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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. Which British prime minister did HG Wells hate?

2. What social activity is Eric Nuzum passionate about?

3. Which chapter of this book is fictional?

4. Which of the following is not a modern film that Klosterman cites as one of the films worth watching and discussing?

5. What term does Klosterman use in Chapter 12 to describe Gen X'ers?

Short Essay Questions

1. What example does Klosterman offer in Eating the Dinosaur to illustrate the loss of origins in time travel?

2. How are the musicians at the Pop Music Studies conference antithetical in their remarks to the spirit of the event?

3. What is Klosterman's fascination with serial killers?

4. Why is serial killing a modern crime?

5. How do page designers affect the news?

6. Why is the Pop Music Studies conference that Klosterman attends in Chapter 17 not a rocking place?

7. Describe Klosterman's process for extracting truth from low culture.

8. What is the book Left Behind about?

9. What essential beliefs does Generation X have, according to Chuck Klosterman?

10. What is the value of lyrics in popular music?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Beginning in the first chapter and continuing throughout several essays that follow, Klosterman discusses the fake emotion and false expectations that popular culture creates. Write an essay about false reality that pop culture creates. What specific examples does Klosterman provide? How does he say these products affect generational consciousness? How have they affected his own life?

Essay Topic 2

Music plays an incredibly important role in Chuck Klosterman's writing, particularly as he is a former music critic for Rolling Stone magazine. Write an essay about three musicians that Klosterman clearly believes illuminate some essential truth about life. Why is Klosterman drawn to this particular musician? What does this musician have to say about life, and why does Klosterman believe this profundity has been hidden from public understanding?

Part 1) Guns-N-Roses

Part 2) Billy Joel

Part 3) Trisha Yearwood

Essay Topic 3

In several chapters, Klosterman makes note of a shift that occurred in the film industry with the release of Star Wars. Write an essay about this shift. What types of films were being produced, making money, and winning awards before Star Wars? What new strategy did studios develop to replicate the Star Wars boon? What does Klosterman think about this shift and its effect on films in the 1980s and 1990s?

(see the answer keys)

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