Lumich College Trilogy 1 - Role Reversal

Author: David Lodge
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The opening work of the "Loughborough University Trilogy," a postmodern academic romance of unrestrained hedonism, a bizarre academic exchange in a colorful small world. Two scholars of British literature, Philip Swallow, a lecturer at Loughborough University in the UK, and Maurice Zapp, a professor at Oberlin College in the US, accidentally begin a six-month academic exchange. At this moment, they are sitting on the same Boeing 707 plane, flying towards each other at the same speed. Upon arriving at their respective destinations, which are also the countries of the other, they start to adapt to the new cultural environment. In a series of home letters, they describe their novel experiences in the new environment. In the wave of the late 1960s, meticulously constructed by a "collage," both visiting scholars are more or less involved in the local student movement, discover a new self in the new environment, and inadvertently exchange highly personal family and wives. In two intertwined scenes and two cultures, two campuses, and two families, the two protagonists unfold a complete drama of both academia and life. Although the ending adopts the open ending popular in films at the time, it does not affect the intricate coherence of the narrative itself. If you wish, you can imagine each of the two British literature professors (both happen to be forty years old) being connected to their homeland, workplace, and home fireplace by an infinitely elastic umbilical cord. This umbilical cord is composed of emotions, attitudes, and values. When the professors fly at 600 miles per hour through the air, the umbilical cord stretches and stretches until it almost disappears from sight, but it never comes close to completely breaking. Imagine further that when they fly face to face over the Arctic ice cap, their respective Boeing pilots, ignoring regulations and technical feasibility, begin to perform a series of playful stunts—crossing each other like a pair of mating bluebirds, diving, soaring, and looping—thus completely entangling the two aforementioned umbilical cords. Only after calming down do they continue to fly in the prescribed manner. In this way, when the two land on each other's territory and engage in work and pleasure, any vibration sent back to the homeland by one party will be perceived by the other, and vice versa; this vibration will also be sent back to the source, but it will have been subtly altered by the other's reaction, and the path of transmission may just be the other's communication umbilical cord, which has already been firmly established in the new place. Therefore, soon the entire system begins to resonate due to the back-and-forth vibrations between Professor A and Professor B, sometimes along this line and sometimes along that line, sometimes starting on one line and ending on another. In other words, if the two people swap places for half a year, despite the vastly different environments and distinct personalities, and their different attitudes towards the entire exchange arrangement, it is not surprising that their fates influence each other, and in some aspects, they reflect each other's experiences. The perfect conclusion of the "Loughborough University Trilogy," an odd union between university education and corporate society, a love-hate entanglement between humanistic tradition and mercenary pursuit.