Professors or Proletarians?

Professors or Proletarians? A Test for Downtrodden Academics - NYTimes.com

Where could one go to forget the sad lives of poor migrant professors and downtrodden grad students trudging from college to college with no office and no money?

Luckily, the BBC's production of David Lodge's campus novel, ''Nice Work'' (1989), was running on an endless loop at the hotel. In the movie, the feminist part-time professor, Robyn Penrose, and the factory manager, Vic Wilcox, shadow each other in their careers, learning to admire and pity each other. Somehow, though, the movie wasn't quite working its magic.

A question kept getting in the way: Why had the Modern Language Association decided to show ''Nice Work''? Was it to cheer up the miserable graduate students and Ph.D.'s on the job market? To prove that a person trained to be an English professor, like Mr. Lodge, could just as easily become a novelist or filmmaker? To illustrate how similar business and academic life really are? To give everyone a merry little tune to hum: ''Nice work if you can get it''? (The only problem was how to finish the lyric. There are two endings to the phrase in the song. One goes ''Nice work if you can get it and you can get it if you try.'' The other is ''Nice work if you can get it and if you get it, won't you tell me how?'')