A David Foster Wallace essay on this author’s “Funniness” (15[1])examines (15[2])a (15[1])very short story by this author in which a mouse laments how “the whole world is growing smaller every day,” only (15[1])to be eaten by a cat. The narrator explains how people confuse present emperors with dead ones in a story by this author that justifies (-5[1])the piecemeal construction method for building the Great Wall of China. (15[4])The narrator of a story by this author recalls struggling to learn to (*) drink alcohol during a talk on his past life as an ape. (10[2])A panther replaces (10[1])a performer (10[1])who admits (10[1])on his deathbed (10[1])that he could never find food that he liked in a story by this writer whose title references the concept of the “starving artist.” For 10 points, name this Czech (10[1])author who imagined Gregor’s transformation into a giant bug in The Metamorphosis. ■END■