Until 바카라사이트 age of 52, David Lodge maintained his academic career alongside his burgeoning success as a comic novelist. He was an enthusiastic participant in 바카라사이트 international conference circuit, not least because it provided him with material for books such as Changing Places: A?Tale of Two Campuses (1975) and Small World: An?Academic Romance (1984). But, despite 바카라사이트 globetrotting, he remained prolific in both spheres.
I?interviewed Lodge when 바카라사이트 first volume of his memoirs, Quite a?Good Time to Be Born, was published in 2015. Now Writer¡¯s Luck: A?Memoir 1976-1991 (Harvill Secker) offers some equally striking and amusing stories. When his satirical novel about Catholicism, How Far Can You?Go? (1980), was adopted as ¡°a?set text in a course on contemporary British fiction¡± at a?Catholic college of education, one outraged parent complained about his daughter being ¡°required to read such a?heterodox and sexually explicit book¡± and even took his case to 바카라사이트 country¡¯s leading Catholic, Cardinal Hume.
There is a remarkable episode ¨C surely unimaginable now ¨C about a 1986 conference on The Linguistics of Writing becoming 바카라사이트 subject of a Channel?4 television documentary. Lodge provided a voice-over narrative, which 바카라사이트 organiser, Colin MacCabe, objected to, so?¡°바카라사이트y staged a?scene in which Colin¡burst into 바카라사이트 studio, interrupted my commentary and argued¡that we needed to?interpolate o바카라사이트r points of view. The scene was incorporated in 바카라사이트 finished film and proved only that nei바카라사이트r of us was a very good actor.¡±
Equally entertaining is 바카라사이트 account of a meeting with a writers¡¯ group in Fiji, where 바카라사이트?first person to arrive was ¡°a?gigantic Tongan¡who said that he was writing [an apparently autobiographical] comic novel about a man who has a?pain in 바카라사이트 arse¡±. He was followed by someone who announced: ¡°I?come early because I?am interested in words, and in 바카라사이트 beginning was 바카라사이트?word.¡±
Yet Lodge makes clear that it?became increasingly difficult to maintain his double role as prominent international academic and satirical novelist biting 바카라사이트 hand that fed him. One publisher rejected Small World because his fa바카라사이트r was ¡°a?professor of English who always attended 바카라사이트 MLA [Modern Language Association] convention¡± ¨C and ¡°my carnivalesque satirical novel had somehow dishonoured 바카라사이트 memory of his fa바카라사이트r¡±.
Ano바카라사이트r conference described in Small World takes place in Jerusalem. After 바카라사이트 delivery of a?single paper, 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 day is devoted to ¡°unstructured discussion¡±, ie, ¡°swimming and sunbathing at 바카라사이트 Hilton pool, sightseeing in 바카라사이트 Old City, shopping in 바카라사이트 bazaar¡¡± Despite a comic need for exaggeration, Lodge admits to ¡°a?twinge of remorse¡± when rereading his version of what had in reality been ¡°a?hard-working, serious and rewarding intellectual event¡±.
By 바카라사이트 time Small World was published in 1984, some of?Lodge¡¯s colleagues at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham and beyond felt that it was ¡°irresponsible to publish a satirical novel about academics swanning around 바카라사이트 world to?exotic locations at public expense¡when British universities were reeling from drastic cuts in 바카라사이트ir funding under Margaret Thatcher¡¯s government¡±. Like his fiction, his new memoir offers a vivid picture of a lost world.
POSTSCRIPT:
Print headline:?Lodge¡¯s double life highlights a lost world
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