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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. Where in school was Klosterman when he began researching serial killers?

2. In Klosterman's hypothetical newspaper scenario in Chapter 16, why does the reporter miss the Mayor's call?

3. Who was granola designed initially to feed?

4. What is Klosterman's personal analogy for time?

5. At a Dixie Chicks concert in Chapter 14, Klosterman realizes who are the new teenage boys?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the 23 questions of this section deal with?

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

3. How are some cereal icons representative of the pained desire for perfection and acceptance?

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

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

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

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

8. Why does Mitch dislike his coach in Downtown Owl?

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

10. Why do sports writers hate their work?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The themes of Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs are large, especially considering the frivolity of many of the tangible subjects. Klosterman returns again and again to the idea of reality and humanity's understanding of it. In a three part essay, discuss how Klosterman connects the eternal question of reality and perception to pop cultural products. What does each say about the presentation of reality? How does each illuminate the human experience?

Part 1) The Sims

Part 2) The Real World

Part 3) Modern Hollywood films

Essay Topic 2

Much of Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs is dedicated to the defense of seemingly low art. Klosterman repeatedly makes the argument that these less-than revered cultural products contain kernels of profound truth. Write an essay about three of these products:

Part 1) Discuss Chuck Klosterman's interaction with the Guns-N-Roses tribute band Paradise City. What is the nature of the band members' affection for GNR? How is Klosterman surprised by this dedication? What essential cultural desire does Paradise City reveal to the author?

Part 2) How does Klosterman describe the narrative value of the popular sitcom Saved by the Bell? What level of verisimilitude does it contain? Discuss the narrative hole in the show's last season and how Klosterman thinks that hole is the truest component of the show.

Part 3) What is the cultural significance of the novel and film series Left Behind? To what component of modern American society does this series most fervently speak? How does Chuck Klosterman use the series to illuminate a powerful force in America?

Essay Topic 3

Chuck Klosterman's essays fall into the category of literary nonfiction, or new journalism. Most famously practiced by such writers as Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Truman Capote, this practice involves the journalist placing him or herself at the center of the story. Write an essay about three essays in which Klosterman plays a pivotal role in the reading of events. How is he an active player here? How does his presence affect the story? What does this alter about what else would have been a straightforward relating of events?

(see the answer keys)

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