Title: The English Experience
Author: Julie Schumacher
The third and final chapter in English professor Jason Fitger's hapless and hilarious stumblings through the halls of academe, The English Experience brings Schumacher's trilogy to a most satisfying conclusion. While this most recent work was our assigned text, most of us read the entire trilogy before the meeting, being both over-achievers and beside ourselves with excitement that Julie Schumacher herself agreed to join us for our session. 
Despite his best efforts to avoid it, Professor Jason Fitger finds himself shepherding eleven Payne University undergrads through London and beyond for Experience: Abroad. Self-pitying and known around campus as an inveterate crank, Fitger is annoyed by everything, not the least of which is the extraneous colon in the course's name. His charges include a pair of star-crossed lovers, a student who thinks he is going to Cancun, a brilliant but angry student who rails against the patriarchy, and a lover of all things other-worldly who is obsessed with zombies, ghouls, and the dark arts.
The narrative unfolds through Fitger's passages and the essays the students are required to write, much to their horror, every day. Both the essays and Fitger's life are simultaneously hilarious and heart-breaking. This is a big-hearted book that teaches one as much about the challenges of academic life as it does about being a young adult or a jaded professional in the waning days of his career.
Q and A with Julie Schumacher
Julie Schumacher is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota. Her 2014 novel, Dear Committee Members, won the James Thurber Prize for American Humor. She is the first woman to have been so honored.
(Apologies to all for a less-than-verbatim transcription of our conversation).
Q: As someone who teaches writing at the collegiate level, how do you relate to Fitger? Or do you?
A: Actually, I like Fitger a lot. There are people who feel he's too much of a jerk, he has no diplomatic skills, he puts his foot in it, there are whiffs of misogyny. But the arts are being eviscerated everywhere, and I can just hand that to him and let him say it. There are reasons to be angry and upset about higher education.
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| Julie Schumacher, our book club, stacks of books, and the remnants of our lunch. |
Q: Did you always know this would be a trilogy?
A: I never planned for there to be a second book. And then Dear Committee Members won the Thurber Prize. Then, I was in a meeting and the Shakespeare requirement came up and I realized that would be a great topic. (Note: She then wrote the second book in the trilogy, which is The Shakespeare Requirement). At that point, I thought I was done with him. But, then I started teaching a travel writing class and took a group of students to Spain.
Q: Where did the idea come from to write the first book in the trilogy, Dear Committee Members, which is told entirely through letters?
A: I was teaching an undergrad fiction class, and used a writing exercise to start the session. Let's think of some starting point, some shape or form...recipes, music, something you know about. I suggested letters of reference, and then a colleague said that might be a good idea.
Dear Committee Members was the most fun to write. I'd done five books for younger readers, but my kids had grown up and I no longer had them as readers. I can't write YA anymore because their lives are so technological, which I am not. So, I started this as a dumb experiment. But the total lack of pressure, writing something just for myself, made it easy. It was a very fast writing project. It usually takes me years.
Q: All three books take some pretty tough shots at academic life. What reactions do you get from academics who read your books?
A: I get a lot of nice notes and those are almost always from teachers. The most positive responses I get are from academics.
Q: These works are satirical. Is this a good time for satire? Does satire work in today's world?
A. It seems almost impossible to satirize now. Real events are satirical enough.
Q: Fitger is more vulnerable in The English Experience than in the prior two books. We see him developing a feeling of love for the students and they for him. I guess this isn't really a question.
A: The book originally ended with Fitger and Janet going home on the plane. But then my friend and primary reader said no, it needs to end with one of the students. So, it ends with Xanna. She was the one I had the most trouble figuring out, but it was nice for me to be able to take the students forward three years. As a teacher, you don't know about your students after they're gone.
Q: What are your favorite and least favorite things about teaching?
A: My favorite is just being in a room with people talking about books. Grad students are great because they are thoughtful, good writers. Freshmen are nervous, but fun. My least favorite? I worry about grading students' writing. How far should I go? You circle everything, and then you wonder, are they even going to look at this? Think about this?
(At this point, several members of our group shared their own experiences as teachers of writing and when they knew they'd reached the end of their own respective ropes.)
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| Chris joining us from California |
Q: What are you reading?
A: A few things: Wellness by Nathan Hill. It's a long, long book about marriage. And Dayswork, by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel. Also, All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, by Lan Samantha Chang.
Q: What's coming up for you in the future?
A:
I'm done with Fitger. I don't want him to wear out his welcome. But
it's been a dozen years, and it feels somewhat like a literary divorce.
I'm not sure what the next project is. But I have notes.
