Changing Places - David Lodge

University of Rummidge

“High, high above the North Pole, on the first day of 1969, two professors of English Literature approached each other at a combined velocity of 1200 miles per hour. They were protected from the thin, cold air by the pressurized cabins of two Boeing 707s, and from the risk of collision by the prudent arrangement of the international air corridors. Although they had never met, the two men were known to each other by name. They were, in fact, in process of exchanging posts for the next six months,[…] Since the two men were in airplanes, and one was bored and the other frightened of looking out of the window – since, in any case, the planes were too distant from each other to be mutually visible with the naked eye, the crossing of their paths at the still point of the turning world passed unremarked by anyone other than the narrator of this duplex chronicle.“Duplex”, as well as having the general meaning of “twofold”, applies in the

jargon of electrical telegraphy to systems in which messages are sent simultaneously in opposite directions (OED). …… Imagine, if you will, that each of these two professors of English Literature (both, as it happens, aged forty) is connected to his native land, place of employment and domestic hearth by an infinitely elastic umbilical cord of emotions, attitudes and values - a cord which stretches and stretches almost to the point of invisibility, but never quite to breaking-point, as he hurtles through the air at 600 miles per hour. Imagine further that, as they pass each other above the polar ice-cap, the pilots of their respective Boeings, in defiance of regulations and technical feasibility, begin to execute a series of playful aerobatics – criss-crossing, diving, soaring and looping, like a pair of mating blue-birds, so as thoroughly to entangle the aforesaid umbilical cords, before proceeding soberly on their way in the approved manner. …… It

It follows that when the two men alight in each other's territory, and go about their business and pleasure, whatever vibrations are passed back by one to his native habitat will be felt by the other, and vice versa, and thus return to the transmitter subtly modified by the response of the other party – may, indeed, return to him along the other party's cord of communication, which is, after all, anchored in the place where he has just arrived; so that before long the whole system is twanging with vibrations travelling backwards and forwards between Prof A and Prof B, now along this line, now along that, sometimes beginning on one line and terminating on another. It would not be surprising, in other words, if two men changing places for six months should exert a reciprocal influence on each other's destinies, and actually mirror each other's experience in certain respects, notwithstanding all the differences that exist between the two environments, and between the characters.

of the two men and their respective attitudes towards the whole enterprise. …… One of these differences we can take in at a glance from our privileged narrative altitude (higher than that of any jet). It is obvious, from his stiff, upright posture, and fulsome gratitude to the stewardess serving him a glass of orange juice, that Philip Swallow, flying westward, is unaccustomed to air travel; while to Morris Zapp, slouched in the sit of his eastbound aircraft, chewing a dead cigar (a hostess has made him extinguish it) and glowering at the meager portion of ice dissolving in his plastic tumbler of bourbon, the experience of long-distance air travel is tediously familiar.[…] “At exactly the same moment, but six thousand miles apart, the two planes touch down.” - The destinies of the two professors are linked by an invisible thread. - Feelings of the people on the planes and their fears about falling down and dying. - Philip is more afraid of a possible air disaster, but

He recognises that "flying is, after all, the only way to travel".- Morris is more confident and has flown more often, but "it has not escaped his notice that airplanes occasionally crash."- Morris's flight is a sort of flight for women who want to abort, a "package tour operating from States where legal abortions are difficult to obtain, and taking advantage of Britain's permissive new law."- Circular story: in Chapter 6 - "Ending" the planes are again the protagonists of the story.- This chapter is written in the form of a script.- Chapter 1 - "Flying", 2 - "Settling" and 5 - "Changing": usual prose- Chapter 3 - "Corresponding": epistolary novel- Chapter 4 - "Reading": articles from the local newspapers- Chapter 6 - "Ending": script

Exterior: BOAC VC10 flying from left to right across screen - afternoon, clear sky. Sound:

jet engines. Cut to:

Interior : VC 10- afternoon.

Angle on MORRIS and HILARY seated halfway down cabin.

Sound: muted noise of jet engines.

HILARY is turning pages of Harper's, nervously and inattentively,

MORRIS yawns, looks out of window.

Zoom through window. Shot: eastern seaboard of America. Long Island, Manhattan.

Cut to:

Exterior: TWA Boeing 707 flying from right to left across screen - afternoon, clear sky.

Sound: noise of jet engines.

Cut to:

Interior: TWA Boeing 707 - afternoon.

Sound: cool instrumental version of "These Foolish Things".

Close-up: PHILIP, asleep, wearing headphones, his mouth slightly open.

Draw back to reveal DESIREE sitting next to him, reading Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.

DESIREE looks out of the window, then at her wristwatch, then at PHILIP.

She twists the knob above his head which controls the in-flight entertainment.

Sound changes abruptly to narration of "The Three Bears"

RECORDED VOICE

And the Daddy Bear said, "Who's

"Who's been sleeping in MY bed?" and the Mummy Bear said, "Who's been—" PHILIP wakes with a guilty stare, tears off his earphones. Sound: muted noise of jet engines. DESIREE(smiles) Wake up, we're nearly there.[...] Cut to: Exterior: VC 10 - afternoon. We see the plane head-on. It begins to lose height. Sound: jet engines changing note. Cut to: Exterior: Boeing 707 — afternoon. We see the plane head-on. It begins to bank to the right. Sound: jet engines changing note. Cut to: Interior: Flight deck, VC 10 - afternoon. BRITISH CAPTAIN scanning the sky, looks to his right. Close-up: BRITISH CAPTAIN registers alarm. Cut to: Interior: Flight deck, Boeing 707 - afternoon. Close-up: AMERICAN CAPTAIN registers horror. Cut to: Interior: Flight deck, VC 10 - afternoon. Looking over the BRITISH CAPTAIN'S shoulder we see the Boeing 707, terrifyingly near, cross the path of the VC 10, banking in an effort to avoid collision. The BRITISH CAPTAIN manipulates the controls

in the opposite direction. Cut to: Alarm and confusion among passengers as the plane tilts violently. Sound: screams, cries etc. Cut to: Alarm and confusion among passengers as the plane tilts violently. Sound: screams, cries etc. Cut to: Hello Kennedy Flight Control. This is BOAC Whisky Sugar Eight. I have to report an air miss. Cut to: What the fuck do you think you guys are doing down there?[...] I think we nearly collided with another plane. While at the beginning the planes fly in two different directions and approach each other crossing midway above the North Pole, in the end, they both fly to New York and they risk to collide. This accident symbolizes their lives, because they are going to New York to find

The way to reorganize their lives but they don't know what they are going to do.

America vs. England- Lodge underlines the differences between America and England throughout the novel, not only in the dialogues, but also in the description of places, universities and attitudes.

As Philip and Morris settle down with their new jobs and surroundings, they also experience some amount of cultural shock.

Morris Zapp and Philip Swallow Lodge's two protagonists personify the stereotypical Englishman and American.

The exchange of Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp, however, constituted a reversal of the usual pattern. Zapp was distinguished, and Swallow was not. Zapp was the man who had published articles in PMLA while still in graduate school; who, enviably offered his first job by Euphoric State, had stuck out for twice the going salary, and got it; who had published five fiendishly clever books (four of them on Jane Austen) by the time he was thirty and achieved the rank of full professor at the same.

Precocious age. Swallow was a man scarcely known outside his own Department, who had published nothing except a handful of essays and reviews, who had risen slowly up the salary scale of Lecturer by standard annual increments and was now halted at the top with slender prospects of promotion. Not that Philip Swallow was lacking in intelligence or ability; but he lacked will and ambition, the professional killer instinct which Zapp abundantly possessed.

Philip Swallow

• Morris Zapp - Polite, mild-mannered, impetuous, arrogant, funny, diffident fellow
• Lecherous academic - Solid family man, devoted to his wife Hilary and their two young children
• World-wide reputation (premier expert on Jane Austen)
• Relentless womanizer (his wife, Desiree, is about to give him the gate.)
• He has published almost nothing and has little hope of a promotion.

He accepts to go to England because it is the only possibility to save his second marriage. He has great expectations for his new adventures in America.

“…emotionally it is- What he thinks about the place still for him a kind of Paradise, thehe is going to is made clear by a place where he was once happyshort statement: “La nausée, and free and may be so onceRummidge-style.” again.”

Agreement for the exchange: exchanging salaries.

This favours the British participant, because “no American could survivefor more than a few days on the monthly stipend paid by Rummidge” and“Euphoric state made up the difference for its own faculty while paying itsBritish visitors a salary beyond their wildest dreams and bestowing uponthem indiscrimi