war.

The literary connection is "The Guns of the South" and "Bring the Jubilee" deals with two sets of time travelers (South African white racists and the Northern States reporter), who both ultimately turn the outcome of the Civil War.[/quote]
 
Totally - this contest took a month and a half for someone to answer.

Up for contest # 6 - (if I can grab an extra one tonight) a free sealed copy of Kingdom Under Fire for the xbox... the trivia question will be forthcoming.
 
Congratulations kaw. I'm a big Harry Turtledove fan, but I haven't gotten around to reading Guns of the South yet. Great question, Continental.
 
[quote name='The_Continental']Kaw,

You've won yet again - I might as well skip the trivia and go ahead and just send you games from now on ;)

A free sealed copy of MvC2 is yours. Unfortunately, I've purged my pm box since the last time you won, I'll need you to pm me your address again.

I must ask though - how did you come to your answer? - do you read as much sci-fi (SF) as I do? lastly, now that you've come to the answer - do you feel it was a fair question?

Congrats!

[/quote]

Wow, thank you! This one took quite a bit of effort, but it was totally worth it. As you know, I've been wanting this game for quite some time!

I really had no clue what the answer was until you gave the hint this afternoon, "Think Sci-fi". At least now it was narrowed down to a genre. I'd like to be able to say I read science-fiction all the time, and it just took a month and a half to pull the answer from the deep recesses of my brain. But that would be a big lie.

Unfortunately, I don't read that much, and the only way I got to the answer was through some grueling Googling. I knew from earlier that "Northern States" was key. After what seemed like hours of trial and error, I just kept plugging in searches with words relating to "Northern States", "South Africa", "Science fiction", etc. Did I mention, I really wanted this game? I think what finally cracked the case, was when I typed in "civil war" along with some other search terms. I finally saw a pattern in the results. A series of alternate reality books kept coming up, all with Harry Turtledove as the author.

Things were looking up, and with some more searches I found the link to the South African neo-nazis in "The Guns of the South". While doing my research on that I stumbled across the Sam Clemens journalist reference in "How Few Remain", and thought I had the whole thing figured out. I hastily typed my first answer, only to find out I was half-correct. And worse yet, I just gave everyone half of the answer!

Now I was totally stumped. Searches for "Northern States", and anything related to the reporter were coming up nil. I finally started combing through all the reader reviews on Amazon.com for the Turtledove books. One of the reviews mentioned a list of books one might enjoy if they like the Turtledove alternate reality series. After researching the list of books "Bring the Jubilee" seemed to merit closer investigation. I found that both books did indeed involve the Civil War, and both involved time travel. But nowhere was their any mention of "The Northern States". I finally found a synopsis of the book which mentioned Hodge was an apprentice to a cynical printer. Maybe this printer was printing the Northern States? It was worth a shot. I wanted to get the answer in before someone sniped the prize, so I gave it a try, and it was right! Persistence paid off.

I must say these books sound quite interesting. And when I do read fiction, it is always of the sci-fi/fantasy type. So when I make some time to read again, maybe I'll pick up some of these books, and see what they're really all about... Right after some asskicking in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. :wink:

Thanks again Continental! Another brilliant contest! :)
 
Sweet-O... I'm glad that you were able to get the answer by doing some hard-core googling. That way I know it was a fair question - that is, anyone could get it with enough hard work, not just science fiction dorks.

About a month ago, I thought the Northern States thing was a dead giveaway. In "Bring the Jubilee," after the south wins the Civil War, the northern states actually become a proper noun. "Northern States" - like Idaho, or Canada etc... and the reporter was from the Northern States.

I can't think of any other book that uses Northern States as a proper noun...

y'know I think I might need to step away from these Twilight Zoney / Sci-Fi questions - you're too good at answering 'em.

I'll ship your game Saturday morning.
 
[quote name='The_Continental']Kaw,

You've won yet again - I might as well skip the trivia and go ahead and just send you games from now on ;)

A free sealed copy of MvC2 is yours. Unfortunately, I've purged my pm box since the last time you won, I'll need you to pm me your address again.

I must ask though - how did you come to your answer? - do you read as much sci-fi (SF) as I do? lastly, now that you've come to the answer - do you feel it was a fair question?

Congrats!

[/quote]

And to answer your second question, I do think it was a fair question. I thought I had it at Samuel Clemens, but in retrospect, it was still too broad to be the literary connection. This one would have been cake for someone that has read both of the books, luckily for me, you are the only person on the board (at least who gave this thread any thought) who has! Very tough, but very fair since I was still able to come up with the answer and had never read either book. Thanks again - it was worth all the work.
 
I have to confess :oops: :roll: - I've only read Guns of the South . . . I never finished Bring the Jubilee - a little too boring IMHO.

[quote name='kaw'][quote name='The_Continental']Kaw,

You've won yet again - I might as well skip the trivia and go ahead and just send you games from now on ;)

A free sealed copy of MvC2 is yours. Unfortunately, I've purged my pm box since the last time you won, I'll need you to pm me your address again.

I must ask though - how did you come to your answer? - do you read as much sci-fi (SF) as I do? lastly, now that you've come to the answer - do you feel it was a fair question?

Congrats!

[/quote]

And to answer your second question, I do think it was a fair question. I thought I had it at Samuel Clemens, but in retrospect, it was still too broad to be the literary connection. This one would have been cake for someone that has read both of the books, luckily for me, you are the only person on the board (at least who gave this thread any thought) who has! Very tough, but very fair since I was still able to come up with the answer and had never read either book. Thanks again - it was worth all the work.[/quote]
 
I read Guns of the South a long time ago - great book. I never read any other Turtedove books, unfortunately :( I am looking forward to the next question!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top