>>64136197
"The novel chronicles a term in the lives of Howard and Barbara. Howard's intolerance concerning non-Marxist, especially conservative, thinking makes him persecute one of the male participants of his seminar who wears a university blazer and a tie (which make him look like a student from the 1950s) and insists on being allowed to present his paper in the traditional, formal way, without being interrupted and without having to answer questions before he has finished his train of thought. In front of the others Howard calls him a "heavy, anal type" and what he has prepared for class "an anal, repressed paper", without considering his hypocrisy. Kirk succeeds in having the student, a "historical irrelevance", expelled from the university."