Brenda W. (brendao) reviewed Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror on + 351 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Interesting, creepy, great academic settings.
Debra R. (MediumDebbi) reviewed Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror on + 92 more book reviews
Three witty,spooky novellas of satire set in academia.
This was actually an interestingly well-woven book of three intersecting stories with characters of truth and subtlety.
Maura (maura853) -
Very disappointing. Oh, well written and all; sometimes very witty, especially if you've spent any time in academia, among academics. OK, fair dues: there are some hilarious digs at academic prima donnas, academic cat-fighting, and fashions in academic discourse. Just chosen at random:
"... he concocted an whole new outline for his book, chapter after chapter: 'The Sitcom at the End of the New Frontier: The Brady Bunch and The Wild Bunch in Contrapuntal Perspective.' ... 'A French Bikini on a Wild Island Girl: The Tempest, Gilligan's Island and the Social Construction of the Narrative of Abandonment' ..."
If you don't find that hilarious, just trust me, you had to be there ... The real punch line to the joke is that there are probably actual articles out there, in distinguished academic journals, with just those titles. So as a satire on the lengths that otherwise decent people will go to to get a tenured position at a mediocre institution of learning, this is right on the money.
But, page after page, it begins to feel a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. In the three novellas that comprise Publish and Perish we meet three academic horrors, two of whom are willing to kill to achieve or maintain their academic status, and the third ... well, I'm not exactly sure what the protagonist of '99,' the middle of the three stories, does to deserve the fate that is meted out to him. Yes, he's not a nice person. He's a bit of an arrogant prat. But, still, if we're talking "just deserts," it seems like overkill.
"Publish and Perish" is advertised, on the cover, as "Three Tales of Tenure and TERROR" (the caps are theirs), and it's as TERROR that is fails, for me. The three novellas are just not the tiniest bit frightening, or haunting. (The third story, 'Casting the Runes,' has its moments, but the climax -- cross-dressing intrigue at a panel at an academic conference -- loses all focus in a difficult to follow, and easy to skim, farce.) As "twist in the tale" stories, they fail because it's pretty obvious exactly what's going to happen to whom, after about two pages. I'm quite sure there have been episodes of The Twilight Zone that have done it all before.
"... he concocted an whole new outline for his book, chapter after chapter: 'The Sitcom at the End of the New Frontier: The Brady Bunch and The Wild Bunch in Contrapuntal Perspective.' ... 'A French Bikini on a Wild Island Girl: The Tempest, Gilligan's Island and the Social Construction of the Narrative of Abandonment' ..."
If you don't find that hilarious, just trust me, you had to be there ... The real punch line to the joke is that there are probably actual articles out there, in distinguished academic journals, with just those titles. So as a satire on the lengths that otherwise decent people will go to to get a tenured position at a mediocre institution of learning, this is right on the money.
But, page after page, it begins to feel a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. In the three novellas that comprise Publish and Perish we meet three academic horrors, two of whom are willing to kill to achieve or maintain their academic status, and the third ... well, I'm not exactly sure what the protagonist of '99,' the middle of the three stories, does to deserve the fate that is meted out to him. Yes, he's not a nice person. He's a bit of an arrogant prat. But, still, if we're talking "just deserts," it seems like overkill.
"Publish and Perish" is advertised, on the cover, as "Three Tales of Tenure and TERROR" (the caps are theirs), and it's as TERROR that is fails, for me. The three novellas are just not the tiniest bit frightening, or haunting. (The third story, 'Casting the Runes,' has its moments, but the climax -- cross-dressing intrigue at a panel at an academic conference -- loses all focus in a difficult to follow, and easy to skim, farce.) As "twist in the tale" stories, they fail because it's pretty obvious exactly what's going to happen to whom, after about two pages. I'm quite sure there have been episodes of The Twilight Zone that have done it all before.
