Richard J Wallace - The Intellectuals Checklist

The Intellectuals
C HECKLIST Richard J. Wallace & James V. Wallace Introduction All five movements of Beethovens Missa solemnis. Check. The films that Kurosawa based on Western works. Check. Dantes Nine Circles of Hell. Check . These are the sorts of elegant erudition every self-respecting intellectual should knowinside and out.

In The Intellectuals Checklist, aspiring pundits, poets, and philosophers will find the arcane checklists that reveal whether they are truly well-versed enough in the arts and sciences of the obscure to warrant the esteemed moniker intellectual. From Nietzsche to Newton, Einstein to Eisenstadt, Sappho to Sartre, this elucidating volume gives you all the esoterica you need to bask in the knowledge that you really do know everything. (Or at least you will once youve read this book.) You may have worked hard to earn a degreeor devote persistent efforts to the pursuit of intellectual interestsand feel justifiably proud of your attainments. The Intellectuals Checklist is designed to help you celebrate, by way of demonstrating your intellect to yourself and others. The goal of The Intellectuals Checklist is to present information in checklist format that every self-respecting intellectual should know. In the following pages you will find information about important events and the people involved in them, creative accomplishments, influential successes, and disastrous failures.

Topics covered in this book include architecture, art, history, literature, mathematics, music, nature, philosophy, politics, science, and technology. Within each topic, facts and ideas have been chosen and placed in lists. You have an opportunity to compare your understanding of a subjectwhether a person, place, event, object, or conceptagainst these checklists. You may be asked how many of the buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright you have seen in person. You may be requested to match early American artists with their works. Or you may need to recall your knowledge of scientific or mathematical principles.

Each checklist will test your knowledge or perception in its own way or from a particular perspective. But specialized knowledge is not required to enjoy this book. You wont need an advanced degree in any single area, although you will need an above-average knowledge of a broad range of subjects. Each checklist will give you a new opportunity to confirm your status as an intellectual. As you read through each checklist, give yourself one point for correctly identifying all the elements or for correctly answering the question posed. Note your total in the box at the end of the checklist.

For each two-page spread, theres a bigger box for you to add up the answers to the three checklists in that spread. At the end of each chapter, you can add up all of your correct answers for that chapter and turn to the answer key section, where youll have the opportunity to rate how intellectual you are on the subject. Finally, at the end of the book, youll have a chance to add up how you did for all six chapters and learn the truth. Are you a real intellectual, or just a wannabe? Enjoy! Chapter 1 Art and Architecture The checklists in the Art and Architecture chapter cover graphic arts and motion pictures as well as architecture. Youll have the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of topics such as Greek contributions to art and Thomas Jeffersons influence on architecture. As you read through the checklists, give yourself one point for correctly identifying all the elements in a checklist or for correctly answering the question posed.

At the end of the chapter, youll have the opportunity to rate how intellectual you are on these subjects. DIFFERENT STROKES

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Which of these artists works have you seen? * Pablo Picasso * Salvador Dali * Claude Monet * Vincent van Gogh * douard Manet * Andy Warhol * Jackson Pollock * Michelangelo * Rembrandt van Rijn

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POINTS ART FOR ARTS SAKE

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How many of these museums have you visited in person? * Muse du Louvre, Paris * British Museum, London * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City * National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. * The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg * Museo del Prado, Madrid

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POINTS HAND ME THAT BRUSH, CROK

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Can you answer these questions about the earliest examples of human art? The caves in Lascaux, France, contain prehistoric paintings of about how many figures? The Atamira Cave in Spain contains some art that may be up to how many years old? The Chauvet-Pont-dArc Cave in southern France contains hundreds of paintings of what? The oldest undisputed example of prehistoric art is how many years old? What is this item of prehistoric art called, and where is it located? ANSWER: 1. 600 2. 18, 500 3. 35,00040,000 5. 35,00040,000 5.

It is the Venus of Hohle Fels figurine from Schelklingen, Germany

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POINTSCOMBINED POINTS BUILDING THE BEST

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How many of the buildings of these Pritzker Prize winners can you name? Eduardo Souto de Moura (Portugal) designed __________________ in Braga, Portugal Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (Japan) designed __________________ in Toledo, Ohio Peter Zumthor (Switzerland) designed __________________ in Vals, Switzerland Jean Nouvel (France) designed __________________ in Paris Richard Rogers (England) designed __________________ in Paris ANSWER: 1. The Municipal Stadium 2. The Toledo Museum of Arts Glass Pavilion 3. The Thermal Baths 4. The Arab World Institute 5. The Centre Pompidou

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POINTS TIME AND CREEK ART MARCHES ON

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Greek art was well developed by the fifth century B.C.

How many of these facts about Greek art of that period do you know? * Many Greek vase painters had taken up wall painting with tempera * These more expressive decorative arts included murals and works on wood panels * Some artists created paintings on parchment * None of the murals from this time survive * Historical documents tell us that Parrhasius used spatial perspective to create depth * Zeuxis painted such realistic grapes that birds tried to eat them

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POINTS GETTING IT WRIGHT

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How many of these buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright have you seen? * Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin * Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City * Child of the Sun, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida * Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California

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POINTSCOMBINED POINTS GRAND HOTELS

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Which of the following hotels selected by the National Trust for Historic Preservation have you seen? * Fairmont Hotel San Francisco * Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan * InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile * Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York * Omni Bedford Springs Resort, Bedford, Pennsylvania * Wentworth Mansion, Charleston, South Carolina

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POINTS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

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The art of the motion picture dates to the late nineteenth century. Which of the following facts did you know about its origins? * Americans, French, British, and German inventors worked on the development of motion pictures * Credit is given to Thomas Edisons lab for development of the Kinetoscope in 1889 * The Kinetoscope was not a projector; a person looked through a peephole to view the film * Edisons team also developed the Kinetograph, a motion picture camera

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