For many of today’s students, the stakes are higher
December 3, 2023 3:01 AM Subscribe
A campus plot might not be as high-stakes anywhere else in the world, because the stakes of the real world would be totally different. Nash Jenkins, author of Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos, said the campus itself “provides a sort of infrastructure that makes emotional intensities more coherent and less solipsistic.” But this is no longer entirely true, as the borders between the campus and “real life” are much more porous, and the campus is open for public scrutiny. from Is the Campus Novel Dead? [Esquire; ungated]
My college experience was so much like Donna Tartt's The Secret History (minus, you know, some of that stuff) that it was a running joke on our campus. Now I teach at a campus that is so far from that it's laughable, with only about 10% of our students living on campus, and most living at home with extended families and working 30+ hours per week, and all primarily interested in education as vocational training. As much as I love the old world of campus novels, I'm excited to check out some of these new ones and see what's coming next.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:40 AM on December 3, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:40 AM on December 3, 2023 [6 favorites]
Unlettered as I am, I never even realized they were prolific enough to be considered a genre
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:27 AM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:27 AM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
The Idiot by Elif Batuman is pretty good. But it's also quirky and steers around the usual tropes.
posted by ovvl at 8:46 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 8:46 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
Given that most litfic novelists seem to earn their livings as MFA or literature teachers, I'm surprised that there's anything but campus novels out there.
I'm 100% standing for novels by moonlighting veterinarians or bond traders.
posted by MattD at 9:18 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm 100% standing for novels by moonlighting veterinarians or bond traders.
posted by MattD at 9:18 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
I published a novel set on a campus a long time ago, but i didn't consider it a campus novel, which at the time -- maybe less no now -- was almost required to adopt a satirical, "look how meaningless it all is / how seriously these fools take it" stance towards the academic project. I don't think Batuman's books -- really among my very favorite novels of the last decade -- are in this vein either.
posted by escabeche at 9:30 AM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 9:30 AM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
Given that most litfic novelists seem to earn their livings as MFA or literature teachers, I'm surprised that there's anything but campus novels out there.
How could you forgot the disaffected midlife folks in cities having affairs?
posted by leotrotsky at 9:43 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
How could you forgot the disaffected midlife folks in cities having affairs?
posted by leotrotsky at 9:43 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've mostly steered away from campus novels, because they mostly concerned themselves with those nice, genteel little liberal arts colleges that I think I would have liked to have gone to but couldn't afford. I did read Bret Easton Ellis' The Rules of Attraction, and found it less irritating than Less Than Zero, but I also found getting a colonoscopy less irritating than that book.
My two favorite campus stories are both done by authors known mostly for their genre work, which might be part of the reason why I enjoyed them so much. The first is "Hearts in Atlantis", a novella by Stephen King which is part of the story collection of the same name. (Confusingly, there was a movie titled Hearts in Atlantis, with Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin, which adapted a different novella in the book, "Low Men in Yellow Coats.") The story is set in the University of Maine in Orono, during the middle of the sixties, and mostly concerns itself with a dorm floor where the young men are addicted to the card game Hearts to the extent that they're all in danger of flunking out and therefore being drafted. The interesting thing about the story to me is that it's at a college campus which is literally all the way across the country from the sixties counterculture hotspot of Berkeley, but shows how college kids even that far away were starting to get radicalized by the awareness of the Vietnam War and how little the dying assumptions of the relatively clean-cut campus culture that was in place had to do with the reality of that. It's closely based on King's own experiences at that campus; he later wrote a lengthy essay talking about his actual experiences during that time, during which he went from being a Goldwater Republican to an antiwar activist. (It also ties in very indirectly to King's Dark Tower saga, but you don't have to worry about that at all.)
The other favorite campus story of mine is The Big U, Neal Stephenson's first published book and one that he doesn't seem very fond of himself; he's described it as "juvenalia" and "a first novel written in a hurry by a young man a long time ago", but it's a pretty good satire of the early days of universities being transformed from educational centers to big businesses. It was published when I was matriculating at Illinois State University, and I immediately latched onto the description of "American Megaversity", the physical plant of which is a single nine-square-block building that encompasses dorms, classrooms, the whole schmear; my own school had Watterson Towers, an enormous Brutalist dorm that at one point was the tallest dorm in the world, and which luckily I didn't have to live in--I've never even liked walking into the place, because it doesn't seem really designed for people. (It is, in fact, the first visible sign of the twin cities of Bloomington/Normal from many miles across the prairie.) The book is solid, if occasionally veering into SFF-adjacent territory with giant mutant rats and a rampant AI and whatnot, and has something unusual for a Stephenson book: a solidly written ending.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:43 AM on December 3, 2023 [5 favorites]
My two favorite campus stories are both done by authors known mostly for their genre work, which might be part of the reason why I enjoyed them so much. The first is "Hearts in Atlantis", a novella by Stephen King which is part of the story collection of the same name. (Confusingly, there was a movie titled Hearts in Atlantis, with Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin, which adapted a different novella in the book, "Low Men in Yellow Coats.") The story is set in the University of Maine in Orono, during the middle of the sixties, and mostly concerns itself with a dorm floor where the young men are addicted to the card game Hearts to the extent that they're all in danger of flunking out and therefore being drafted. The interesting thing about the story to me is that it's at a college campus which is literally all the way across the country from the sixties counterculture hotspot of Berkeley, but shows how college kids even that far away were starting to get radicalized by the awareness of the Vietnam War and how little the dying assumptions of the relatively clean-cut campus culture that was in place had to do with the reality of that. It's closely based on King's own experiences at that campus; he later wrote a lengthy essay talking about his actual experiences during that time, during which he went from being a Goldwater Republican to an antiwar activist. (It also ties in very indirectly to King's Dark Tower saga, but you don't have to worry about that at all.)
The other favorite campus story of mine is The Big U, Neal Stephenson's first published book and one that he doesn't seem very fond of himself; he's described it as "juvenalia" and "a first novel written in a hurry by a young man a long time ago", but it's a pretty good satire of the early days of universities being transformed from educational centers to big businesses. It was published when I was matriculating at Illinois State University, and I immediately latched onto the description of "American Megaversity", the physical plant of which is a single nine-square-block building that encompasses dorms, classrooms, the whole schmear; my own school had Watterson Towers, an enormous Brutalist dorm that at one point was the tallest dorm in the world, and which luckily I didn't have to live in--I've never even liked walking into the place, because it doesn't seem really designed for people. (It is, in fact, the first visible sign of the twin cities of Bloomington/Normal from many miles across the prairie.) The book is solid, if occasionally veering into SFF-adjacent territory with giant mutant rats and a rampant AI and whatnot, and has something unusual for a Stephenson book: a solidly written ending.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:43 AM on December 3, 2023 [5 favorites]
I met Mr Stephenson at a reading he gave for Cryptonomicon. When I mentioned how much I loved The Big U, he gave me this really nasty look. Needless to say, I couldn’t get through his later novel, so I reread The Big U.
My favorite campus novel is Giles Goat Boy by John Barth. Here the campus is just a giant conceit touching on Cold War politics, religion, literature, computers, and much more. Great fun decoding the conceit from college life to the real world. CW: it’s postmodern meta fiction. Or maybe a satire of same.
posted by njohnson23 at 10:57 AM on December 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
My favorite campus novel is Giles Goat Boy by John Barth. Here the campus is just a giant conceit touching on Cold War politics, religion, literature, computers, and much more. Great fun decoding the conceit from college life to the real world. CW: it’s postmodern meta fiction. Or maybe a satire of same.
posted by njohnson23 at 10:57 AM on December 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
Given that most litfic novelists seem to earn their livings as MFA or literature teachers,
having endured two phases in campus writing programs, I came to view pretty much every campus based story that came up in workshop (and there were many) as arguments against the Write-What-You-Know dictum.
No. Not if what you know is pretty much across the board unspectacular. That's why we have imaginations.
Interestingly, the one campus based real life situation that happened while I was there -- nobody that I know has touched it either as fiction or non. Too close to home, I guess. Too scary.
Which I suppose touches on why campus based stories are so easy to write and so uninteresting to me -- the stakes just aren't that high.
posted by philip-random at 11:58 AM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
having endured two phases in campus writing programs, I came to view pretty much every campus based story that came up in workshop (and there were many) as arguments against the Write-What-You-Know dictum.
No. Not if what you know is pretty much across the board unspectacular. That's why we have imaginations.
Interestingly, the one campus based real life situation that happened while I was there -- nobody that I know has touched it either as fiction or non. Too close to home, I guess. Too scary.
Which I suppose touches on why campus based stories are so easy to write and so uninteresting to me -- the stakes just aren't that high.
posted by philip-random at 11:58 AM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think you have to distinguish between novels focused on the undergrad experience, and novels about "academia" focused on professors, research conferences, infidelity with your graduate students, etc.
When I graduated from college and discovered that the extramural world was totally different from the four-year hothouse I'd been living in, I went looking for books set in the world I had known, and found there were very few of them! People recommended David Lodge's "Small World" and Jane Smiley's "Moo", but their concerns were alien to me and my 20,000 college student peers. Our only interactions with professors and graduate students were in lecture-discussion classes, which occupied a small and unimportant part of our day, compared with the endlessly fascinating 18-21 soap opera of campus life and friends-group drama. The one I could find was Pamela Dean's "Tam Lin", and only freshman year gets a realistic depiction before it turns into a fantasy novel.
High School novels are almost always about the students' experience, not the teachers'. Why not College novels?
As for the article, I think it's overblown by its focus on the Ivy League. Since Halloween Jack mentioned Illinois State University, I would bet a book set there wouldn't pay so much attention to wealth, precarity, and cloistered privilege as one set at Columbia.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:33 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
When I graduated from college and discovered that the extramural world was totally different from the four-year hothouse I'd been living in, I went looking for books set in the world I had known, and found there were very few of them! People recommended David Lodge's "Small World" and Jane Smiley's "Moo", but their concerns were alien to me and my 20,000 college student peers. Our only interactions with professors and graduate students were in lecture-discussion classes, which occupied a small and unimportant part of our day, compared with the endlessly fascinating 18-21 soap opera of campus life and friends-group drama. The one I could find was Pamela Dean's "Tam Lin", and only freshman year gets a realistic depiction before it turns into a fantasy novel.
High School novels are almost always about the students' experience, not the teachers'. Why not College novels?
As for the article, I think it's overblown by its focus on the Ivy League. Since Halloween Jack mentioned Illinois State University, I would bet a book set there wouldn't pay so much attention to wealth, precarity, and cloistered privilege as one set at Columbia.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:33 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
A recent campus novel that focuses on students is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.
posted by JonJacky at 2:45 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by JonJacky at 2:45 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't think I've ever seen a college novel that wasn't from the students' perspective. Another recent one is Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.
posted by one for the books at 2:58 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by one for the books at 2:58 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's enough of a genre that I once read all the ones set at the University at which I was a student. They were pretty great, given that the authors included Alison Lurie, Richard Farina, and Vladimir Nabokov.
posted by acrasis at 3:23 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by acrasis at 3:23 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
I’m trying to think of a college novel with a staff narrator.
posted by clew at 5:51 PM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by clew at 5:51 PM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
I’m trying to think of a college novel with a staff narrator.
The protagonist of Next by James Hynes is a college staff member. His dissatisfaction with his job sets up the action in the book, which happens away from the college where he works.
posted by JonJacky at 10:26 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
The protagonist of Next by James Hynes is a college staff member. His dissatisfaction with his job sets up the action in the book, which happens away from the college where he works.
posted by JonJacky at 10:26 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
My favorite campus novel (from the faculty perspective) is "Straight Man" by Richard Russo.
posted by of strange foe at 10:43 AM on December 4, 2023
posted by of strange foe at 10:43 AM on December 4, 2023
I don't think I've ever seen a college novel that wasn't from the students' perspective.
From this list at least half of them (from what I've read) are from staff perspectives.
posted by ovvl at 3:36 PM on December 4, 2023
From this list at least half of them (from what I've read) are from staff perspectives.
posted by ovvl at 3:36 PM on December 4, 2023
I can’t count them out that way, unless you think of faculty as staff?
posted by clew at 4:24 PM on December 4, 2023
posted by clew at 4:24 PM on December 4, 2023
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This is a really odd title for an article entirely about recent and upcoming Campus Novels.
The tab text reads "The Future of the Campus Novel", and I suspect that might have been the original title before an editor changed it to something more clickbaity.
Anyway, don't want to derail, so back to the topic. I've actually noticed something of an uptick in novels set at colleges. I'd attributed it mostly to the popularity of the Dark Academia genre, which the article briefly mentions.
posted by kyrademon at 4:25 AM on December 3, 2023 [4 favorites]