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CultureQuiet 9d · day 9

Boyagoda's 'Lords of Serendipity' satirizes university corruption and AI upheaval

Guardian review finds the Canadian author's campus novel skewers higher education's decline across three continents.

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What to know

  • Boyagoda's debut novel 'Lords of Serendipity' uses satire and dark comedy to expose institutional corruption, grade-fixing, AI-driven faculty displacement, and the commodification of higher education.
  • The novel spans three continents (Sri Lanka, US, Italy) with interconnected characters whose lives are shaped by university systems in crisis—from international students paying bribes to professors replaced by chatbots.
  • The Guardian reviewer sees the novel as urgently relevant to contemporary upheavals: Trump-era education pressures, the Gaza conflict's campus activism, AI threats to academia, and the erosion of the humanities.

“the corruption upon corruption upon corruption of the university”

Randy Boyagoda, Author (via novel text) · The Guardian review ↗ · Nov 2

Randy Boyagoda Author of 'Lords of Serendipity'Yagnishsing Dawoor Guardian Books reviewer

Boyagoda's 'Lords of Serendipity' satirizes university corruption and AI upheaval
Guardian Books

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  1. background

    Reviewer identifies novel as response to contemporary university crises — The review frames 'Lords of Serendipity' as a novel animated by 'upheavals reshaping American universities and the wider world,' including Trump administration pressures on higher education, erosion of the humanities, Gaza, AI threats, and the replacement of substantive content with 'flatness and shine.'

  2. 2

    Novel explores AI replacing faculty and grade-fixing at universities

    The novel's plot includes a chatbot named Puck replacing a PhD-level teaching researcher, and a grade-fixing scheme targeting international students run by a teaching assistant. One student dies by suicide in the scandal, but the university responds by putting a statistician who discovered the scheme on paid administrative leave rather than launching an inquiry.

    “Boyagoda's voice is intellectually agile without being self-congratulatory, incisive without squandering its whimsy…”
    — Yagnishsing Dawoor, Guardian Books reviewer · source
  3. 1

    Guardian reviews Boyagoda's 'Lords of Serendipity' as timely campus satire

    The Guardian publishes a review of Canadian author Randy Boyagoda's novel, describing it as a 'propulsive, globe-trotting tale' that 'brilliantly skewers the corruption and corporatisation of higher education.' The novel centers on characters from Sri Lanka, the US, and Italy navigating university systems marked by grade-fixing, faculty replacement by AI, and administrative malfeasance.

    “This propulsive, globe-trotting tale brilliantly skewers the corruption and corporatisation of higher education…”
    — Yagnishsing Dawoor

    1. 3 outlets first by The Guardian, 8d ago · also Guardian Culture, Guardian Books · read ↗