At Stanford, he chose to write a term paper on the subject.
He dropped out of the economics program when he realized he would eventually have to write a term paper.
"I had to write a term paper, and I wrote about how America has given the world two inventions of enormous power," she says.
Their efforts to do the most ordinary things - join a fraternity or write a term paper - turn out to be witty disasters.
A related phenomenon, called closeting, involves other types of bought-and-quickly-returned items, like tools (to finish a home improvement job), computers (to write a term paper) and video cameras (to record an event).
They feel as if they're actually producing something personally rewarding and valuable, whereas when they write a term paper, they feel as if they do so only to produce a grade.
"The only way to assess the kind of writing that students will have to do in college," he said, "is to have them write a term paper, and then have somebody sit down and grade it.
In the future, an undergraduate in a Nabokov seminar, reading the master through for the first time, will be able to write a term paper about how "Mister Morn" anticipates "Bend Sinister" and "Pale Fire".
