I'm not familiar with Chabon's work, but if I
remember correctly, _...Kavalier and Clay_ is about comic
book creators. I'd say that between that and the fact
that it is a kind of current-events-general-knowledge
thingy, it fits in a trash tournament. I suppose it could
also work within the context of a lit pack, though not
if the paxck already contains a number of lit
questions regarding marginal subjects.
Of course,
Sherlock Holmes is well within the range of trash
questions... I'd be inclined to allow him as a lit question,
but only if the clues all pertained to the books (and
not to movie/TV versions, etc.), and only if the
packet weren't already heavy on "borderline" stuff, as
before.
Sylvia Plath, I cannot judge. The fact is
that I dislike her more than any other "legitimate"
writer I can think of right now. (Well, any writer I've
read... I could probably replace Plath easily enough if I
deliberately sought out books I wasn't planning to like. And I
admit that there are times I'm angrier at Wordsworth
than I am at Plath.) Still, she gets enough critical
attention that I can't begrudge her the right to be in the
"canon". I'm not sure under what circumstances you could
fit her into a trash pack, though.