Kicking Off Ray Bradbury Month

First of all, it was October...

So what better time to celebrate Ray Bradbury Month here at Macabre Republic?  Each and every day this October will be devoted to the author's autumnal novels and tales.  The familiar Features of the blog will be given a Bradbury slant, including a new (top 10) Countdown.  Also, fans who can't get enough of Something Wicked This Way Comes will take special interest in the series of posts titled "Ray's Vectors."

But today we start the month off with a trivia quiz.  Test your Bradbury expertise with the thirteen questions below (the answers appear in the Comments section of this post).  Good luck!


1.The title of Something Wicked This Way Comes is drawn from a line in what classic work of literature?


2.In The Halloween Tree, which of the following is not a stop on the Moundshroud-led tour of "the Undiscovered Country"?

(A) Notre Dame cathedral in Paris
(B) the pyramids of Egypt
(C) an oak grove in England
(D) a crematorium in Moscow
(E) the catacombs beneath a Mexican graveyard


3.In the concluding chapter of From the Dust Returned, what "gift" does Timothy give to the museum curator?


4.The recurring setting Green Town is based on Bradbury's home town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  True or False?


5.How does the mother character, Alice Leiber, die in the short story "The Small Assassin"?


6.In Something Wicked This Way Comes, what does Charles Halloway carve into the tip of the bullet that fells the Gypsy Dust Witch?


7.In The Halloween Tree, what do the boys use (at Mr. Moundshroud's urging) to build an impromptu kite?


8.Which of the following stories is not collected in The October Country?

(A) "The Wind"
(B) "The Illustrated Man"
(C) "Homecoming"
(D) "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone"
(E) "The Lake"


9.A fourth Bradbury novel (along with Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, and From the Dust Returned) that is set at the time of Halloween is...


10.In Something Wicked This Way Comes, where do Will and Jim hide out during the carnival people's parade through the streets of Green Town?


11.In The Halloween Tree, Pipkin's brush with death is caused by appendicitis.  True or False?


12.Match the attribute to the Family member in From the Dust Returned:

___  Cecy                                         (A) has giant wings
___  A Thousand-Times-     (B) ages backward
              Great Grandmere
___  Uncle Einar                        (C) The Sleeper Who Dreams
___  cousin Ran                          (D) invisible
___  Angelina Marguerite   (E) an Egyptian mummy


13.The following lines form the conclusion to what October Country story?

Many times as a little girl Clarisse had run on the beach sands, stepped on a jellyfish and screamed.  It was not so bad, finding an intact, gelatin-skinned jellyfish in one's living room.  One could step back from it.

It was when the jellyfish called you by name...

************************************************************
Your Score:

0-6 Correct:  For shame.  Your passport to October Country is going to be revoked.
7-9 Correct:  Not bad, but you might want to revisit your collection of Bradbury books.
10-13 Correct:  Congratulations! You've won an all-access pass to the dark carnival.