Academic novels

[David Casseres]

That John Boylan sez

>   Hey, and don't forget John Barth's 'Giles Goat Boy', the academic
>novel to end all academic novels, in which the university is the
>universe.

Oh yes indeed!  I recall reading that one with my eyes bugging out and a 
crazed grin on my face.

But what Barth did so masterfully is sometimes the deadly pitfall of the 
academic novel -- namely, being dependent on the illusion that the 
university is the universe.  Barth made it work for him, satirically and 
surrealistically, but when a professor tries to use the university as a 
true microcosm, the result is often very bad.  Wallace Stevens did not 
write poems in which the universe was like an insurance company office, 
and he was right even though he spent most of his time in such an office. 
 And when Our Boy wrote The Crying of Lot 49, reportedly while also 
writing technical documents for Boeing, he did not make the aerospace 
industry (or Seattle) his Universe.


Cheers,
David