Small world

Author: (English) Lodge, D. (Author), Wang Jiaxiang (Translator)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The similarities between modern conferences and medieval Christian pilgrimages lie in that they allow participants to maintain an image of earnestly devoted to self-improvement while also indulging in all the pleasures and entertainments of travel. Of course, there will be certain penance tasks to fulfill—perhaps submitting a paper, and listening to others deliver papers is unavoidable. But under this pretext, you can go to new interesting places, meet new interesting people, and establish new interesting relationships with them; chat with them or have heartfelt conversations (because your outdated stories are fresh to them, and vice versa); dine and have fun with them every night; when all of this is over, and you go home, you have also gained a higher reputation in serious scholarship. Today's conference attendees have another advantage over past pilgrims: their expenses are usually paid by their affiliated institutions, at least they receive some support, whether these institutions are government departments, business companies, or perhaps, more commonly, a university.
The entire academic world seems to be in constant motion. These days, half of the passengers on transatlantic flights are university teachers. Their luggage is heavier than ordinary people's, filled with books and papers—larger in volume too, because the clothes they bring include formal wear, casual wear, attire for attending lectures, beachwear, or for visiting museums, German castles, Italian cathedrals, and ethnic villages. The appeal of conference circuits lies in this: it transforms work into play, combining professional characteristics with travel, all paid for by others. Writing a paper can take you around the world! I am Jane Austen—let me take a plane! Or Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Hazlitt. All of them flying on plane tickets, on giant jetliners. Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
The Small World was introduced to China over a decade ago, and this time, Shanghai Translation Publishing House invited the renowned translator Professor Wang Jiaxiang to translate it again. David Lodge is world-famous in the UK and known as the representative of "academic fiction." His most famous novels are almost all centered on intellectuals as main characters, with cultural events radiating from the literary world. The Small World is hailed as the Western Fortress Besieged, describing the professors of the Western academic world flying all over the world, ostensibly for academic exchange, but in reality chasing fame and fortune, seeking pleasure and entertainment.