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David Lodge, hilarious chronicler of academia, dies.

UD will always admire the monologue he gave Fulvia Morgana, the way-rich, sybaritic Italian Marxist in Small World:

Of course I recognize the contradictions in our way of life, but those are the very contradictions characteristic of the last phase of bourgeois capitalism, which will eventually cause it to collapse. By renouncing our own little bit of privilege we should not accelerate by one minute the consummation of that process, which has its own inexorable rhythm and momentum, and is determined by the pressure of mass movements, not the puny actions of individuals. Since in terms of dialectical materialism it makes no difference to the ‘istorical process whether Ernesto and I, as individuals, are rich or poor, we might as well be rich, because it is a role which we know ‘ow to perform with a certain dignity.

Margaret Soltan, January 7, 2025 11:52AM
Posted in: heroes

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2 Responses to “David Lodge, hilarious chronicler of academia, dies.”

  1. Dennis Says:

    A fine passage, but only one of many in Small World and Changing Places.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Yes – I could have quoted many others.

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Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
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George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
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