By : I was participating in a post-class bull session with a professor and a couple of other male students, one of whom mentioned he was getting married soon. The professor seemed surprised by this revelation. Without the slightest hint of levity, he proclaimed, “Your mother bosses you around when you’re young, and after you’re married, your wife bosses you around. Wouldn’t you like to have a few years of freedom in-between?”
You might think that no professor – tenured or otherwise – in his right mind would ever make such a statement, even with no women or recording devices present. Well, today that would be true, but this discourse occurred a half-century ago, and the professor who made that statement came of age during World War II. As a highly literate man (in fact, an English professor), he more than likely read Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, published in 1943.
Wylie provided talking points aplenty in his book. Utilizing a number of arcane or obscure words (if you read the book, keep a dictionary close at hand), he ripped almost every stratum of society in the USA. In the process, he added a new word to the American lexicon: “momism.”
You might think that no professor – tenured or otherwise – in his right mind would ever make such a statement, even with no women or recording devices present. Well, today that would be true, but this discourse occurred a half-century ago, and the professor who made that statement came of age during World War II. As a highly literate man (in fact, an English professor), he more than likely read Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, published in 1943.
Wylie provided talking points aplenty in his book. Utilizing a number of arcane or obscure words (if you read the book, keep a dictionary close at hand), he ripped almost every stratum of society in the USA. In the process, he added a new word to the American lexicon: “momism.”