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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How should materialism be disclaimed, in "Materialism"?
(a) By replacing idealism with matter.
(b) By including all idealism.
(c) By excluding all idealism.
(d) By superseding idealism with dialogue.

2. What paradoxical action does Bataille describe in "Materialism"?
(a) The attempt to rid one's thoughts of spiritualism.
(b) The desire to stop using language for natural functions.
(c) The attempt to free the eye from aesthetics.
(d) The attempt to translate sex into language.

3. What writer coined the term conspicuous consumption?
(a) Hegel.
(b) Veblen.
(c) Engels.
(d) Marx.

4. For what field did Bataille go to school?
(a) Writer.
(b) Medieval librarian.
(c) Renaissance art critic.
(d) Philosopher.

5. Where did Bataille go to school?
(a) Ecole des Beaux Artes.
(b) Ecole des Chartres.
(c) Lycée Henry IV.
(d) Lycée International.

6. What principles does Bataille say men associate with the feet in "The Big Toe"?
(a) Evil and dark.
(b) Subversion and power.
(c) Labor and evil.
(d) Powerlessness and subservience.

7. What did Breton call Bataille?
(a) An excremental philosopher.
(b) A prophet.
(c) A dubious genius.
(d) A incremental writing whore.

8. How does Bataille describe producing and selling in "The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade"?
(a) As revolutionary phases.
(b) As primitive phases.
(c) As excretory phases.
(d) As consumptive phases.

9. What did Bataille say about his book "W.C."?
(a) It was a prophecy.
(b) It was opposed to all dignity.
(c) It was execrable and shouldn't be published.
(d) It was going to destroy the world.

10. What does Bataille say was the driving force beneath his heterodox theory?
(a) Obsession with excrement.
(b) Obsession with priests.
(c) Oedipal terror.
(d) Homoerotic terror.

11. What does Bataille compare roots to, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) Corruption.
(b) Death.
(c) Human bodies.
(d) Visible leaves.

12. How do philosophers use natural forms, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) As symbols for the experience and association of natural forms.
(b) As metaphors for other natural forms.
(c) As symbols of sacred abstraction.
(d) As primitive forms of the things themselves.

13. What does Bataille say about monsters in "The Deviations of Nature"?
(a) That they are projections out of the ugliest part of humanity.
(b) That they are necessary to keep people in line.
(c) That they represent the opposite of geometric regularity of form.
(d) That they are the best place to gain insight into people's feelings about themselves.

14. What effect do flowers have on love, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) Celebration.
(b) Sacrilege.
(c) Sanctification.
(d) Praise.

15. What were Bataille's feelings for Breton?
(a) Hostility.
(b) Admiration.
(c) Indifference.
(d) Supplication.

Short Answer Questions

1. What characterizes man in "The Eye"?

2. What film does Bataille cite in "The Eye"?

3. When was "Acephale" published?

4. Why did Bataille attack Nietzsche?

5. What claim does Bataille discuss in "The Deviations of Nature"?

(see the answer keys)

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