The Randsday Conference, which was a great success, featured my Objectivist trivia contest. Having used the questions before an audience of about 70, I know I can’t use them again, so I post them here for your edification and amusement.

Answers are at the bottom.

1. What was Francisco doing when he first appears in real time (not in flashback)?
2. Complete AR’s famous statement: “I’m not brave enough . . .”
3. What is a primus?
4. When Comrade Sonia got pregnant, who was the father?
5. Fill in the blank: The township of Stanton began with a .
6. What was Mrs. Keating’s (Peter’s mother) first name?
7. Whose “chest and stomach sallied forth, flying the colors of his inner soul”?
8. When and where did AR first publish her identification that “A right cannot be violated except by physical force. . . . No man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against another man.”
9. What character says to what other character: “You’ve never known a human emotion. You’re worse than any of us. I think you’re the rottenest person I’ve ever met. I’m inexcusably, contemptibly, completely in love with you. …”
10. What was the title of the article by Ayn Rand that was published in Reader’s Digest?
11. What is the proper pronunciation of the GPU agent who loved Kira?
12. What real person whom Ayn Rand had met was the springboard for Dr. Robert Stadler?
13. Where exactly was Ayn Rand when she discovered the answer to how to prove her moral code?
14. Finish this sentence from Galt’s speech: Those who say that man is unable to perceive a reality undistorted by their senses mean …
15. What activity did Ayn Rand say stretched her brain and actually increased her intelligence?
16. How long did AR think it would take her to write Galt’s Speech and how long did it actually take her?
17. What is it that is implicit in every concept but which is made explicit only in axiomatic concepts?
18. What remark by Frank O’Connor is history’s greatest understatement?
19. Who “was a small, attractive woman, not as beautiful as she assumed”?
20. Name the 4 U.S. states that were not mentioned in Atlas Shrugged?
21. What color were Hank Rearden’s eyes? His hair?
22. Complete the exclamation by Mr. Thompson to Wesley Mouch: “That’s it, that’s the line . . .”

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Trivia answers

1. What was Francisco doing when he first appears in real time (not in flashback)? Playing marbles with semi-precious stones
2. Complete AR’s famous statement: “I’m not brave enough . . . to be a coward: I see the consequences too clearly.“
3. What is a primus? The makeshift cooking stove under the Soviets
4. When Comrade Sonia got pregnant, who was the father? Pavel Syerov
5. The township of Stanton began with a dump
6. What was Mrs. Keating’s (Peter’s mother) first name? Louisa
7. Whose “chest and stomach sallied forth, flying the colors of his inner soul”? Ralston Holcombe’s
8. When and where did AR first publish her identification that “A right cannot be violated except by physical force. . . . No man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against another man.” 1947,”Textbook of Americanism”
9. What character says to what other character: “You’ve never known a human emotion. You’re worse than any of us. I think you’re the rottenest person I’ve ever met. I’m inexcusably, contemptibly, completely in love with you. …” Adrienne Knowland to Steve Ingalls in Think Twice
10. What was the title of the article by Ayn Rand that was published in Reader’s Digest? “Only Path to Tomorrow”
11. What is the proper pronunciation of the GPU agent who loved Kira? An-DRAY Ta-GON-ov
12. What real person whom Ayn Rand had met was the springboard for Dr. Robert Stadler? J. Robert Oppenheimer
13. Where exactly was Ayn Rand when she discovered the answer to how to prove her moral code? Walking up Park Avenue South after eating (lunch?) at the Belmore Cafeteria, near 28th St., thinking about what she called “values for weeds.”
14. Finish this sentence from Galt’s speech: Those who say that man is unable to perceive a reality undistorted by their senses mean … they are unwilling to perceive a reality undistorted by their feelings.”
15. What activity did Ayn Rand say stretched her brain and actually increased her intelligence? Writing Galt’s speech
16. How long did AR think it would take her to write Galt’s Speech and how long did it actually take her? Estimated: 3 months; actual: 2 years
17. What is it that is implicit in every concept but which is made explicit only in axiomatic concepts? The omission of psychological time-measurements
18. What remark by Frank O’Connor is history’s greatest understatement? “That would make a good novel. ”He said this when Atlas was first conceived. AR had been talking on the phone with an acquaintance who was telling her that she had a duty to write a work on philosophy because people need it. She said, “Oh, they do? What if I went on strike? What if all the creative minds of the world went on strike? That would make a good novel.” She just made that as an aside and the conversation went on to other topics, but Frank picked up on it. Thank God!
19. Who “was a small, attractive woman, not as beautiful as she assumed”? Señora Gonzales
20. Name the 4 U.S. states that were not mentioned in Atlas Shrugged? MD, NC, SC, WA
21. What color were Hank Rearden’s eyes? His hair? icy blue, ash blond
22. Complete the exclamation by Mr. Thompson to Wesley Mouch: “That’s it, that’s the line . . . tone it down and dress it up and get your press boys to chant it.“

Email the author - hb@harrybinswanger.com