Interesting might be a bit of a subjective term, but there are tournaments that are definitely more interesting than others. I want to offer an example of what I mean as an interesting question. Take a look at this bonus:
It could have easily been written like this:2. In The Missing Pieces, Henri Lefebvre suggests that this novel was unfinished since “there is no end to human stupidity.” For 10 points each:
[10] Name this 1863 novel which Julian Barnes called a “vomitorium of pre-digested book learning.” Its title characters are a pair of Parisian clerks who “broach the origin of ideas.”
ANSWER: Bouvard and Pecuchet [or Bouvard et Pecuchet]
[10] Bouvard and Pecuchet is often published with this short nonfiction work, which humorously defines absinthe as an “extra-violent poison … that has killed more soldiers than the Bedouin.”
ANSWER: Dictionary of Received Ideas [or Dictionary of Accepted Ideas; or Le Dictionnaire des idées reçues]
[10] This French author supposedly read approximately 1,500 books to write Bouvard and Pecuchet; he used a much simpler naturalistic tone to write A Sentimental Education.
ANSWER: Gustave Flaubert
So functionally, there is nothing different gameplay wise about the second example , but the first question is superior in just terms of interest. Even if you know nothing about Flaubert, you get an idea of his wit from the anecdote about absinthe, his intense erudition that informed Bouvard and Pecuchet, and may be tempted to check out his work now. And if somehow Bouvard and Pecuchet is your favorite book ever, you've probably never heard of Henri Lefebvre's The Missing Pieces - but your curiosity should be piqued - you'll eventually find out it is a delightful prose poem cataloging works of art that have been lost to the sands of time.The title characters of this novel attempt to conquer various fields of knowledge, including farming, archeology, history, literature, politics, philosophy, gymnastics, love, religion, teaching. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this 1863 novel named for a pair of Parisian clerks.
ANSWER: Bouvard and Pecuchet [or Bouvard et Pecuchet]
[10] Bouvard and Pecuchet is often published with this short nonfiction work, a reference work satirizing the customs of the second French Empire.
ANSWER: Dictionary of Received Ideas [or Dictionary of Accepted Ideas; or Le Dictionnaire des idées reçues]
[10] This French author wrote Bouvard and Pecuchet; his other books include A Sentimental Education.
ANSWER: Gustave Flaubert
When you're volume writing, it's very easy to produce the example-2 style of questions. But I think our game would be much richer if you just take the extra time and aim for the style of question 1. After all, every bonus is seven or eight lines, and for most teams 2 of those lines are devoted to a bonus part whose answer they know or are going to get - I think it would be great if those two lines could be used to teach something fun and/or new every time. Some tournaments have done this better than others - one of the reasons why I love Westbrook's and Rob Carson's writing so much is that they produce questions that are whimsical and interesting from a "I've never heard of this" before level. As I stick around the game more, I think the tournaments that are worth playing the most are the ones that just continuously try to teach.
Here's an example of a bonus that bugged the hell out of me:
Seriously. What the hell? This bonus teaches you nothing but titles. It pretty much ruins the beauty of Alejo Carpentier like a postcolonialist interpretation would also ruin his novels. Here's a quick and simple way of knowing when you're definitely doing something wrong: if your tossup's or bonus's sentence supplementary eponymous information can be quickly replaced with other named things and it still makes sense, you've probably written an uninteresting question, by which I mean:10. This novel features a group of four revolutionaries including the voodoo priest Ogé, and the cousins Sofia and Esteban. For 10 points each:
[10] Identify this novel in which Carlos declines to follow Victor Hugues in his quest to gain power.
ANSWER: Explosion in a Cathedral [or El Siglo de las Luces or The Century of Lights]
[10] This author of Explosion in a Cathedral also wrote The Lost Steps and The Kingdom of This World.
ANSWER: Alejo Carpentier y Valmont
[10] Carpentier was an author from this country which was also the home of Guillermo Cabrera Infante and Jose Marti.
ANSWER: Republic of Cuba [or Republica de Cuba]
is still a valid sentence construction, and it's a good sign that your bonus is definitely not interesting.[10]Carpentier was an author from this country which was also the home of Nicholas Guillen and Daína Chaviano.
This year and last year I cut a huge amount of philosophy and other science answer lines in submissions. A lot of the reasoning was that the clues weren't great, but it's also just the case that sometimes the answerline is pretty flawed and you can't write an "interesting" question out of it. I received a TU on biotite micas this year for nationals that was workable - I chose to cut it because although biotite mica is an OK answerline for ACF Nationals, but the interest in said tossup goes to zero with a bullet - all of the clues are going to be various named processes or things that you aren't likely to learn through study. But if I receive a usable answerline - such as on Darcy's law, I'll gladly dig up all the clues that will make it into an interesting question.
Ike