I suggested a book by Brian D. Meeks for the other men in my book club to read. "Underwood, Scotch and Wry" is the story of a tenured full professor of English who does little and reflects badly on the college. The administration would like him to retire and trying to move him toward retirement, gives him a new class, one on social media and blogging. They assign him 7 teaching assistants but he knows nothing of computers, the (ugh!) internet, much less Facebook, Twitter and such. The idea is that he will dislike the teaching enough to retire. The story is well put together.
Meanwhile, Sandra Oh is being shown on Netflix in a series about professors of English. It's called "The Chair" and might create sympathy for the departmental chairwomen and chairmen who try to handle the business of that group.
I had read the Meeks book before but it has been a while. So, I am reading through it again. I am surprised at how good it is. The quality may be a symptom of my age. When teaching college, I had some undergrad classes of juniors and seniors and some graduate classes of experienced teachers. There is a big difference between students preparing to teach along with all the other post-college steps of locating, dating and marrying and the older adults who have been teaching a while and are generally much more settled and experienced.
I imagine that anyone getting older, especially in people-oriented jobs like teaching, politics, law, etc. becomes more aware of the difference between serious and basic issues of life, and much doesn't matter all that much. It sensitizes one to the many sorts of frivolity and surface themes and fads that American life creates and promotes, especially during youth.
