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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does the mole stand for in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?
(a) Surrealism.
(b) Materialists.
(c) God.
(d) Proletarianism.

3. What does Bataille say conspicuous consumption was used for?
(a) Affirming the position of the rich.
(b) Destroying the foundation of wealth.
(c) Attacking the inequalities in the economy.
(d) Devaluing the trappings of wealth.

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

5. What does the other self-mutilator (besides Van Gogh) do in "Sacrificial Mutilation and the Severed Ear of Vincent Van Gogh"?
(a) Put out his eye.
(b) Drink his own blood.
(c) Bite off his finger.
(d) Cut off his hand.

6. What do flowers witness, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) The life and death of love.
(b) The reason for the plants' existence.
(c) The architectural order of fields and forests.
(d) Nothing but a moment in the life of the plant.

7. How does Bataille describe his memory of his father pulling down his pants in "[Dream]"?
(a) Unimportant.
(b) Humiliating and painful.
(c) Catastrophic.
(d) Terrible and magnificent.

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

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

10. What does Bataille say coitus is associated with, in "The Solar Anus"?
(a) Prayer.
(b) Comedy.
(c) Business.
(d) Crime.

11. What is the first stage of revolution, in "The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade"?
(a) Staking a claim to a new kind of authority.
(b) Portraying your revolution as a utopian project destined to succeed.
(c) Expelling a group from power.
(d) Appropriating the language with which groups claim power.

12. What are the rats doing in "[Dream]"?
(a) Eating garbage.
(b) Trying to bite.
(c) Eating each other.
(d) Swimming.

13. How does Bataille describe the Mithraic cult ritual of the sun in "Rotten Sun"?
(a) A priest cuts a victim's throat on an altar.
(b) A priest spatters a bull's blood on worshipers underneath.
(c) A worshiper puts out a priest's eye.
(d) A priest stares into the sun to have a vision.

14. What principles does Bataille say men associate with height in "The Big Toe"?
(a) Power and danger.
(b) Strength and authority.
(c) Trustworthiness and leadership.
(d) Good and light.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bataille say surrealism is, in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?

2. What was Breton's response to Bataille?

3. In what piece of writing did Bataille record his childhood?

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

5. What relationship do the writings in Section II have to the writings in Section I?

(see the answer keys)

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