Famous academics

You know, I rarely bother to find out anything about actors in shows or movies I like. When you get right down to it, it's kind of like finding out the favorite food (or whatever) of John Smith, systems engineer from Tulsa. They're just people.* However, I'm surprised I managed to get this far without knowing David Duchovny left the English PhD program at Yale ABD.** That's a pretty awesome example of life after academia. :D

Now I have this urge to write XF fic featuring practically nothing but literary references. (Not that this is all that different from many of my fics.) I'm going to guess someone else has already done this and titled the resulting fic "Magic and Technology in Contemporary American Fiction and Poetry" (his rather prophetic diss. title).

Speaking of English degrees, I should get back to my paper. I failed utterly in getting four pages yesterday--I managed one--but today I should really at least come close to finishing the Virginia Woolf section...


* I suppose writers are just people as well, but sometimes biographical info does aid in criticism of their work, so I'm more open to learning about their pasts.

**And now--well, in 1999--makes offhand references to Harold Bloom.