Café de Nuit

Okay, people have tried the online quiz about Gothic literature on another thread, and found it somewhat lacking: either buggy, inconsistent, or too easy to pass by deduction rather than knowledge. So why don't we try to come up with a better one, right here?

Since it's just for fun, I'm starting it off with a comic book question, to show that this one's open to all facets of the genre. Whoever guesses this one can ask the next question, and so on.

(And no, it's not multiple choice. I'm a professor myself IRL, and I hate giving those kinds of tests; this was my idea, so we'll do it my way. Think, don't just memorize, you lazy brats! Nyah nyah! )


Question #1:

What DC Comics vampire turned against his own kind, hunting evil all over the world to atone for his sins, over two decades before Angel and others made it a cliche?

Was it Andrew Bennett? If so . . . here's my question:

In her novel "Quincy Morris: Vampire" how did P.N. Elrod account for Dracula's mysterious resurrection after his death in the original Stoker novel? i.e. how did he survive the attack from Van Helsing et al at the end of the first novel?

EDIT: OK, to make it more clear what I'm asking, how did Dracula manage to escape alive when Quincy's knife stabbed through his heart and Jonathan's cut his throat/cut off his head? How did he fool the heroes into thinking he had died?

A close reading of the final pages of Dracula and a little creative license and you've got the answer. Read the death scene. Think of the powers a typical gothic vampire (a la Strahd or Dracula) has. How would Dracula escape alive and still make it look as Stoker described it in the end of the book? If you want, I can post the exact sentence in the book I'm referring to, but IMO that would make it laughably easy.

Come on guys!!

Correct! Finally! I was starting to think I was the only one here who remembered the old House of Mystery series.

Come on guys! Its not that hard -- even if you haven't read it, do a wiki search or google

LadySoth wrote:Come on guys! Its not that hard -- even if you haven't read it, do a wiki search or google

But that doesn't really feel sporting-- I mean, it's not like you've framed this as an information-based scavenger hunt...

Hmmmm, good point, Brandi. How about if we allow 48 hours for people to come up with the answers from memory, then throw it open for web-searches or physically looking up the references? If nobody's guessed within two days, then the fastest search-engine-user can claim the win.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:Hmmmm, good point, Brandi. How about if we allow 48 hours for people to come up with the answers from memory, then throw it open for web-searches or physically looking up the references? If nobody's guessed within two days, then the fastest search-engine-user can claim the win.

48 hours is too much time, especially if everyone is going for the obscure questions

Most forums I've been on with user-generated fun quizzes will set the time limit well under 48 hours. The highest I've ever seen is 24 hours, and they more usually gravitate to 8 to 12 hours.

I've gone ahead and edited my initial post to make the question more clear/ and perhaps easier to answer. Hopefully we'll get some new responses and a new question! Even guesses at this point would be interesting. I can't believe everyone gave up so easily on this already

LadySoth wrote:I've gone ahead and edited my initial post to make the question more clear/ and perhaps easier to answer. Hopefully we'll get some new responses and a new question! Even guesses at this point would be interesting. I can't believe everyone gave up so easily on this already

Well, the only thing that occurs to me is that Dracula somehow got hold of his conscience and movements just before Quincy's knife hit him, and he turned to mist at that instant. Mina confused the moments, with the action being so quick, and she thought the body had turned to dust and then vanished.

As for Harker's on the throat, that's not an instant kill.

Actually, there's a second chance. The book does not say anything about severing the head of burning the body, so I presume it might have stayed there impaled. Then, Dracula might have pulled a Duke Gundar trick and wait for someone to remove the pinning knives and walk again.

You're right Ali! In Quincy Morris:Vampire Dracula escapes certain death and fools his enemies by dissolving into a mist at the last second, fooling Mina and everyone else.

Your turn to post a question . . .

LadySoth wrote:You're right Ali! In Quincy Morris:Vampire Dracula escapes certain death and fools his enemies by dissolving into a mist at the last second, fooling Mina and everyone else.

Your turn to post a question . . .

Hmmm... that's hard for me to find good questions, as I'm not that good in gothic literature. So here goes a tangent:

In the Count of Monte Cristo, a famous gothic villain is mentioned a few times. Who?

Is the Answer Manfred?
.....you made me read so much to find that and i hope thats the answer.

Delyun wrote:Is the Answer Manfred?
.....you made me read so much to find that and i hope thats the answer.

Lol, yes it is correct, given how I put the question, but I was thinking of someone else. I was just going to edit the question today to allow for a second character, that is mentioned more times than Manfred and in direct comparison to the count. Manfred appears 6 times in the romance, this one appears 10.

If you wish Delyun, you can pose your question, though I would still hope someone would give me the other name.

will look for the other one then. I am not good at making questions . I do like looking for the answers. So Ail or Lady Soth post the next question