Death Moves Them To Stir... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin became the leader of the Soviet Union in the 1920s (after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924). His policies, such as the requisitioning of food grown in Ukraine, agricultural collectivisation and incarceration and / or death for perceived dissenters were so spectacularly unsuccessful and inappropriate that they have been spoofed and traduced to death in popular culture and by many intellectuals.

He is believed to be responsible for the deaths of millions of people.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was concerned with aims, goals and drives. He believed each person (probably) possessed a death drive (Thanatos), which was destructive and caused masochism, as well as a life drive (Eros). He "discovered" the subconscious, and his theories on that and transference are still used as excuses for people to psychoanalyse each other today.

He influenced 20th century culture greatly.

Answer: Tori Amos

Tori Amos is a singer known for using language creatively. The above statement prefaces the song "Happy Phantom" on Tori's first album "Little Earthquakes". Some dark motifs run through the songs on this album, which includes "Me and A Gun", which conveys an experience she had of being assaulted and threatened by a fan.

Answer: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was a highly imaginative and reflective author who suffered from a mental illness and did not have to work, for all of which she has been severely criticised by people. She's killed characters.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon was into glory. He built an empire which ruled Europe for a decade. He preferred to eat simple dishes and ate so quickly he often had indigestion, and drank little wine (usually claret or Burgundy) so it seems didn't consider fine dining an essential component of glorious living.

Answer: Leo Tolstoy

This quote is so good it could only have come from Leo Tolstoy, who was a great thinker. He is thought one of the best writers who ever lived. He excelled at maths as a child; his Kazan University teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn" and he became a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist.

Answer: Billy Connolly

This is pretty funny and wacky: typical Billy Connolly material. A Scottish comedian and actor, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease in the second decade of the 21st century. He believes people who cannot swear well ought not to swear until they've practiced with a rhythm machine and improved.

Answer: Aeschylus

Aeschylus lived in ancient Greece and has been called the "father of tragedy". A geographer claimed he became a tragedian after the god Dionysus visited him one night to exhort him to take up dramatizing.

Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre was an existentialist who believed people must create meaning in their lives themselves. One of his most famous quotes, "Hell is other people," from his play "No Exit", is often misinterpreted as misanthropic. "Hell is" allowing other people to define one's "essence" and make one's decisions for one.

Answer: George W Bush

George W Bush considered himself a "boon to the English language". His unique contributions to it are called "Bushisms" and have been compiled into books.