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HomeShop at BookSurgeLawLegal WritingHigher Learning, A Novel |
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Further Praise for Higher Learning, A Novel Dec 11, 2007
By Michael Shapiro
The cover of Marianne Shapiro's novel Higher learning shows a cracked ivory tower looking like an old telescope pointing to the foundations of the American university. Indeed, the modern pirates are underground like sewer rats and wear gowns and their (twin) eye patches prevent them from seeing any kind of truth.
The enigmatic motto of the book, Cui prodest?, makes one think of the movie of some years back, Kramer vs. Kramer. The movie is a sharp vivisection of the American divorce, but in Europe it was taken as a totally imaginary world, and this was highly appreciated, because who could cook up such a fantastic world!
The indications of the reactions to Marianne Shapiro's work seem to point to a similar split, viz. those who know academe and those who don't. Those who don't cannot believe that the ivory towers rest on dirty clay, although the book is extremely good reading in the vein of Europe's reaction to Kramer vs. Kramer. Those who do know this "sage" world refuse to see themselves parodied to pulp, and ignore the vivisectio sagax in the book. These are 95% supermen. (A few years ago a Gallup poll showed that 95% of American professors indicated that they thought themselves above the average.) Since Marianne Shapiro's book exposes the flim-flam operators and academic confidence men, of course they want to ignore it.
The beauty of Marianne Shapiro's book is that it can be read without realizing the ironic total poverty of the modern American university. It provides mystery, intrigue, and satire, served with wit and charm. She does not overdo the scathing that would have been justified. But there it is for the initiated: secret societies of sham megalomaniacs and dim-witted failed scholars in positions of power, against whom the remaining 5% do not have a chance. And there, underground, students are molded and want to be molded into the insects of the 95%.
The book is a novel, but at the same time a perspicacious sociological study. Great on both levels!
Raimo Anttila, UCLA
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