The narrator of an essay constructs a metaphor about this place to explain why he spends his time copying politically inoffensive ancient inscriptions instead of writing. For 10 points each:
[10h] Identify this indestructible, windowless, metaphorical place described in the preface to a story collection. It is the subject of a dilemma in which you could let its sleeping residents suffocate painlessly or shout to wake them up to an agonizing death.
ANSWER: the iron house [or the iron room; or tiě wū; prompt on house or room or wū]
[10e] This writer compared China’s “spiritual malaise” to an iron house in Call to Arms, which includes this author’s “The True Story of Ah Q.”
ANSWER: Lǔ Xùn (“loo shwin”) [or Lu Hsün; or Lu Sun; or Zhōu Shùrén or Chou Shu-jen]
[10m] Ah Q is arrested despite failing to become a revolutionary and asked to sign his confession with one of these things, but he is mortified by not drawing this thing perfectly.
ANSWER: a circle [or yuánquān; reject “sphere”; prompt on shape]
<World Literature>