How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Welch was talking yet again about his concert. How had he become Professor of History, even at a place like this? By published work? No. By extra good teaching? No in italics. Then how? (1.9)
In case you were in total awe of university professors before now, Amis is telling you that you can quit being impressed. With Professor Welch, it's simply a case of the university hiring an eccentric fool and then giving him tenure so he can never get fired.
Quote #2
They moved towards the road at a walking pace, the engine maintaining a loud lowing sound which caused a late group of students, most of them wearing the yellow and green College scarf, to stare after them. (1.32)
Professor Welch might know a thing or two about history, but when it comes to practical things like driving a car, the guy doesn't have the first clue about what he's doing. If you don't know how to tie your own shoes or drive a car, what good is it to know about obscure historical stuff? (Fun fact: Amis himself never learned to drive because he thought it would get in the way of his drinking.)
Quote #3
[I]t was a perfect title, in that it crystallized the article's niggling mindlessness, its funereal parade of yawn-enforcing facts, the pseudo-light it threw upon non-problems. (1.45)
Here, we see Jim elaborating on just how stupid he thinks his own article is: "The Economic Influence of the Development in Shipbuilding Techniques 1450-1485." But Amis isn't just making fun of history here; he's making fun of the university as an institution where a bunch of intellectuals spend their time producing completely useless information.
Quote #4
"And you see, Faulkner, it's rather important to you that it should turn out to be worth something, if you see what I mean." (1.49)
First of all, Welch can't even get Jim's last name right half the time, which shows you how committed this guy is to his colleagues. One junior lecturer is the same as the next to him. Second, he's basically telling Jim here that if Jim doesn't get his article published, he can kiss his career goodbye. It's the old publish or perish situation, and it's not just a cliché.
Quote #5
These facts had been there for all to read in the Acknowledgements, but Dixon, whose policy it was to read as little as possible of any given book, never bothered with these. (1.50)
The book could have been called Lazy Jim. He seems bent on doing the bare minimum at all times.
Quote #6
So far, Dixon's efforts on behalf of his special subject, apart from thinking how much he hated it, had been confined to aiming to secure for it the three prettiest girls in the class, one of whom was Michie's girl, while excluding from it Michie himself. (3.8)
Here's another example of Jim's contemptuous attitude toward academic pursuits. It strikes us as a little surprising that, even though Michie seems very serious about his studies, Amis doesn't make him a particularly unsympathetic character—a little odd and annoying, maybe, but decent to Jim in the end.
Quote #7
Elsewhere were figures Dixon barely recognized: economists, medicals, geographers, social scientists, lawyers, engineers, mathematicians, philosophers, readers in Germanic and comparative philology, lektors, lecteurs, lectrices. He felt like going round and notifying each person individually of his preference that they should leave. (21.16)
As Jim's list of his colleagues' specialties gets longer, they all start to sound more and more similar. You can tell that he basically thinks of all these people as interchangeable, no matter how much they might think they're unique. What is he doing there?
Quote #8
"Mm, I see. It's a waste of time teaching history, is it?"
Dixon resolved not to mind what he said to this man. "No. Well taught and sensibly taught, history could do people a hell of a lot of good. But in practice it doesn't work out like that. Things get in the way. I don't quite see who's to blame for it. Bad teaching's the main thing. Not bad students, I mean." (21.24)
Finally, Jim actually says something not completely demeaning about history and the university. He can admit this to Gore-Urquhart because G-U sees him as a "fellow-sufferer" who appreciates how difficult life at the College is for Jim.
Quote #9
"You're ambitious?"
"No. I've done badly here since I got the job. This lecture might help to save me getting the sack." (21.27-28)
It's pretty funny that Gore-Urquhart asks Jim Dixon if he's ambitious, because it's unlikely that you'll ever meet a less ambitious guy. That said, Jim does care about putting food in his mouth; that seems to be the only reason he takes anything about his job at the university even half-seriously.