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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. During what era did television unseat newspapers as the primary source of news. according to Klosterman?

2. At the end of Chapter 16, Klosterman declares that who controls the content of modern newspapers?

3. In one hypothetical question, Klosterman offers the questioned a choice between a vacation in Europe or where?

4. What point does Valentine make about life in Owl?

5. According to Horace, what do real men drink?

Short Essay Questions

1. What annoys Horace and his friends about Chet the dog-lover?

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

3. Why does Klosterman posit that traveling forward in time is less fraught than traveling back?

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

5. Why do sports writers hate their work?

6. How is Luke Skywalker's relationship with Darth Vader a familiar relationship to Gen X'ers?

7. Why is serial killing a modern crime?

8. Why is being a serial killer more authentic than being a regular celebrity?

9. What does Klosterman think that "what is reality?" films are teaching us?

10. Why is Laura dispirited by her interview with Walter Valentine?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much of Sex Drags and Cocoa Puffs is dedicated to the profundity of frivolous topics like The Real World and Vanilla Sky. In two of the latter chapters, Klosterman focuses on two more socially dire topics, and his tone changes dramatically. Analyze these two chapters and the tone surrounding them in three parts:

Part 1) What is the nature of Chuck Klosterman's interest in serial killers? How did it start, and what does he want to understand about them? Discuss the research that Klosterman does into serial killers. What does he grow to understand through this research, and why does he have difficulty accepting it?

Part 2) Why does Chuck Klosterman's past render him particularly adept at exploring current trends in journalism? What lessons does he impart in this book, and how do these lessons explain the struggle of print journalism to survive? What conclusions does he draw about the future of print?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Write an essay about the personality that Klosterman creates for himself through his writing. What does he look for in friendship and romance? What cultural mores does he value? What angers the author about his own generation? Use the intra-chapter musings throughout the book to corroborate your thesis in the essay.

(see the answer keys)

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