Donald Coers, et al (editors), �After The Grapes of Wrath: Essays on John Steinbeck�
I�ve mentioned previously how the first class I picked for San Jose State happened to be a course studies class in Steinbeck�s works. After enrolling, I started to wonder how my professor managed to find this job for herself. After all, San Jose isn�t exactly Steinbeck homeland, even if he lived in the area (actually, more toward Ben Lomand, and only for about nine months), and even if he did write about our lynching in Saint James Park (even though San Jose isn�t mentioned by name, and the story doesn�t evoke any locales remotely familiar to anybody who lives or lived here). I�m sure these two points of order were used to establish the course, not to mention the Steinbeck museum that SJSU hosts.
I�ve also written about how my professor and I locked horns after I found out she awarded Bruce Fucking Springsteen with a Steinbeck Fellowship Award for �bringing to light the suffering and tribulations of the common man.� Because really, haven�t we all, at one time, danced in the dark? It became obvious that my instructor was another hero worshipper, both of Steinbeck and of �The Boss,� which was precisely what Steinbeck loathed.
I�ve thought about that class a lot, most often whenever I have to put yet another Springsteen book on the shelf at work. It was obvious that my professor wanted to meet the guy, and the easiest way was to present him with an award. I also found out she slept with certain other members of the staff, so who knows � perhaps Bruce showed her the little boss. But really, what I kept thinking of was how you maintain this position as director in a university, when other professors have to switch topics constantly.
This book is the answer. Professors are required to publish articles to maintain their positions, and so having an anthology with one essay helps her keep her job. Of course, the requirement is that you publish, not that you have to publish anything that�s good. So this book helps her keep her job. And so maybe, just maybe, this will keep her around campus long enough to find somebody else to sleep with.
Finally, as a former instructor, I�d just like to mention that you, dear professor, had two typos in your paper. For these I give you a...
