rainwaterspark | So close, but still too far away

Classes end this week, finals end next week, and I just want to go home. The writing bug bit me, and I'm itching to work on the things I want to work on...but I can't, because I have finals and papers. Blegh.

I got rejected from being published by my school's academic essay collection for this semester, which I was pretty disappointed by, so when it finally came out, I snatched up a copy, looking for why my essay (which I actually liked, for once; it was on the Polish resistance under Nazi occupation, a pretty gripping story) got the boot.

First off, I read a creative piece. Did I mention that I really, really dislike most realistic fiction short stories? I swear, almost all of them are about adultery. The story in a nutshell: girl finds bat (the animal, not a baseball bat) in her room. Party in the house. Snot-nosed ex-siamese twins run around and break the girl's favorite Komodo dragon statue. Girl finds her mom (almost) making out with her boss. Twins beat the bat into a bloody pulp. Girl fantasizes about being taken away by aliens. The end. (I don't even...)

Secondly, I read an essay about a Nazi war criminal. Having taken an entire course on Nazi Germany last semester, I thought myself pretty knowledgeable about Hitler and Nazism, but it became clear to me when I read the essay that the author did not do a lot of research on Nazi Germany. Which was a problem when he started asserting that the Nazi party brainwashed the German population (it tried to, but whether said brainwashing succeeded is highly questionable), that Hitler harmed people during his ascent to power (yes, Hitler harmed a ton of people AFTER he rose to power--before that, not so much), and that the Nazis used underhanded tactics to secure popular support (no, not really, especially once you take into account the chaotic political climate during the Weimar Republic--every political party had a paramilitary group, and until Hitler became the chancellor, the Nazi party operated fully according to the letter of the law).

And another, more general thing: I feel that what I learned in high school and from Strunk & White and Orwell is all getting thrown out the window in college. I mean, the grades I get on my essays are fine, but when I look at other students' writing, sometimes it takes me a minute to wrap my head around the kinds of sentences they use. And what happened to the rule "don't use modifiers unless absolutely necessary"? For example, I know what an imperative is; what the heck does "categorical imperative" mean? Also, Orwell (I believe) was the one who said don't use a fancy word when a simpler one will do. College students, on the other hand, love to use fancy words like "aegis," "aberrant," "multiplicity," "triumvirate," etc.

*sigh*

Yes, I am still bitter about being rejected from the magazine. Once I stop being lazy, I will post my essay/ thoughts about the Polish resistance, a story that I think is quite compelling.