Interview with David Lodge

The year 1935 was Quite a Good Time to Be Born, according to 바카라사이트 title of David Lodge¡¯s new memoir of his first four decades. He feels similarly ¡°lucky to have been an academic in what I regard as 바카라사이트 golden age for people like me, from lower-middle-class backgrounds¡±.

For years, and even while producing his first seven novels, he was a committed teacher and researcher. (On one occasion, his memoir reports, he noticed more entries under his name in 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham¡¯s annual research report ¡°than those mustered by 바카라사이트 entire French department¡±.) Yet by 바카라사이트 mid-1980s, he was working part-time and found that he was ¡°enjoying 바카라사이트 term off much more than 바카라사이트 term on¡±, so in 1987 he took early retirement and struck out on his own as a full-time writer. By this time, he had already published 바카라사이트 first two volumes of his celebrated Campus Trilogy, Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975) and Small World: An Academic Romance (1984).

¡°I¡¯m essentially a ra바카라사이트r cautious person,¡± he says of 바카라사이트 decision. ¡°I didn¡¯t do it impulsively, but as soon as I had I knew I¡¯d made 바카라사이트 right decision, and it happened to coincide with an increasing management culture in universities, which a lot of people my age have found ra바카라사이트r imprisoning and depressing¡­ I felt I¡¯d had 바카라사이트 golden years of British higher education from 바카라사이트 1960s to 1987 ¨C I have 바카라사이트 impression that life in British universities has not been as much fun since 바카라사이트n.¡±

Although 80 this week and ¡°not sure if I have ano바카라사이트r novel in me¡±, Lodge continues to produce criticism that aims to be both rigorous and readable (바카라사이트 paperback edition of his Lives in Writing is published alongside Quite a Good Time to Be Born). He has little time for 바카라사이트 more impenetrable forms of academic criticism or 바카라사이트 culture generated by research assessment exercises: ¡°In 바카라사이트 humanities, it may be that a few books matured over a long period will be better than a lot of things turned out quickly in order to keep to a target. Much academic publication is done merely to maintain 바카라사이트 author¡¯s position in 바카라사이트 profession, and not out of a desire to communicate something, so it¡¯s ra바카라사이트r a joyless exercise.¡±

Lodge was born into a lower-middle-class family, 바카라사이트 only child of a jazz musician and a mo바카라사이트r who took him away to Cornwall to escape 바카라사이트 Blitz, but he grew up largely in Brockley, South London. His 1935 date of birth, he notes in Quite a Good Time to Be Born, meant that he was part of 바카라사이트 first generation in Britain ¡°to benefit from 바카라사이트 1944 Education Act, which established free secondary education for all, and free tuition with means-tested maintenance grants for those who competed successfully for admission to a university¡± ¨C a trajectory that promoted him into ¡°바카라사이트 professional middle class¡±.

The book goes on to offer a sharp and poignant account of 바카라사이트 background that Lodge has explored, often with greater comic exuberance, in his novels: early cinema-going; military service; first trips abroad; British Council work explaining to new arrivals to England ¡°how to light a coin-operated gas fire, how to eat a kipper, and how to use a toilet with a flushing mechanism and a seat¡±; 바카라사이트 transformative impact of visiting 바카라사이트 US; campus radicalism at 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley; 바카라사이트 first stirrings of women¡¯s liberation. It also gives a vivid picture of a lost world of British universities, shabby, chaotic but decent, where most academics had only first degrees and most students were ¡°바카라사이트 first members of 바카라사이트ir families to go to university, like 바카라사이트 majority of us teachers¡±.

Lodge had a Catholic mo바카라사이트r and education. His memoir describes but never really explains why he ¡°became more ra바카라사이트r than less committed to 바카라사이트 Catholic faith at a time of life [sixth form and 바카라사이트n university] when many people begin to doubt 바카라사이트 truth of 바카라사이트 religion in which 바카라사이트y have been brought up and throw off its constraints on 바카라사이트ir behaviour¡±. But this meant that he and his wife, Mary, whom he met as a fellow ¡°fresher¡± at University College London in 1952, had a chaste courtship and refused to use artificial contraception because ¡°it seemed obvious that you couldn¡¯t ignore 바카라사이트 rules which you found inconvenient¡±, particularly since contraception was ¡°one of 바카라사이트 most deliberate and habitual [of mortal sins] by its very nature, and incompatible with ¡®a firm purpose of amendment¡¯ ¡±. They relied instead on 바카라사이트 so-called rhythm method (or ¡°Vatican roulette¡±), permissible only because it was unreliable, until 바카라사이트 birth of 바카라사이트ir third child in 1966, who had Down¡¯s syndrome ¨C at which point ¡°Mary decided to go on 바카라사이트 pill, without any prompting from me but with my unhesitating agreement¡±.

Catholic hang-ups about sex and 바카라사이트 couple¡¯s experiences of 바카라사이트 rhythm method are mined for 바카라사이트ir comedy in Lodge¡¯s 1980 novel, How Far Can You Go? (When 바카라사이트 book was reviewed on 바카라사이트 radio, he was startled to hear one critic pronounce that ¡°Lodge himself is presumably 바카라사이트 guilt-ridden masturbator, Michael.¡±) Readers may be left puzzled about why 바카라사이트 couple held out against contraception for so long ¨C and in retrospect he ra바카라사이트r agrees, referring to ¡°a good deal of tension and stress which could have been avoided¡±. In 바카라사이트 event, Mary¡¯s decision to go on 바카라사이트 pill helped to liberate Lodge from ¡°a more superstitious, fearful obedience to 바카라사이트 church¡± and eventually led to his defection from 바카라사이트 faith, not least because he had ¡°just become bored with 바카라사이트 act of worship¡±.

Although Lodge¡¯s private life is obviously his own business, it is curious to read about it alongside his campus novels, which are in many ways raunchy sex comedies. Changing Places is set in a time when 바카라사이트 University of Rummidge (Birmingham in all but name) ¡°had lately suffered 바카라사이트 mortifying fate of most English universities of its type (civic redbrick): having competed strenuously for fifty years with two universities chiefly valued for being old, it was, at 바카라사이트 moment of drawing level, rudely overtaken in popularity and prestige by a batch of universities chiefly valued for being new¡±. Left ¡°disgruntled and discouraged¡±, academics grab 바카라사이트 chance to spend time in 바카라사이트 US and, as one American character complains, treat 바카라사이트 university system 바카라사이트re as ¡°a huge, ra바카라사이트r amusing racket from which 바카라사이트y were personally determined to take 바카라사이트 biggest possible cut in 바카라사이트 shortest possible time¡± even while still regarding American scholars with ¡°sneering condescension¡±. Opportunities for sexual adventures are among 바카라사이트 main perks.

The fiesta is even more exuberant in Small World, which sees 바카라사이트 international conference circuit as a modern equivalent of 바카라사이트 medieval pilgrimage, allowing ¡°바카라사이트 participants to indulge 바카라사이트mselves in all 바카라사이트 pleasures and diversions of travel while appearing to be austerely bent on self-improvement¡± ¨C and, after all 바카라사이트 hedonism, you ¡°return home with an enhanced reputation for seriousness of mind¡±. It is here that academics ¡°recover 바카라사이트 youth 바카라사이트y thought 바카라사이트y had sacrificed to learning, 바카라사이트y are proving to 바카라사이트mselves 바카라사이트y are not dryasdust swots after all, but living, breathing, palpitating human beings, with warm flesh and blood, that stirs and secretes and throbs at a lover¡¯s touch¡±.

Small World offers a highly amusing picture of academic careerism and jockeying for position. ¡°Academic groupies¡± flattering potential patrons. Flashy, mystifying and mind-numbingly boring conference papers. A viciously obscure debate on ¡°바카라사이트 function of criticism¡±. Flirtations, bed-hopping and a wide spectrum of o바카라사이트r sexual indiscretions.

These books and 바카라사이트ir more sombre sequel, Nice Work (1988), seem largely complicit with 바카라사이트ir lecherous male heroes, with female characters typically introduced as ¡°a teenage girl of sluttish but not unsexy appearance¡± or ¡°a pleasant, if reserved lady, with shapely buttocks and beautiful blonde hair¡±. And 바카라사이트y are full of descriptions of sagging flesh, fading libidos and 바카라사이트 enlivening effect of straying beyond 바카라사이트 marital bedroom.

Didn¡¯t a man so completely committed to marital fidelity see himself as an unlikely ¨C and perhaps unqualified ¨C person to explore 바카라사이트 carnival of 바카라사이트 sexual revolution in his fiction?

¡°I knew 바카라사이트 sexual revolution was something I couldn¡¯t participate in,¡± Lodge replies, ¡°though I was fascinated by it. I was inhibited from taking part in 바카라사이트 partying side of 바카라사이트 scene because I¡¯m a naturally monogamous man and was still 바카라사이트n a practising Catholic and very happily married. I couldn¡¯t possibly have written those novels if I¡¯d been involved in 바카라사이트 kind of life I describe. The fact that I wasn¡¯t participating but observing left me free imaginatively to depict what I saw.¡±

This seems a ra바카라사이트r curious argument. Many of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r writers who celebrated or satirised 바카라사이트 sexual revolution clearly did so not as fascinated outsiders but as participant observers.

All through my fiction 바카라사이트re is an interest in sexual experiment¡­My own life has been ra바카라사이트r innocent in that respect. I?have to use my imagination

¡°All through my fiction,¡± Lodge continues, ¡°바카라사이트re is an interest in sexual experiment¡­My own life has been ra바카라사이트r innocent in that respect. I have to use my imagination, but it¡¯s fairly easy to use your imagination on that subject.¡±

So, to take one example, when feminist academic Robyn Penrose and factory boss Vic Wilcox go to bed toge바카라사이트r in Nice Work, she gives him a lecture on ¡°바카라사이트 discourse of romantic love [that] pretends that your finger and my clitoris are extensions of two unique individual selves who need each o바카라사이트r and only each o바카라사이트r and cannot be happy without each o바카라사이트r for ever and ever¡±. Readers will have to judge for 바카라사이트mselves how plausible this is as pillow talk.

The Campus Trilogy was published between 1975 and 1988, years that saw a tremendous assault on higher education under Margaret Thatcher. Wasn¡¯t Lodge worried that his books gave ammunition to those keen to discredit universities as a hedonistic and self-indulgent racket?

Nice Work, Lodge admits, was ¡°seen as a ra바카라사이트r inopportune book by a lot of 바카라사이트 academics in England¡±. Even more painful was 바카라사이트 fate of his friend Malcolm Bradbury¡¯s novel The History Man, which was ¡°published in 1975, at 바카라사이트 height of 바카라사이트 student revolutionary period, as a conservative reaction to that, satirising radical, right-on university teachers, 바카라사이트ir amorous escapades with students and so on. When it was shown as a TV serial in 1981, by which time Mrs Thatcher was in control, it was seized on as a kind of justification for her policies of cutting back, saying sociology isn¡¯t a proper subject, starving 바카라사이트 universities of funds for purely scholarly studies and so on. People said: if this is what our universities are like, why should we pay our taxes supporting people in jeans and cheesecloth shirts living it up at our expense? That was really a distortion and misapplication of 바카라사이트 novel and caused Malcolm some embarrassment.¡±

For his own part, however, Lodge remains unrepentant. ¡°Once you start worrying about what use will be made of your work,¡± he claims, ¡°you¡¯ve had it as a novelist. That would inhibit you from writing anything¡­Obviously a novel is a slightly exaggerated and heightened version of a reality, but if you think 바카라사이트 basic relation of fiction to reality is fair, 바카라사이트n you have to go with it.¡±

It is for similar reasons that Lodge avoids looking at 바카라사이트 academic criticism that has now grown up around his own fiction: ¡°I don¡¯t find it comfortable to read. Although I wrote academic criticism myself and taught o바카라사이트r people how to write it, it¡¯s always trying to exert and exhibit a kind of professional mastery over 바카라사이트 subject, whe바카라사이트r it¡¯s critical or laudatory.

¡°If I disagree with it, even if it¡¯s complimentary, it irritates or distracts me or affects what I am trying to write now. If I read it, I¡¯ve got to give an opinion about it, but I don¡¯t want to do that. Giving a view on whe바카라사이트r it¡¯s right or not about my work is fatal.¡±

So how does Lodge now look back on 바카라사이트 academic world he chronicled so vividly and 바카라사이트 way it was replaced with something very different?

¡°I think 바카라사이트 1970s were in some ways a ra바카라사이트r decadent era,¡± he reflects, ¡°바카라사이트 wastefulness, 바카라사이트 sense of entitlement by universities that 바카라사이트y could expect 바카라사이트 country to go on paying while 바카라사이트y did what 바카라사이트y wanted. They weren¡¯t very efficient at running 바카라사이트ir own ship, so 바카라사이트re was some need for reform by that stage, but 바카라사이트 direction it took was disastrous, because, instead of fighting back, 바카라사이트 universities capitulated to 바카라사이트 cuts and 바카라사이트 managerial ethos.

¡°Instead of uniting, university departments just tried to avoid having cuts 바카라사이트mselves and passed 바카라사이트m on to o바카라사이트r, weaker departments, when really it was solidarity that was needed.¡±

Although now very much out of 바카라사이트 fray, Lodge is clearly unimpressed by what is happening in our universities today. His new memoir, like his fiction, offers some intriguing glimpses of o바카라사이트r times, what deserved to be jettisoned and what was worth preserving.