Comments on: Elsewhere on the WWW

By: Michael Harris

Michael Harris — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 12:40:37 +0000

In this bad film set at the University of Melbourne the philosophy professor played by Jimmy Smits seems to not only have a fancy office, but there’s an OPEN FIRE in every office and lecture theatre shown on film. Of course, they filmed it at one of the old residential colleges, rather than in any of the buildings actually used in teaching, where the real offices are typically small and utilitarian…

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 11:13:22 +0000

Since when have we been supposed to believe that anything published by TCS hasn’t been entirely dictated by industry lobbying? And what’s wrong with wanting to decriminalise marijuana?

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 15:38:51 +0000

I don't work at a liberal arts school, but land is cheap where I am, and my department drew a new building in the most recent round of construction, so my office is a little like ecw's -- except the bookcases aren't built in and the view is not so much of mountains.

By: Seth Edenbaum

Seth Edenbaum — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 18:20:25 +0000

On McDonalds: Perhaps someone should bring this up with Anne Marie Slaughter

By: ECW

ECW — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 16:56:51 +0000

One of hte advantages of a a liberal arts college is that the nice buildings aren’t always monopolized by admin. My office has 12 foot ceilings, built in book shelfs, beautiful art deco architectural touches, and 8 foot windows with a wonderful view of the quad and mountains in the distance. It’s big enough for my writing desk, my computer desk, and a 4 chair table for meeting with students. Of course, I teach 6 classes a year and advise a ton of students, so I pretty much live in that beautiful office. And our library stinks, so I have to drive 2 hours to do any archival work.

By: david tiley

david tiley — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 06:53:56 +0000

Which is bewildering to foreigners. I always assumed inheritance.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 05:53:54 +0000

It doesn’t seem to be just professors, but very often characters of ostensibly modest means live in inexplicably expensive apartments/houses.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 02:54:10 +0000

“It always seemed to me that the attraction of SF (different from its odd associate or twin Fantasy) was in creating a technology or a scientific structure or a natural event (aliens landing, the world turning to crystal as in Ballard’s great novel) that itself would bear the emotional and human burden in the story: not functioning as a symbol of the subject but itself the subject and generating the feelings” …Crowley

Pretty excellent. I wonder if Fantasy is really so different or simply has different purposes, different subjects and feelings. Sword-and-sorcery is not so far from space opera. Crowley’s description might apply to most genre work, and for that matter, was Kafka really working with character and narrative?

And what is Ballard doing in The Crystal World anyway? What is the subject (besides wrecking the world); what is the feeling generated? A “sense of wonder?” Xenophilia? Jules Verne, H.R. Haggard, and Burroughs are the true fathers of SF. Aldiss wildly overrates Shelley and Wells.

By: Patrick S. O'Donnell

Patrick S. O'Donnell — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 00:45:36 +0000

I’m a part-time instructor and I get to share a ‘cubicle’ (a metal desk worthy of any prison and a shelf affixed above) with anywhere from 5-10 other individuals. I usually hold my office hours outside or during a leisurely stroll across campus, as there are roughly 10 cubicles in this very small room allocated to the adjunct instructors on our side of campus. One dare not keep any books of value there. My ‘office,’ in effect, is our dining table at home, and our modest quarters are in imminent danger of resembling Iris Murdoch’s (and John Bayley’s) place (books and papers of all sorts strewn about), at least as depicted in the film Iris starring the wonderful Judi Dench. My students, most of whom drive cars we could never afford (well, we wouldn’t buy ‘em even if we could), are always surprised at the fact I don’t have an ‘office,’ and no doubt they imagine something on the order described above.

By: nick s

nick s — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 22:23:38 +0000

Moreover, all professors keep their antique books in their offices. Where are these offices, and, more importantly, when can I have one?

Oxford colleges. Seriously. My thesis supervisor’s little room had a collection of books and prints that made my eyes widen like Aladdin every time I visited. Executive desks? Not so much: more like shabby upholstered chairs and a piled-up ashtray.