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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. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say many publications gave as a reason for not publishing "When Did Music Come This Way"?

2. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say the writer of a short story needs to have that the writer of a novel does not?

3. 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?

4. What did Mary Hemingway allow Carlos Baker to do in his book published after Hemingway's death?

5. What does Didion say she tried very hard to do while a student at Berkeley in "Why I Write"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Didion say about the Milton class she had to take in order to graduate from Berkeley?

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

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

4. Where did Didion attend photoshoots in her story "Some Women," and what does she say she noticed about the most successful shoots?

5. What did Didion first think Run River was a story about, and what did it become?

6. In "Some Women," what does Didion say about what artists do and do not like to talk about with regard to their art?

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

8. What character in A Book of Common Prayer developed from an image of the Panama airport at 6 a.m. that stayed in Joan's mind?

9. What surprised Didion after Richardson's death upon reading his manuscript?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about Didion's feeling about the underground press in "Alicia and the Underground Press." Use direct examples from the story that show the reader her views.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the author of Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Who is she? What else has she written? How is Let Me Tell You What I Mean similar or different from her previous works?

Essay Topic 3

Choose 3 essays from Let Me Tell You What I Mean and write an essay about the significance of the time period for each essay. What commentary might the piece say about any significant event or belief of that time?

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