Question

This word titles a poem in which the speaker proclaims that “living matter” has become a “block of granite” in the “hazy Sahara,” “omitted from the map.” In one poem titled for this word, the speaker compares himself to the “king of a rainy country;” in another, “Anguish” plants a “black flag” on the speaker at a time when the “low, heavy sky weighs like a lid.” A collection that consists of fifty prose poems inspired by Gaspard de la Nuit, including (*) “Let’s Beat Up the Poor!”, is titled for (10[1])this quality “of Paris.” (10[1])A sequence of four poems titled for this word appears in an 1857 collection, in which it is the first word in the title of the section that follows an address to the “hypocrite reader.” For 10 points, name this term derived from humoral theory that (10[1])Charles Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil opposes to the “ideal.” ■END■

ANSWER: spleen [or “le spleen”; reject synonyms such as “boredom” or “dissatisfaction”]
<MB>
= Average correct buzz position

Back to tossups

Buzzes

PlayerTeamOpponentBuzz PositionValue
Henry AtkinsNeg 5! Playing Quizbowl, Liddy StyleThe Vulture's Guide to Buzz8910
Milan FernandezMilan et al.Parth et al.9310
Tony ChenThe Passion According to C.H.Cameron et al.13910

Summary

2023 BHSU @ Northwestern02/25/2023Y683%17%50%101.80
2023 BHSU @ Maryland03/11/2023Y3100%0%67%126.00
2023 BHSU @ Berkeley03/18/2023Y3100%0%0%110.67
2023 BHSU @ Yale04/08/2023Y3100%0%0%119.33
2023 BHSU @ Sheffield04/15/2023Y2100%0%0%113.00
2023 BHSU @ Waterloo04/15/2023Y3100%0%0%107.00