Anyone see this? None of them got that? Seriously?
I thought it was one of the easier Final Jeopardy questions I’ve seen in that type of category (literature.) It was the first thing I thought of, and I’ve never even read the book! I actually thought it couldn’t have been what I was thinking of, merely because it sounded too obvious.
For those wondering, the question was something like:
Political power…is merely a tool used by one class to rule over another class."
The answer was:
The Communist Manifesto
One didn’t guess anything, one guessed Das…something or other, and the other guessed The Prince.
It was obviously Marx, but Manifesto or Kapital? I decided to go with the Manifesto (on the couch at home) but I almost talked myself into saying Das Kapital.
Yeah, the category was 19th century literature. I guess since I don’t know anything about the subject, I don’t know about and wouldn’t have been confused by Marx’s other book, and so would only have thought to guess Manifesto.
The Jeopardy! writers do this sort of thing from time to time, and it annoys me to no end. They might as well have asked “What book by Karl Marx am I thinking of?” Silly me for guessing Das Kapital.
It’s easy if you know it in your living room, with nothing at stake.
I’ve been at that podium. My wife was in the audience - she thought the Final Jeopardy question was easy, and thus was sure I’d get it wrong. We generally don’t have overlapping expertise.
I thought Communist Manifesto first, Das Kapital second. I settled on CM before the tune stopped playing. I think the contestants were too young to have much knowledge of how much influence those documents had in the world.
