Academia

The novel utilizes its university setting to satirize academia’s potential for insularity and dysfunction, and Philip’s research specialization functions as the initial signal of this thematic focus. Early in the novel, when Philip exposits upon his own research, he says that he studies “academic environments, the departmental politics and territorial squabbles, the places where disciplines overlapped, fed back, and interfered” (8). In other words, he is an anthropologist who studies the social and political dynamics of universities. Philip studies the insularity and dysfunction of universities, thereby adding to said insularity and dysfunction. Philip himself characterizes this research as coming form his own desperation to form an academic niche and keep his position at the university. Thus, while the novel does not discount the profound value that universities provide, it also acknowledges and dramatizes the dysfunction and insularity that they may breed within themselves.

The main...