Review: Professor Mmaa's lecture
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsProfessor Mmaa is a dedicated scientist whose abstruse area of specialization is the ""homo."" Professor Mmaa is a termite. Haha? Not for long. Once you get the joke (hint: how are certain political systems like an ant colony?) you got it. Themerson is more arch than trenchant and it's even questionable how many times conceptual tickles like ""unforesmelled"" or the pupa psychology of Dr. Sigismund Kraft-Durchfreud will elicit the appropriate homo response. The plot concerns the infertility of the Queen (psychosomatic?) and the foiling of an attempted coup, after which Themerson jumps the focus straight up to the world of men--those cruel giants capable of wiping out the termite hill with one Brobdinagian blow. Suddenly the artifacts of Mmaa's research are positively revealed as the evidence of a murder--a story within the story. Too formulaic and toothless to succeed as social satire--but even as escapist fantasy, this is hardly potent enough to stand up to Watergate.
Review: Professor Mmaa's Lecture
User Review - Adam - GoodreadsA little dry, but a generally amusing Oulipo-esque novel about humans as viewed by termite academia. Read full review
