Presidential Address 1995: Habent Sua Fata Libelli; or, Books, Jobs, and the MLA

Extract

Terence remarked that books have their fates. Many are one day in fashion, the next day discarded. A quick look at the remainder tables at Barnes and Noble or at Chicago's Powell's reflects last week's or last month's reading. The fate of these books—our books—is clear. Books have their fates, but so do their authors and their readers, and it is the fates of those authors and readers that I want to speak of. Ours seems to be a time of transition, and this transition has created much fear and anxiety within our ranks. We see the possibility that younger colleagues will be displaced, tossed away much like the books on the remainder table. Or if they do find work, they will be employed marginally—employed part-time, underpaid, and exploited. This fear has had both personal and political repercussions over the past year for many of us. Yet we are a profession that reads, and the act of reading is an optimistic one, especially in the cold, dark night of the soul.