About the Magnum Opus Changing Places by David Lodge 14 out of 10

 About the Magnum Opus Changing Places by David Lodge

14 out of 10

 

 

Changing Places is the Absolute Perfect Chef d’Oeuvre for the under signed who has laughed though it like at no time in the last few years, and this is without lowering the intellectual standard, the complexity of the plot and the techniques used in the Magnum opus, which range from the jocular to the epistolary, revealing outré and unsuspected aspects of the literature of Jane Austen – take the orgasm that is emphasized by the American expert on the English luminary, Morris Zapp, who has also wanted to write the ultimate, comprehensive series on Jane Austen, one that will leave all the other critics with nothing to do, for it will have looked at Austen from all possible angles, Psychoanalytical and Marxist (does he mention that, or am I making this up as we move along), progressive and postmodern (again, it probably does not reflect what Zapp had intended, but let us move along nonetheless)

 

Philip Swallow is a British academic that is based on David Lodge, who wrote that ‘apart from his physical appearance and dearth of publications, has a good deal of myself’ and though the brilliant author admits that ‘1969 is different from today and Changing Places is now something of a period piece- for which they had intended an adaptation with John Cleese as Swallow – or Sparrow, as Desiree keeps calling him when they first meet – Walter Matthaw as Morris Zapp and Shirley MacLaine as Desiree – there is an infinite pleasure to be obtained when reading this exquisite, sage, satirical, intellectual narrative that will age splendidly well, even when American and British worlds will be ever closer and difficult to distinguish…

As the title suggests, Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp Change places, the former is exhilarated to travel to Euphoria – not an accidental name, and if we listen to what marvelous David Lodge says, the place is based on a few real life universities, but I thought I distinguish something of San Francisco in there, not that I have ever traveled to it – where the salary is many times bigger, though he will only stay six months, it will allow them to install central heating, the climate is sub-tropical and so is the vegetation…on the other hand, the notion that living on the West Coast of America is the recipe for happiness is debunked in the psychology classic Stumbling Upon Happiness, by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert, who uses the Hedonic Adaptation principle to show that once we move in one of those paradisiacal places, we get used with the good, palms, ocean, sunshine and start being upset by huge traffic jams, serious wild fires and much else…

 

On the contrary, Morris Zapp is not thrilled by the idea of moving to Rummidge – not coincidentally close to garbage – but this is the solution to his marital problems, since Desiree, his wife, wants to divorce him, the six months absence might cool things down and perhaps he could return to find her more inclined to give him a second chance…pragmatic as he is, the professor is also considering the nuisance of having their two children separated from him and thus making the separation ever more painful – he will reconsider later in the exchange program, once he becomes a special guest star, his leadership qualities becoming crucial at a time when even generally peaceful Rummidge experiences students rebellions – though not on the scale of the more vehement protests and violence taking place in Euphoria, where there are clashes with the police and National Guard

 

‘All women longed to be screwed by a God; it was the source of all religion.  Look at the myths ISIS and Osiris, Mary and the Holy Ghost…what have I done…you eat me…I thought you liked it…I mean psychologically…No one in his right mind would go to a Mid-West place for a thousand dollars a day…Brooding about the meaning of life…there was nothing he wanted to achieve that he hadn't achieved already…Root of all critical error was a naive confusion of literature with life…Life was transparent, literature opaque…Life was an open, literature a closed system…Life was what it appeared to be about…Literature was never about what it appeared to be about’…as may be evident from these notes, if the tone and substance of this Magical Narrative are mirthful, there is a tremendous amount of serious, vital themes that are given central role here, from the students movements of the sixties to the sexual revolution, from the massive difference between American and European standards, culture and moeurs, to the significance of literature, the way life and art are opposites and the same…

Philip Swallow is transformed by his American experience, transcends we can say and becomes a different man – as he confesses to Desiree at one point – from the shy, decent, perhaps a little lackluster, unambitious teacher, he becomes a liberated, more confident, sensual, brave, somewhat rebellious middle aged man, involved first in a one night stand with Melanie, the daughter form his first marriage of Zapp – though Philip is unaware of the relation – then he moves in with Desiree, after the house he had lived in moves dangerously, in the aftermath of a torrential rain, and the two become lovers…

 

There is a lot going on in Euphoria, on the level of hilarious accidents and happenings, from the party where Philip is invited and all the massive English department shows, then they disappear, just as the British guest was having some awkward show off with Desiree – when they had first encountered, neither was very pleased with the other, the English man thought the woman was drunk and he was right, and she was quite hostile and abrasive…again, spot on for both counts – Swallow shares a house with Melanie and two other girls, keen to explore sexually and in many other ways the Peaks of Joy, they smoke marijuana and drink, play erotic games and Melanie ends in the room of the married professor and they have sex…

Charles Boon is just one of the interesting, complex, both hilarious and symbolic of various trends characters that populate this outstanding masterpiece, a young man that had studied in Rummidge, with very little academic success, arrived in America to become a star – just like contemporaries sometimes do, there is that fellow…I forgot his name now, who hosted some celebrity shows…is it Morgan Pierce…never mind, he is anyway less consequential than Boon – the failed scholar becomes an attraction with a Radio show, involved in the student protests, the garden project, shares the apartment with Swallow and then becomes the boyfriend of Melanie, just as Philip moves out and takes care of the Zapp family…

‘Not me, I couldn't write a novel to save my life…Landlord acts as a man from medieval times  looking at color television and all the amenities and American has…she was As sexy as a Siberian miss 5 year plan…the Lotus car is a penis on wheels…O'Shea is an Avant-gardener’ these are just flashes written as I advanced through this Magical, Fabulous, hilarious, Monumental and we can add much more here in the same category of exhilarating…I am so fascinated that I will not continue with the second part in the Campus Trilogy, to delay gratification ad have something phenomenal to look forward to when struggling with future, less thrilling novels…