Midterm… OF DOOM!!!!!!

I'll allow you to use your textbooks, the blog lectures, AND work on this in small groups, but I need answers and group members' names either written out or emailed to me by the end of class. Short answers are fine. Also, I'll allow each group to skip FIVE answers (just write "skip" instead). Since I forgot to enter a separate category for this on Gradebook, I'll make this worth 60 points of your portfolio.

1)      How did Billy Collins compare a good poem to the eye chart, and how is this applicable to other forms of storytelling?

2)      As discussed in class, what is at least one risk and one benefit of using second person in a story (example: “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore, “The Gun” by Stephen Dobyns, “WQED, Channel 13: Programming Guide” by Ann Claycomb)?

3)      How does Annie Dillard demonstrate an awareness of and offer a response to potential critics of her philosophy in “Living Like Weasels”?

4)      What is at least one potential risk and one potential benefit of using profanity in literature (example: “You Can’t Kill the Rooster” by David Sedaris)?

5)      How does Sherman Alexie avoid sounding too heroic in “Somebody Else’s Genocide” and why is that important?

6)      Describe the storytelling aesthetic of Kurt Vonnegut (examples: “Blood of Dresden” and “Harrison Bergeron”).

7)      Describe the storytelling aesthetic of Tom Wolfe (excerpt from “The Right Stuff”).

8)      Describe the storytelling aesthetic of Annie Dillard (“Living Like Weasels”).

9)      Which two short stories that we have read so far involve fatal head wounds?

10)  In “French Lessons” by David Sedaris (which we listened to in class), what is the problem that the students in the French class are having? 

11)  Similar to “You Can’t Kill the Rooster,” what is one risk that Sedaris takes in “French Lessons”?

12)  In “Excerpt from A Walk in the Woods,” what strategy does Bill Bryson employ in order to simultaneously build tension and humor?

13)  Describe the internal versus the external conflict of “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff.

14)  What pieces that we’ve read so far contain these lines? (If you want to skip any of these, each counts as a separate question.)

a.      Under every bush is a muskrat hole or a beer can…. Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly…, I missed my chance. I should have gone for the throat.

b.      "Interesting," smiles your date, and then he looks down at his arm hairs and starts to smooth them, all, always, in the same direction.

c.       “Bitch, you need to have them ugly-ass bunions shaved down is what you need to do. But you can't do shit about it tonight, so lighten up, motherfucker."

d.      Your son wants to know if that man is a real painter.  You tell him yes, but not a good one.  He looks back at the t. v., asks why not.  The spaghetti water boils over, hissing, on the stove.

e.       Once a skunk had come plodding through our camp and it had sounded like a stegosaurus. There was another heavy rustle and then the sound of lapping at the spring. It was having a drink, whatever it was.

15)  What is flash fiction?

16)  According to Stephen King, what are the two basic types of storytellers and what are their similarities and differences?

17)  What is a Point of View Violation and why is it dangerous in writing?

18)  There are three different types of Point of View (or five, depending on how you break them up).  Describe at least two of them.

19)  What is a Zen Koan and how is that related to “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” “Cathedral,” or the Billy Collins metaphor of the eye chart?

20)  What Point of View (1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd) is employed in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral”?

21)  What is the significance of the title, “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes,” and how is this related to Arthur’s and Joanie’s relationship?

22)  In “Cathedral,” describe the change in the husband’s character by the end of the story.

23)  Describe at least one significant change from the text, as seen in the short film adaptation of “Harrison Bergeron.”

24)  Describe at least one significant change from the text, as seen in the short film adaptation of “Bullet in the Brain.”

25)  Why does David Sedaris’s brother call himself “The Rooster”?

26)  What is one significant similarity between Arthur in “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” and the narrator of “A Man Gets Tired”?

27)  What are two benefits of using dialog gestures in storytelling?

28)  What is one risk associated with the use of dialog gestures in storytelling?

29)  Especially when it comes to fiction, where can we look for inspiration?

30)  Aside from building tension, why is foreshadowing absolutely essential in storytelling?

31)   Describe an instance of foreshadowing from at least one piece that we have read so far.