Exodus

February 4, 2013
Lars and W. return to complete Iyer's dialogic trilogy about these two "friends of thought." W.'s position at the university has been saved from termination by a legal technicality, but since they've still closed the humanities department in which he worked, he has been relegated to teaching the sports science students. The pair decide they must go on a lecture tour of Britain to witness the ruins of the humanities and the destruction of philosophy. Their journey, told in vignettes, alternates between W. frequently insulting Lars' intelligenceâgoing as far as pointing out how Lars fits the 14 types of stupidity listed in Wikipediaâand W. lamenting his own lack of accomplishments, pondering his significance, and wondering if he should have left Britain like his former colleagues. There are amusing passages, like W.'s rumination on bovine intelligence or the question of why Lars must remove his trousers every time he visits W., but much of the banter becomes tedious with W.'s consistent abuse of Lars. Readers who are familiar with the first two books in the trilogy, Spurious and Dogma, will find the third just as entertaining, but those who are new to Iyer's work should probably start at the beginning.

February 15, 2013

The third in a series after Spurious and Dogma, this work offers a series of short vignettes involving two disillusioned academics on a philosophical tour of Britain. One is referred to as W. and the other, our narrator, is sometimes referred to as Lars. As they proceed from university to university they decry the death of philosophy and engage in clever criticisms about clever criticisms. Kierkegaard, Kant, and Deleuze as well as many other philosophers are repeatedly mentioned and considered. While the tone seeks to be light and jovial, the reading is ponderous. The work is enlivened by references to the movie Blade Runner and to the band Joy Division. However, a chunked-up narrative creates a sort of schizophrenic antinovel; there are brief moments of lucidity but the whole reads like a dissonant series of overlapping, overheard conversations. VERDICT A very challenging work, the mental equivalent of being slapped lightly in the face 50 or 60 times by academics posturing about academic posturing: only for the most intrepid.--Henry Bankhead, Los Gatos P.L., CA

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