My first novel Normal Science was published on October 19, 2021. Or rather, I published it with a little help from Adam Robinson and Itasca Books. I saw Sergio De La Pava’s success with A Naked Singularity and thought, “why not me?”
The book itself was inspired by my time in the academy. The experience of studying linguistics with two of Noam Chomsky’s harshest critics (Paul Postal at NYU for my BA and Geoff Pullum at UC Santa Cruz for my MA) primed me to appreciate the emotional aspects of scientific conflict and the artistic possibilities they afforded. Writing about theoretical linguistics as human drama for a literary audience is a funny thing to be doing, but the episodes do pretty much write themselves. There’s the Generative Semantics schism, the life and death of Richard Montague, the Pirahã squabble, and on and on. I managed to wedge the first two of these into the book. The third largely went down while I was revising the manuscript and I stayed away from it to avoid rewrites.
In addition, I was influenced by more mundane experiences like researching and writing my MA thesis on the semantics of amount relatives and relatives out of existentials. I wasn’t happy with my own take on these topics, but Louise McNally came up with many of the same arguments a little bit later and I’m happy to refer interested readers to her Linguistic Inquiry article instead.
Anyway, here’s a summary of the book:
Dick Practice, distinguished professor of linguistics, never gets the respect he feels he deserves—even within his own department. His colleagues are all impressively inept at actual communication, and his students are struggling with their own problems: Leo is a tortured virgin who's jealous of his boy-genius roommate, while Maggie has the smarts to excel but can't navigate her own emotional bewilderment.
Can they advance our understanding of human language through arguments, hoaxes, arguments, swordplay, arguments, private spaceflight, arguments, religious experience, and more, ever pettier arguments? Can they at least learn to appreciate life's rich pageant? Normal Science applies itself in the general direction of these questions and is sure to equally gratify fans of Nathanael West, Lars Iyer, and the Sokal affair.
And here’s an endorsement:
Arnold is sly and wry about the tedium of turf wars. And even within this breezy novel, he succeeds in unpacking a colorful ensemble of characters who don't recognize the limitations that the world has in store for them. A fun book that has been needlessly buried. Do give it a read. – Ed Champion
I haven’t had many opportunities to date to promote the book, for various reasons. But instead of a memoir about the past five years, here are a few themes and dates.
Health. The FDA approved [redacted] for [redacted] on June 20, 2025.
Work. I joined [redacted] on September 25, 2023.
Home. I moved from Oakland to Portland on July 11, 2025.
Family. I married [redacted] on May 1, 2023.
I’m likely to be only a very occasional poster here. In the meantime, please buy, read, and review! Thank you.