Copyright thedispatch
Perhaps life is for joys other than research, the characters come to realize. Yes, universities are good. But obsession can warp even very good things, and academia too easily lends itself to such self-destructive idolatry. At one point, Peter asks Elspeth, the ghost of a magic graduate student who committed suicide decades earlier, what she might do if she could ever return to the world above. Elspeth, after all, had made it clear that she is done with research. What else might she have to live for? She responds, “I’m going to sit outside. I’m going to have a cup of tea, Assam, with lots of milk and a swirl of honey. And a cinnamon bun. With raisins.”
