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[fiona]

I just finished reading Blue Angel, an academic novel by Francine Prose.

It's about a married, middle-aged English professor who has a midlife crisis and is attracted to a young female student.

I feel like I've read that novel many times before.

It's competently written, but I can't figure out why that particular story, which I've heard and seen and read so often, gets told and told and told.

I welcome insights.

The Fiona

[notaprof]

Maybe because it is the fantasy of every yuppie going through mid life crisis and is played out regularly in real life.  The story is told with varying characters - middle aged doctors and young interns/nurses, middle aged CEO and young personal assistants/secretaries; middle aged judges and young lawyers; middle aged rock stars and young groupies; middle aged ministers and young sinners etc.

Please note that gender is not a factor in my list, the power person/subordinate person could be either gender or the same gender.  This same plot would be more interesting if authors would change the genders around occasionally.

[dellaroux]

Before Second-Wave Women's Lib, I'd have said it was unexamined male fantasizing concretized (background assumptions being that there is still male hegemony in the press, and that this was a male author--but it's not, so only half the assumptions are worth further thought...).

In the post-SWWL world, where we've scared them all silly with threats of power in the very females they thought they'd dominated, I'd have said it was both a retro-return-to-the-dream wish at the sexual level, and a possible slap at female academics who are not young, to remind them that males as powerful professors are still in control and that any females who get their support and attention will necessarily be those whose sexuality is available and appealing to them (there that word "nubile" comes, fading into the screen...) because no matter what they say, it's still all about sex...

Then I googled the book on Amazon, and it appears that some of the cliche'd situations don't hold as I'd imagined them from the OP's notes. The writer is female, and other elements vary from those my synapse-synched responses led me to expect.

So I'd still say the situational thing could be a caveat to female academics seeking roles of power in the male world of the university but without reading it (Now I guess I'll have to...) I don't know...maybe this is a turning point of its own--taking the situational expectations and manipulating them a bit?

Don't know if this particular author is capable of that, either...so, back to the OP--why did you think that setting/relational structure was chosen? And why did you start the post? :--}

dellaroux

[fiona]

To answer Dellaroux: I started this thread because I'm pondering why a woman author in 2005 or so (when the book appeared) is retelling the tired story of the midlife crisis male academic.

He does get his comeuppance, more or less, but he's still the central and sympathetic character. Actually, that's fairly interesting, that a woman writes through a male point of view. More than halfway through the book, there are some twists on the old theme. the book is also well-written and well-paced and it did hold my interest, but I wished the overall plot were less commonplace.

To Notaprof: I've seen very few such stories where the mid-life crisis person is a woman and the nubile one is male, or for that matter a young female. Offhand I can't think of any, though I'm sure there are "cougar" academic novels. Or maybe not.

I've heard of high school female teachers (and even elementary school ones, like Mary Kay LeTourneau) getting it on with young male students. But if it happens with older female college profs and boy students, I haven't heard about it. Which may just say I'm oblivious.

Continue discussing.

The Fiona

[dellaroux]

To answer Dellaroux: I started this thread because I'm pondering why a woman author in 2005 or so (when the book appeared) is retelling the tired story of the midlife crisis male academic.

He does get his comeuppance, more or less, but he's still the central and sympathetic character. Actually, that's fairly interesting, that a woman writes through a male point of view. More than halfway through the book, there are some twists on the old theme. the book is also well-written and well-paced and it did hold my interest, but I wished the overall plot were less commonplace.

To Notaprof: I've seen very few such stories where the mid-life crisis person is a woman and the nubile one is male, or for that matter a young female. Offhand I can't think of any, though I'm sure there are "cougar" academic novels. Or maybe not.

I've heard of high school female teachers (and even elementary school ones, like Mary Kay LeTourneau) getting it on with young male students. But if it happens with older female college profs and boy students, I haven't heard about it. Which may just say I'm oblivious.

Continue discussing.

The Fiona

Gimme a week to read it. I'll be back...

dellaroux

[fossil]

In 40-some years of academic life I've seen or heard of dozens of variants on this basic theme, including my own (see below).  I can't think of any generalization from these facts that will support any particular moral or political doctrine.  That's why the codes that many schools have put in place at the behest of feminist theorists are basically silly and useless (recall the jane Gallop affair for an example of backfire.)  The "consenting adult" formulation may be insufficiently nuanced to saatisfy some people, but it's about the best we can do.  If that describes the situation reasonably well, then the academic bureaucracy has to mind its own business and put up with the messiness of life in general and sex in particular.

I do know of one incident that qualifies as attempted rape--a female grad student whose thesis advisor tried to overwhelm her physically during a meeting at her home.  But she was a sensible as well as an athletic girl who easily knocked him on his ass.  That was the end of that, and nothing was ever said to officialdom.  She went on to finish her degree and make her very successful carreer with no futher problem.

I also know of one prominent male academic (the word genius would be appropriate) who hit on any attractive woman who came within radar range in similar crude fashion.  Occassionally, he got lucky.  Most of the time, the object of his passion (generally, a faculty wife) just squirmed out of it.  Their were no further recriminations, simply because the guy struck most people as faintly ridiculous, especially given the subtlety and elegance of his thought in scholarly matters.

That said, it doesn't support any generalizations, or mitigate physical violence if the victim wants to bring charges.  But that's the victim's call, not the bureaucracy's.

For the sake of the record, I mention that I started to date an undergrad when I was an Asst. Prof.  I never taught her in a class--indeed she never took a course in my discipline.  But the situation was still a bit messy, since she'd been dating a grad student of mine.  On the other hand, she was the "aggressor" (thank goodness; I wouldn't have been able to summon up the nerve).  Our 37th annivesary approaches, with two grown kids, two grandkids, and two others on order.

[svenc]

To answer Dellaroux: I started this thread because I'm pondering why a woman author in 2005 or so (when the book appeared) is retelling the tired story of the midlife crisis male academic.

He does get his comeuppance, more or less, but he's still the central and sympathetic character. Actually, that's fairly interesting, that a woman writes through a male point of view. More than halfway through the book, there are some twists on the old theme.

I read this book about six years ago (it was published in 2000), so my memory of the details is not fresh.  I did enjoy the book, although I do agree with Fiona that much of it felt familiar. 

I guess the "value added" in Prose's novel come from (a) the aforementioned "twists on the old theme" that come up later in the novel, which form a comment on the current climate of modern campuses, and (b) the "smaller issue" satirical points that are scattered throughout the novel, particularly in the first half.  It was the latter aspect of the novel that I found most compelling to read.

I don't have time to re-read it anytime soon, so I guess I'll have to stay vague in my comments for now!

[empyrean_aisles]

I'm glad a thread's been started on this because when I read Blue Angel, not too long ago, I wanted someone to talk it over with and figure it out, but never found anyone.

I felt the same dissatisfaction that some of you have articulated after I finished it. As if there must have been more there, but I couldn't find it. It stayed with me, though, because I came to think about it as more of a Lolita-ish novel (not in the sense that the young student is Lolita - though some might see her that way - but rather in the sense that it's a novel in which you see events unravel through the eyes of an unpleasant protagonist who is skilled at hiding his unpleasantness from you, the reader). I now wonder whether it is an incredibly gutting critique of the male academic, who after all is a writer (just as Humbert was) so has been able to tell his story of unbridled narcissism in such a way as to make himself sympathetic. Think for example how different a story it would have been if told from the perspective of his friend the poet, whom he fails to help by mentioning her poems to his agent ...

(sorry - I realise the above is less than coherent because I haven't been able to remember any of the characters' names)

[fiona]

I'm so glad to see other people responding about this novel.

The protagonist's name is Swenson. The "Lolita" is Angela Argo (great name), Swenson's wife is Sherrie, and Swenson's friend the poet is Magda.

The novel continues to bother me and make me wonder, and I'm thinking empyrean_aisles (great name, that) may be on to something about the protagonist's hiding his unpleasantness and presenting himself as a victim. When I read an academic novel, I'm predisposed to identify with the central character, even though he's usually a mid-life messed-up male English professor. Yet such novels almost invariably have a wife/earth mother who's so much smarter, more empathetic, and better-looking than the protagonist. In _MOO_, I think the earth mother character was a Spanish professor, though I'm not sure about that.

I wonder why the best/most positive character is so often a faculty wife.

The Fiona

[doctor_torrseal]

Disclaimer: I haven't read this book.  The author knows she is deliberately revisiting this timeworn plot, because the title is a reference to "Der blaue Engel," a German movie from 1930 that is about the downfall of a teacher who becomes obsessed with a nightclub dancer.  It's directed by Josef von Sternberg,  introduced a young Marlene Dietrich, and is based on a novel by Thomas Mann's older brother.  The professor isn't married to begin with in the movie, but he is ruined by his socially unacceptable relationship and marriage.  He is a pathetic, initially stiff, but not totally unsympathetic character.

Apologies if you all knew this.  It is quite a powerful movie, but requires some getting used to the style, as it's very early in the history of talkies and the acting and pacing are not what we are used to now.

I think the best character is often the faculty wife for the same reasons that current movies, especially about screwed up slacker guys, always make you ask, "Why is that leading lady still sticking with that schlump?"  But then, I never could understand why Elaine was still hanging around with the guys on Seinfeld, either.

[fossil]

So far as I'm concerned, you don't read a novel in order to second-guess a novelists assumptions about the world.  In Francine Prose's book, the prof. was an artless schmuck entangled by a virago.  Sometimes it happens that way.  Sometimes it doesn't.  In any case, the satiric points about the official prudery of academic institutions are well-taken, even if carried a bit far.

[fiona]

OK, I find the last two postings irritating.

Yes, of course it's based on _The Blue Angel_, as most readers would know. Even the cover shows the connection. Toward the end of the book the protagonist rents _The Blue Angel_, as expected.

The other poster (Fossil) wants to reduce the novel to a moral tract, which it is not, because he has his own moral "issues" about sexual harassment policies. I disagree with his viewpoint, and I do know women (and one man) whose careers have been ruined by sexual harassment (and, yes, rape), but that's not what this posting is about.

I would be happy to engage with people who've read the book and want to discuss it without dismissing the characters as one-dimensional allegories. They're not.

The Fiona

[doctor_torrseal]

Sorry, I didn't know whether the reference was explicit in the book or was just in the title.

I can't tell all of your backgrounds from here, so I didn't know whether the reference was clear or not.  Not trying to engage in academic one-upmanship.  For ex, most of the people I work with would not have heard of the movie, through no fault of their own - it's just too far afield.

Fossil's name is aptly taken.

[fiona]

Sorry, I didn't know whether the reference was explicit in the book or was just in the title.

I can't tell all of your backgrounds from here, so I didn't know whether the reference was clear or not.  Not trying to engage in academic one-upmanship.  For ex, most of the people I work with would not have heard of the movie, through no fault of their own - it's just too far afield.

Fossil's name is aptly taken.

Apologies to you for my grouchiness. I just looked at some of your past postings, and they're very entertaining.

Now go read _The Blue Angel_, and we'll tawk (yes, I also have Brownsville ancestry).

The Fiona

[prytania3]

Francine Prose is exactly that--a competent writer.

I have yet to see any flashes of brilliance from her. Hence the tired story line and the retread title.