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Directions for questions 7 to 12:
The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
I enjoyed Imaginary Friends. Lurie’s keen eye for detail, plot twists, and subtle, laugh-out-loud humour brings the Festinger study to another level. Lurie includes and goes beyond the participant-observer point of view of the sociologist. She deftly choreographs how cults can affect and change those who study them, just as sociologists can change the cults they study. In many ways, Lurie explores critiques of Festinger’s theory and methodology while she sustains the reasoning behind them.
Imaginary Friends is the story of two male professors, one seasoned and the other just out of graduate school. Doctor Tom McMann as the lead sociologist is a large, fit, middle-aged, never-married fellow. He has established a powerful reputation among his colleagues after just one important publication. McMann convinces his new, young colleague Roger Zimmern, a non-practicing Jew, to help him find a charismatic group so that the two can test a sociological theory. It has been decades since McMann has published anything of significance. He is anxious that no other colleague knows about the project until he gathers his data. Zimmern finds a small, newly formed cult in the nearby town of Sophis—Lurie mimics Festinger’s Seekers with her cult the Truth Seekers. The two men successfully infiltrate the group that exhibits little suspicion of their motives, save for one member, Ken. McMann wants to observe how unexpected change and unfulfilled prophecies affect group dynamics. He predicts that, after cognitive dissonance from a “disconfirmation.” the group will adjust through rationalizations and by increased recruiting. The sociologists expect to participate for months, if necessary.
Roger narrates the story from the perspective of reflection months after things have fallen apart. The comic events originally occurred when Roger got in over his head in more ways than one during the project. The story is his effort to make sense of all the apparent nonsense that happened then.
The core of the cult depends on Verena, a college dropout at age 19, who moves in with her Aunt Elsie, an avid Spiritualist. Elsie encourages Verena's mediumistic sensibilities. Through automatic writing, Verena makes contact with an alien race of Guardians from the planet Varna. The Varnian leader Ro channels information to the group through Verena’s cryptic scrawls written after she enters a trance state. The group also hears from Mo and Ko of Varna in this way.
Roger describes Verena as both a nut and a sensitive, alluring waif with sculpted features, and hypnotic and liquid eyes. McMann poses as the professor that he is, but in personality more like an affable, accommodating car salesman. Throughout the text, Roger refers to himself as both Roger Zimmern, the objective scholar, and as “Stupid Roger,” the klutzy, shy professor truly interested in contact with Varna. His split persona adds to the tension he feels and the confusion he exhibits, all of which cause uncomfortable, if comic, moments. He eventually wonders who is crazy: Is it he, McMann, or the group?
During weeks of meetings with six or seven others in Elsie’s house, Roger endures progressive changes in diet and belief structures. He tries ineffectively to memorize layers of lessons derived from Ro, Spiritualist doctrine, and idiosyncratic truths that members add to group metaphysics. McMann and Zimmern try their best to be nondirective and participatory, but some circumstances push their acting abilities.
The passage given below is followed by a set of six questions. Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.
I enjoyed Imaginary Friends. Lurie’s keen eye for detail, plot twists, and subtle, laugh-out-loud humour brings the Festinger study to another level. Lurie includes and goes beyond the participant-observer point of view of the sociologist. She deftly choreographs how cults can affect and change those who study them, just as sociologists can change the cults they study. In many ways, Lurie explores critiques of Festinger’s theory and methodology while she sustains the reasoning behind them.
Imaginary Friends is the story of two male professors, one seasoned and the other just out of graduate school. Doctor Tom McMann as the lead sociologist is a large, fit, middle-aged, never-married fellow. He has established a powerful reputation among his colleagues after just one important publication. McMann convinces his new, young colleague Roger Zimmern, a non-practicing Jew, to help him find a charismatic group so that the two can test a sociological theory. It has been decades since McMann has published anything of significance. He is anxious that no other colleague knows about the project until he gathers his data. Zimmern finds a small, newly formed cult in the nearby town of Sophis—Lurie mimics Festinger’s Seekers with her cult the Truth Seekers. The two men successfully infiltrate the group that exhibits little suspicion of their motives, save for one member, Ken. McMann wants to observe how unexpected change and unfulfilled prophecies affect group dynamics. He predicts that, after cognitive dissonance from a “disconfirmation.” the group will adjust through rationalizations and by increased recruiting. The sociologists expect to participate for months, if necessary.
Roger narrates the story from the perspective of reflection months after things have fallen apart. The comic events originally occurred when Roger got in over his head in more ways than one during the project. The story is his effort to make sense of all the apparent nonsense that happened then.
The core of the cult depends on Verena, a college dropout at age 19, who moves in with her Aunt Elsie, an avid Spiritualist. Elsie encourages Verena's mediumistic sensibilities. Through automatic writing, Verena makes contact with an alien race of Guardians from the planet Varna. The Varnian leader Ro channels information to the group through Verena’s cryptic scrawls written after she enters a trance state. The group also hears from Mo and Ko of Varna in this way.
Roger describes Verena as both a nut and a sensitive, alluring waif with sculpted features, and hypnotic and liquid eyes. McMann poses as the professor that he is, but in personality more like an affable, accommodating car salesman. Throughout the text, Roger refers to himself as both Roger Zimmern, the objective scholar, and as “Stupid Roger,” the klutzy, shy professor truly interested in contact with Varna. His split persona adds to the tension he feels and the confusion he exhibits, all of which cause uncomfortable, if comic, moments. He eventually wonders who is crazy: Is it he, McMann, or the group?
During weeks of meetings with six or seven others in Elsie’s house, Roger endures progressive changes in diet and belief structures. He tries ineffectively to memorize layers of lessons derived from Ro, Spiritualist doctrine, and idiosyncratic truths that members add to group metaphysics. McMann and Zimmern try their best to be nondirective and participatory, but some circumstances push their acting abilities.
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