(Check One)

     If I were to actually try and “(check one)” at the end of all of the quizzes that Walker Percy wrote in Lost in the Cosmos, then I would be pondering my response for a long time. Eventually I would have to forfeit, because all of the questions cannot be answered by just one of the responses that he offers. Every answer can be applied to the question in a different way. Take a look at the fashion question for example, the writer asks, “What does the saleslady mean when she fits a costumer with an article of clothing and says: ‘It’s you’?” (Percy 24) Then he lists all of the possible meanings behind the sales lady’s statement. Earlier on there is the question about the design of the different kind of tables which reads, “Why was not a single table designed as such rather than being a non-table doing duty as a table?” Just as like the other question, all of the possible responses could be right to anyone. It would be just as good to choose one at random. After these questions are asked, Percy always immediately answers it, completely disregarding the answers that he posed as possible responses. Why even ask the reader to please “(check one)”? Percy is proving a point here. Every possible response is right; they really should all be wrapped up into one. This is because Percy knows that help cannot be found in the answering of some silly response someone has to a quiz. These questions were very funny, because the reader starts to see exactly what Percy is doing. There are non-satirical self-help books that had questions very similar to these in them, but the response to those questions supposedly mean something significant about the person answering. Percy captures how vague these things can be. The answers can generally apply to basically anyone.