Sense and Nonsensibility: Lampoons of Learning and Literature

The fact that I am awarding five stars to this book should in itself serve as a warning. I found myself laughing out loud. Most unusual for me - especially while reading a book. Hardly ever happens and certainly not to such a degree. In doubt, I began to search for a reason for this change. I read closely. Closer still, until I was reading between the lines, laughter subsiding at last. There I saw into a world I dare not speak of. I looked up at my college diploma where it has hung modestly in its plain wooden frame for three decades without saying a word. It spoke to me - with something more than academic irony. I was forced to call upon the "Literary Ethicists..." (page 28), the "Academic Ethicist..." (page 70) the "Academic Car Consultant..." (page 62), the services of the "Affected Accent Summer Camp" (page 65), the "Academic Therapist (again...)" (page 121), and "1-800-THERAPY" (use a touch-tone phone), the "Philosopher Who Is In..." (page 137), and I was caught in the snare of "Graduate Students Anonymous" (page 87), without a further degree, embarrassed, clutching a work of "Self-Helplessness" (page147). I had no choice but render five stars. There was no way out until I had added them all: footnotes within a "Footnote to the History of the Footnote" (page 125). Even now, what hope is there for an end of it, as I reread deeper and deeper between the lines, in search of I know not what-or whom? Could it have been "The Penis Orations" (page 140)? "Talk Bad to Me" (page 144)! "I'm Okay, I'm Okay" (page 150)!

Truly a splendid book. The authors have a wonderfully playful sense of humor, and manage to be funny and winning despite the considerable delight they evidently take in portraying themselves as quarreling, slightly mischievous "bad boys" of the academy. The book is sharp and inventive, and frequently causes involuntary smiles to form at the corners of one's mouth. Highly recommended!

This is a great collaborative work by two tenured Amherst professors. The book is a collection of humorous essays that were written for various magazines. They are Dave Barry-esque, but more intellectual, mocking academia and literature. Some gems; 'How to be a great professor' and 'Summer camp for professors'. A wonderful Christmas gift for a favorite Amherst College Student or graduate student in your family. If you can, go to a reading by these authors. The essays are even funnier when read out loud by these authors. Sometimes one will be so amused by their own writing that the other will need to step in and finish reading.

If you liked "Non Campus Mentis", you'll love "Sense and Nonsensibility"! George and Douglas have done an outstanding job in skewering the notorious bombast and pretentious delusions of present-day academia. This book reminds me of the also recently published "The Rape of the Masters", which does to pompous and politically correct art critics what George and Douglas do to flummery-spouting academics. This is the perfect gift for the college students in your life, who even as we speak (anyway, as I write and you read) are, through no fault of their own, preparing to enter the supposedly hallowed halls of our nation's institutes of higher learning (HA!). After all, forewarned is forearmed.

This is an exceptional book. It is erudite, witty and sharp, and presents the truth with delightful humor. This book should be on everybody's reading list!!!