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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Some Women," Didion says that Mapplethorpe's photograph always exhibit a tension between what?
(a) Light and dark.
(b) Right and wrong.
(c) Good and bad.
(d) Masculine and feminine.

2. In "Some Women," what word is Mapplethorpe said to dislike regarding his art?
(a) Unexpected.
(b) Outrageous.
(c) Shocking.
(d) Boring.

3. From whom does Didion say she stole the title "Why I Write"?
(a) Ernest Hemingway.
(b) George Eliot.
(c) George Orwell.
(d) Orson Wells.

4. In "Why I Write," Didion says that the image that played into her story the most in Book of Common Prayer came from when she was at an airport in which country?
(a) Colombia.
(b) Panama.
(c) Portugal.
(d) Sweden.

5. What is F. Scott Fitzgerald quoted as calling Hemingway in a letter to Maxwell Perkins in "Last Words"?
(a) A real hack.
(b) A rising talent.
(c) An okay writer.
(d) The real thing.

Short Answer Questions

1. Didion says that one of the pictures in her mind when she began her novel Play it as It Lays came from an incident in what city?

2. In "Last Words," what is Hemingway said to have done to his letters after Ford Madox Ford told him to "write a letter thinking of how it would read to posterity"?

3. Who found Hemingway after he had shot himself in 1961?

4. Who is the star of the Tony Richardson film Didion cites at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?

5. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say she learned to do in writing "When Did Music Come This Way"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What examples from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Didion's own work does she cite as examples of artist superstitions?

2. What does Didion say about the first paragraph of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in "Last Words"?

3. Who is Tony Richardson and how is he described in the two pictures Joan discusses at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?

4. How does Didion describe the public image and perception of Hemingway in "Last Words"?

5. Why does Joan say she has "no talent" (54) for writing short fiction in "Telling Stories"?

6. Describe the scene from "Long Distance Runner" when Didion and her husband arrive at St. Tropez to pick up their daughter.

7. In "Why I Write," why does Joan say she writes?

8. What brief moment at the Riviera Casino in Las Vegas worked into her novel Play it as it Lays?

9. What does Didion say about Yoko Ono in "Some Women"?

10. In "Last Words," what did Carlos Baker say with regard to why he thought it important to publish Hemingway's letters?

(see the answer keys)

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