So I'm going to skip ahead to "Winter Term."
I'll just read a few sections from this part.
"One, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].
Outside, the first snow of the winter session
descends so softly it seems to fall upward.
I sound out the syllables on my attendance
sheet in philological time.
Though the names are unfamiliar, I
can't shake the sense that I'm always already repeating myself
at the start of each new term.
'It helps to compare things,' I begin unsteadily,
'to see where you stand in the world.'
My classroom observer, dispatched by the Center
for Faculty Excellence in the wake of last quarter's
scurrilous student evaluations, glides in like a shadow
against the far wall.
[LAUGHTER]
'Anyone who studies the region of unlikeliness is
a comparatist,' I continue, trying not to lose my place.
A skate punk clatters through the doorway.
A ROTC grunt unzips his rucksack under the seminar table.
Turning back to my notes, I discover
that I've lost my place.
'To compose a simile, you need a tenor and a vehicle,' I say,
skipping blindly ahead.
'Can somebody give me a tenor?'
'Enrico Caruso?' volunteers a Latina band girl with
an applique treble clef ironed on to her cardigan.
[LAUGHTER]
'OK, sure, why not,' I say, demonstrating my commitment
to student-directed learning outcomes.
[LAUGHTER]
'And a vehicle?'
[LAUGHTER]
[? Liqueur ?], intones an unshaven auditor
with an incurable Quebecois accent.
'Excellent,' I chirp.
'That's what I'd call excellent student participation.'
My observer frowns at her fingernails.
In oversized script, I emblazon the blackboard.
Enrico Caruso is like a [? liqueur ?].
There's a brief period of universal scribbling.
[LAUGHTER]
The classroom's radiators pound out an alien meter.
[LAUGHTER]
Ancient pipes whistle an atonal ostinato under the floorboards.
'Enrico Caruso is like a [? liqueur ?],',' an ESL poster boy
carefully enunciates.
'Enrico Caruso is like a [? liqueur ?],',' mutters my observer,
consulting her clipboard.
'Enrico Caruso is like a [ ? liqueur ?],',' beatboxes a redhead
in dreadlocks.
I surrender myself to the emergent classroom dialectic.
'Altogether now.'"