One thing I have noticed in many of these books about the Great Oxford Experience is the extent to whicb they harp on about the Eloi / Art Students, wittily explaining to their eccentric don in effortlessly acquired Ancient Sumerian why they haven't written an essay this week before wandering off for an afternoon's puntboard romancing with a beautiful companion of the same sex and a bottle of Daddy's best champagne, while rather deemphasizing the experience of the typical Morlock / Science Student, wiping cobwebs the size of a man from the Van der Graaf generators in Sub Level 2 of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory all day and all night before creeping away for a furtive session of the newly released Furries and FORTRAN Programmers role playing game...


Pause for breath.


Not that I'm harbouring unexpressed resentment or anything. Well, no more than Neal Stephenson, anyway...