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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3, Publication and Survival.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Gardner notes in Chapter 1 that all writing requires some measure of a ____ state.
(a) Fearful.
(b) Confident.
(c) Brave.
(d) Trance.

2. Which philosopher maintained that nothing a writer writes means anything, "all the words are a lunatic blithering," since all language is by nature false and misleading?
(a) Nietzsche.
(b) Heidegger.
(c) Kant.
(d) Plato.

3. Gardner suggests the young writer get a first-rate freshman composition book such as An American Rhetoric by whom?
(a) Stuart Waterman.
(b) W. W. Watt.
(c) Michael A. Morris.
(d) James A. Richards.

4. Which manuscript did Gardner send out which got a reply suggesting he cut it by a third?
(a) The Wreckage of Agathon.
(b) The Sunlight Dialogues.
(c) The Resurrection.
(d) Grendel.

5. What book was Gardner writing when he remembered the altered sense coming over him while in the last chapter?
(a) October Light.
(b) Grendel.
(c) Nickel Mountain.
(d) The Resurrection.

Short Answer Questions

1. To whose poetry and prose had Gardner made allusions to in the novel Grendel?

2. What author does Gardner say has a deep misanthropic mistrust in Chapter 1?

3. Gardner states in Chapter 2, "If there are objective laws of ______, not all of theme apply in every instance, and none of them finally have to do with purpose."

4. Gardner compares the first thrill of achievement of the writer to that of an oboist or what?

5. What is the honest answer to the question most young writer's ask of "Do I have what it takes to be a writer?" according to Gardner?

(see the answer key)

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