The Grasshopper King

At Chandler State University, the Gravinics Department studies an obscure European country and its bizarre star poet, Henderson. Stanley Higgs, the foremost scholar of Henderson's work, achieves academic fame but then abruptly stops speaking. To save its reputation, the university employs Orwellian methods to monitor Higgs, hiring student Samuel Grapearbor and his girlfriend Julia. As a silent friendship develops between Higgs and Grapearbor, the mythical Grasshopper King emerges in a world of arcane subjects and absurd characters.