Small World- Part Two

In the words of Cogsworth, from the classic Disney piece Beauty and The Beast, "If it's not Baroque, don't fix it!" Therefore, I will write this blog in the style of my other recent blogs, that being a summary of some things that I noticed in the text.

The first thing that strikes me when reading the second part is the state of disrepair that the English Literature world is in. I noticed this more in this part than in the first part, even though there are many references to it in part one. In the second part this disrepair is characterized primarily through physical appearance. Lodge does not cast any of his characters that are established English professors as being attractive in any way. At the beginning of this part the reader is introduced to Rodney Wainwright, a balding, overweight, and disproportionate English professor. Furthermore, Lodge blames Wainwright's appearance on his occupation. He writes:

"The effects of twenty years' dedication to the life of the mind are all too evident when he puts on a pair of swimming trunks..."

This insinuates that Wainwright's life of academia has lead to degradation, and that the true degradation is present in the study of English itself.

Another reference to this idea comes from Lodge's description of Zapp's tongue:

"It resembles, this tongue, the dried out bed of a badly polluted river. Too much alcohol and too many cigars last night. And every night."

In this passage is where Lodge's true message really shines through. Earlier in the year we spoke about the tongues significance, and how it is a conveyor and symbol of knowledge. Seeing as Zapp is really the "head professor" in the story, the fact that his tongue is malformed is quite important. Lodge isn't mincing words when he says that Zapp's tongue represents a polluted river bed. In his view, the study of English has been polluted and destroyed, and all that remains is Zapp's decaying views.