Rates of Exchange Quotes

“The business of a lecturer is, of course, to lecture. Petworth has not come this far,crossed two time-zones, found other skies and other birds,simply in order to answer toasts, to visit tombs, to worry about domestic disorders, to catch himself in the thorny thickets of sexual confusion, split loyalties, divided attachments,to know desire or despair, to fall in love with lady writers ; he has come to perform utterance.”
― Malcolm Bradbury, Rates of Exchange

“Et plus haut encore, surplombant tout le défilé, incroyablement énormes face aux minuscules visages des minuscules manifestants du bas (que, ou plutôt dont l'une d'eux, Petworth regarde), se trouvent les plus grands visages, certains barbichés et d'autres lorgnonnés, certains moustahus et d'autres barbus, certains austères et glabres, de Marx, Lénine, Engels et Grigoric, Brejnev et Vulcani, ceux qui ont écrit l'histoire, sans qui l'occasion présente ne se serait pas présentée.

[And higher still, over the whole display, unbelievably big against the tiny faces of the marchers down below (at whom, or rather at one of whom, Petworth is looking), are the greater faces, some goatee-ed and some pince-nez-ed, some moustached and some bearded, some stern and clean-shaven, of Marx and Lenin, Engels and Grigoric, Brezhnev and Vulcani, those writers of history without whom the present occasion would not have been possible.]”
― Malcolm Bradbury, Rates of Exchange

“Peut-être devrions-nous laisser Petworth un moment pour aller aux toilettes pendant qu'il traite ces questions, et d'autres dont, dans les séminaires du monde entier les facultés débattent avec les orateurs invités : le manque de moyens de la bibliothèque, la folie de l'administration universitaire; le ministère lunatique qui instaure une réforme de l'éducation mais s'avère incapable de l'achever pour la rentrée universitaire, de sorte que les étudiants ne sont pas au courant, les livres n'arrivent pas et la pauvre faculté se voit obligée de rester à la maison et de travailler sur ses recherches à elle.

[Perhaps we should leave Petworth for a moment and find the toilet as he deals with these questions, and other such matters that, in seminar rooms throughout the world, faculties discuss with visiting speakers: the poverty of the library; the folly of the university administration; the lunacy of a ministry that institutes an educational reform but fails to have it ready when term starts, so that the students are not told and the books do not come and classes must be cancelled and the students protest and the police come and the poor faculty are compelled to remain at home working on their own research.]”
― Malcolm Bradbury, Rates of Exchange

“There is a girl behind the desk in blue uniform, with dark red hair, spread fanlike from her head in lacquered splendour; she looks at them without interest. 'Hallo, dolling,' says Lubijova, 'Here is Professor Petwurt, reservation of the Min'stratii Kulturi, confirmation here.' 'So, Petvurt?' the girl says, taking a pen from her hair and running it languidly down the columns of a large book. 'Da, Pervert, so, here is. Passipotti. ' 'She likes your passport, don't give it to her, says Lubijova, 'Give it to me. I know these people well, they are such bureaucrats. Now, dolling, tell me, how long do you keep?' 'Tomorrow,' says the girl, 'It registers with the police.”
― Malcolm Bradbury , Rates of Exchange