Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-book-looks-at-elite-universities-through-a-satirical-lens Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript In a conversation with Jeffrey Brown, novelist and NewsHour essayist Roger Rosenblatt discusses his new book, "Beet," which takes a satirical look at college life. The novel focuses on a fictional elite university of the same title, which looks for new ways to regain its past glory. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, a novel called "Beet," a satirical take on college life. Jeffrey Brown has our book conversation. JEFFREY BROWN: Longtime NewsHour viewers know that Roger Rosenblatt specializes in casting a sometimes sharp, sometimes amused eye on various aspects and institutions of American life. In his new novel, "Beet," the spotlight is on a small, prestigious liberal arts college in New England that has gotten itself into a world of trouble.Roger is here now to tell us about it.Welcome. ROGER ROSENBLATT, Author: Thank you. JEFFREY BROWN: I happen to know that you have been called Professor Rosenblatt many times in your life. ROGER ROSENBLATT: Yes. JEFFREY BROWN: Does that have anything to do with writing a satire about academic life? ROGER ROSENBLATT: No, it's just people on the street calling me Professor Rosenblatt as I go by. Yes, I've taught a long time and always have enjoyed it. And now actually I'm getting good at it. It takes a long time, at least in my case, a long time to know what you're doing when you teach. JEFFREY BROWN: Your fictional college, Beet College, started by Nathaniel Beet… ROGER ROSENBLATT: Yes. JEFFREY BROWN: … who was the wealthiest pig farmer in the New England colonies? ROGER ROSENBLATT: Yes, and he was a New England divine, as well, so he left his fortune of 100 books, and some land, and some pigs, which were worth more than the books, to establish this college. JEFFREY BROWN: And this is a place where many of the bad things we hear about in academic life today — political correctness, an emphasis on money — have sort of run amok, right? ROGER ROSENBLATT: Did I only cover many? I was hoping I'd covered all. JEFFREY BROWN: You'd covered all of them? Well, I'm going to tick off some of the courses that are available at this college: communications arts; Native American crafts and casino studies; the sensitivity and diversity council; ethnicity, gender, and television studies; humor and meteorology. ROGER ROSENBLATT: Yes.