Introduction

All five movements of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. Check.

The films that Kurosawa based on Western works. Check.

Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell. Check .

These are the sorts of elegant erudition every self-respecting intellectual should know—inside and out. In The Intellectual’s 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 you’ve read this book.)

You may have worked hard to earn a degree—or devote persistent efforts to the pursuit of intellectual interests—and feel justifiably proud of your attainments. The Intellectual’s Checklist is designed to help you celebrate, by way of demonstrating your intellect to yourself and others.

The goal of The Intellectual’s 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 subject—whether a person, place, event, object, or concept—against 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 won’t 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, there’s 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 you’ll have the opportunity to rate how intellectual you are on the subject. Finally, at the end of the book, you’ll 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!