stalactites or stalagmites?

"The days of the examinations passed in a blur. We all recognised them as the climax of years of misery, not only because we recognised them as the threshold of whatever futures we desired for ourselves, but also because each of us hoped through them to state our worth and value. Everything conspired to seduce us into this absurd position. We were the heroes of the day, confronting the tests of life and intellect, grappling with an irrational enemy that sought at every turn to ambush and trick us. After each sitting, we set off from the examination hall in a body, like guerillas returned from battle, wandering the streets and parading ourselves as the smiling survivors of the examiners' wiles. We formed self-important discussion groups by the roadside: should the answer have been stalactites or stalagmites? Nobody laughed at us, although our teachers feigned amusement by our intensity. We all knew the prizes that had become available to those who had succeeded ahead of us."

~~ from Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah

the same kind of liberal preaching

"'Do you like Peter Abrahams?' I asked.

"'Well, he's not a bad writer,' he said. 'He's too self-conscious, that's the problem. He doesn't write like an African. Do you know what this book reminds me of? Alan Paton. It has the same kind of liberal preaching, soft-nosed and confused. Do you know what I mean? There is no sense of identification with the mass of oppressed Africans.'"

~~ from Memory of Departure by Abdulrazak Gurnah