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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the purpose of the group as explained by the tourist wearing the lapel pin?

2. Metzger tells Mike Fallopian he is so right-wing that he's left-wing, and possibly a Marxist, since he is invoking the _______theory.

3. How many errors did Genghis Cohen find in the stamp collection Oedipa showed him?

4. At Professor Bortz's house, Oedipa asks Bortz to tell her about the historical Wharfinger. Bortz sneers, saying he can only talk about __________.

5. A young female graduate student reveals to Oedipa that ________ drowned himself in the Pacific Ocean two days ago.

Short Essay Questions

1. The overall crisis Oedipa faces by the end of the novel could be summed up how?

2. Describe the Nefastis Machine as it was explained by Stanley Koteks.

3. What is Pynchon ridiculing through all of Oedipa's in-depth research into the Trystero?

4. Why does Oedipa consider her job as co-executor to be similar to Driblette's job as director of a play?

5. What is the story behind the founding of Inamorati Anonymous?

6. In addition to visiting John Nefastis, why does Oedipa need to go to Berkeley?

7. What does the historical marker that Oedipa remembers seeing at Fangoso Lagoons commemorate?

8. What is significant about the fact that the founder of Tristero, Hernando Joaquin de Tristero y Calavera, called himself The Disinherited?

9. Oedipa discovers that the line from Driblette's version in Plays of Ford, Webster, Tourneur and Wharfinger about Trystero was replaced by another referring to what?

10. How is the campus of Cal State different from when Oedipa was in college?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how the Nefastis Machine is used as a metaphor for language within the novel. What does the use of a complicated scientific machine convey about Pynchon's views about language and communication?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss how the meaninglessness of modern life is a central thematic strand to the narrative of The Crying of Lot 49.

Essay Topic 3

One of the themes of The Crying of Lot 49 is that technology does not reveal truth. How is this demonstrated in Chapter 5? Are there other examples of this theme in the novel?

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