Gallowglass

Zapp's Revenge

John Holbo is taking a break from Stanley Fish-bashing; or more precisely, he's decided to write it up as an academic paper instead. As Matthew Yglesias says, there's a trade-off between blogging and tenure-worthy activities - something I should be paying more attention to myself; I've got a book to write this summer. But anyway, John's posts remind me of a Stanley Fish story which I heard from a friend who also teaches in the humanities in Duke. Apparently, there's a door in the Duke University English Department, with a rather elaborate brass nameplate, inscribed in flowing italics with the words "Professor Morris Zapp." Now, as evry fule kno, Morris Zapp is a fictional character in David Lodge's academic comedies, a fictional character who is, moreover, rather transparently based on Stanley Fish. So hipper-than-thou first year Ph.D students arrive in Duke every year- they all know about the Fish-Zapp connection, and assume that Stanley Fish is demonstrating that he can take a joke, by putting this nameplate on his door. And they all line up outside so that they can talk to the Great Man, and inveigle him into becoming their Ph.D. advisor. However, the door in question is a broom closet that is perpetually locked, so that they wait in vain, until some kindly passer-by lets them know that they've been had. It's called "Zapp's Revenge" in the Department.