Academic Flying and the Means of Communication

Te frst of these two novels begins, in fact, in mid-air, as the aerial paths
of the two protagonists, Morris Zapp and Philip Swallow, meet: ‘High,
high above the North Pole, on the frst day of 1969, two professors of
English Literature approached each other at a combined velocity of 1200
miles per hour. Tey were protected from the thin, cold air by the pressurized cabins of two Boeing 707s, and from the risk of collision by the prudent arrangement of the international air corridors’ (Lodge, 1975, p. 5). Zapp and Swallow, we learn, are on a mission to replace each other (the frst travelling from Euphoric State University (read: California) to the University of Rummidge (read: Birmingham), while the other vice versa), as part of a six-month exchange scheme. Here already we have learnt something about why academics fy: Teir institutions want them to—so much so, in fact, that they create elaborate and costly exchange schemes to make it happen. Admittedly, the chain of causality more likely runs in the other direction: Academic institutions desire international exchange, and exchange requires, or at least is greatly facilitated by, fying.
[2021]

Compartir: