''His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as a mausoleum. During the night, too, he''d somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by secret police. He felt bad.''Jix Dixon has a terrible job at a second-rate university. His life is full of things he could happily do without: the tedious and ridiculous Professor Welch, a neurotic and unstable girlfriend, Margaret, burnt sheets, medieval recorder music and over-enthusiastic students. If he can just deliver a lecture on ''Merrie England'', a moderately successful career surely awaits him. But without luck, life is never simple . . .