Quizzes

Our reading quizzes are posted here. You will submit your quizzes to me via email. To submit your quiz, please copy and paste the questions into your email and then provide answers underneath each question. The title of your email should read "Quiz [date]." For instance, your email for the quiz on September 4 should have the following title "Quiz 9/4."

Quiz: 9/4

1) In your own words (1-2 sentences), describe the goal of Ulmer's
Internet Invention.

2) Ulmer frames his book as an apprenticeship with a consulting agency
called the:

A) Electracy
B) Internet Invention
C) Ulmer Agency
D) EmerAgency

3) Why is Internet Invention written with what Ulmer calls a "narrative suspense."

4) In your own words (1-2 sentences), describe an LRO observation.

5) Which of the following is NOT one of the course strands?

A) Rhetorical Analysis
B) Developing inventio process
C) Risk-taking
D) Developing revision processes
E) Multimedia Writing

Quiz: 9/11

1) What is Grammatology?

2) Why does Ulmer present us with portions of his own Mystory?

3) What is the Popcycle?

4) How did Diogenes disprove the definition of man that Aristotle and
his students had developed?

5) Fill in the blank: If Plato invented the first concept, which he
preferred to call a form (or an idea), then _______ is an anti-Plato,
proposing a 'formless' metaphysics.

Quiz: 9/18

1) Suppose you are looking at a ceramic bowl that is cracked and discolored. How would the "wabi-sabi" way of viewing this bowl be different from Aristotle's way of viewing it?

2) What does Ulmer mean by attunement?

3) The Mystory is composed in the ______ voice.

a) passive
b) active
c) singular
d) middle

4) What is Chora?

Quiz: 9/25

1) In your own words, explain the difference between Bataille's "restricted" and "general" economy.

2) In your own words, explain why "homesickness" is different in electracy (as opposed to literacy).

3) Why is it important that James Joyce rejected "the discourses of the popcycle in which he had been interpellated"?

4) Ulmer uses Frederic Jameson's four-levels to discuss the different parts of the Mystory. Give an example of something from your own Mystory that fits with the first level - "Literal."

Quiz: 10/4

1) In terms of this chapter's discussion of Plato, why might it be
significant that Ulmer's father ran a Sand and Gravel Company?

2) At one point, Ulmer connects General Custer, Henry James, the word
"ficelle," and some other "endocepts." Why does he do this? How
might he respond to someone who said, "Isn't this a bit of a stretch?
Why are you forcing these connections?"

3) What does Ulmer mean by "cyberpidgin"?

4) What is the difference between "chora" and "topos"?

Quiz: 10/9

1) Listen to the This American Life story by Jon Ronson ("Who takes the class out of class reunion"). While listening, be sure to take notes.

2) Ronson's story could be part of a mystory, and it will be your task to explain it using Ulmer's terms. Using what you know from the first four chapters of Internet Invention, explain Ronson's story of being thrown in the lake. You can use any of the material from our text that helps to give an account of this story. Using the terms we've been working with in this class, write a paragraph explaining Ronson's story about being thrown in the lake.

Quiz: 10/23

1) How might this chapter help you write your entertainment discourse page?

2) What is cyberpidgin?

3) In what way does Ulmer's discussion in this chapter provide a possible way of dealing with the crisis of September 11, 2001?

Quiz: 11/8

You are free to use quotations, but those quotations must be contextualized to show that you are making an effort to understand and synthesize the material.

1) Why does Ulmer focus this chapter on "the bar"?

2) How is blues music something more than just sad songs?

3) Why is blues music useful to us when working through the community discourse?

4) What is "duende"?

5) What is "Agamben's test"? What is Agamben challenging us to do?

Quiz: 11/15

1) Ulmer says that both art and advertising attempt to solve problems.
How do they solve problems differently?

2) Ulmer "remakes" the Marlboro ad with his own mystory. In one or
two sentences, explain some aspect of this remake.

3) In one or two sentences, describe "the ladder of writing."

Quiz: 11/27

What is the point of the Geneaology of Morals section in chapter 10?

What is the ascetic ideal and refutation and how does it relate to our mystory and the search for the wide image?

What does he mean when he says, "My remake of Gurdjieff is Nietzschean"?

Why does Ulmer refer to himself as the Alienated Sage and how may that apply to another person's mystory?

What is the purpose of the sports car and why did Ulmer decide to include it? Is it meant to be an allegory for the trip to our own personal mystorys? A catalyst?

Throughout Chapter 10, Ulmer talks about trying to create a parable out of his journey to Mexico to pass on to his son. Is the Emblem of Wide Scope supposed to serve as a sort of parable relating to our past? It seems like the Wide Emblem shouldn't make much sense to anyone else.

I was slightly confused about the section when Ulmer brings about the discussion of the "bourgeois body", and how he brings that back into a discussion of mood and state of mind?

On a side note - What does Ulmer mean when he cites something as (ATH)?

How is the "truthful world" and geometry related?
What does Ulmer mean in his discussion of wisdom on page 286. Specifically he says, "The times are right for remaking 'wisdom' as a mode of knowledge." I
realize he makes this conclusion based on a book by Francisco Varela, but what
is its significance?

In Chapter 10 Ulmer talks about how he came to see himself as merely a character
in his mystory rather than a main character. How could a person loose their
status as a main character in their mystory while maintaining individality?

In Chapter 10, Ulmer uses the term ressentiment. I know it deals with morals and ethics, but I couldn't get a firm grasp on it's meaning. Is this intentional, like wabi-sabi, to be ambiguous in meaning or am I just not catching it? Ulmer says that he "did not recognize (or acknowledge) in myself the attributes of ressentiment." So I don't feel too bad about not knowing it's meaning. Furthermore, what is the significance of Nietzsche's excerpt about the bell? That little paragraph on p. 284 was deep and confusing and I could use some clarification.

p.282
When Ulmer spends a paragraph talking about how he saw a guy that looked "cool", what exactly is the point of this? He's describing the Californian look, and that's it .. I see that he remembers it and that in itself is important, but .. he then refers to the sage being "cool" later in the chapter. Why? Or are these two different things?