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Mar. 27th, 2010 12:58 pmThe deadline for declaring one's major draws on apace, and I am seriously considering forsaking classics and joining the ranks of the tools in politics. What, in all honesty, can I offer to a field that has been going over the same texts since - well, really, since they were written, but I was going to say, since the first century AD? And I can contribute my writing skills to politics, a field in dire need thereof. Seriously.
My comparative politics book is...distractingly written. By which I mean that every so often I have to put it down and giggle. Actual quote: "Little did he [Gorbachev] know the pivotal role that Yeltsin would play in bringing about the final demise of the Soviet Union." There are two things it that sentence that read like a sophomore trying to pad word-count at 4am. (also they seriously used "to X's dismay...") Further: "he initiated a thaw in political and cultural life, an approach that planted the seeds that ultimately undermined the Stalinist system." And finally, the phrase "ushered in a sea-change." For one thing, "sea-change" should have been avoided. For another, the mixed metaphor police will be at their door.
But! I am also reading a book on Thucydides, and it's just as bad. My favorite: "Like so many colonies of bacteria, these proto-Greek groups follow the unseen, unconscious drive to expand." and "In most cases he is able to do so without muddying the waters with too many specifics." Another contender for favorite status: "...forged in the crucible of historical experience." Basically because it makes me think of Xena Warrior Princess: "a powerful princess, forged in the heat of battle." Also because you really can't use "forged in X" without sounding ridiculous. And lastly, because overextending metaphors is just as bad as mixing them: "The human psyche is the wellspring of national character and the stream which bears all national behavior along in its powerful current."
So in either field you can get published without a mental censor for things that make no sense or just sound silly! This is clearly a good thing.
My comparative politics book is...distractingly written. By which I mean that every so often I have to put it down and giggle. Actual quote: "Little did he [Gorbachev] know the pivotal role that Yeltsin would play in bringing about the final demise of the Soviet Union." There are two things it that sentence that read like a sophomore trying to pad word-count at 4am. (also they seriously used "to X's dismay...") Further: "he initiated a thaw in political and cultural life, an approach that planted the seeds that ultimately undermined the Stalinist system." And finally, the phrase "ushered in a sea-change." For one thing, "sea-change" should have been avoided. For another, the mixed metaphor police will be at their door.
But! I am also reading a book on Thucydides, and it's just as bad. My favorite: "Like so many colonies of bacteria, these proto-Greek groups follow the unseen, unconscious drive to expand." and "In most cases he is able to do so without muddying the waters with too many specifics." Another contender for favorite status: "...forged in the crucible of historical experience." Basically because it makes me think of Xena Warrior Princess: "a powerful princess, forged in the heat of battle." Also because you really can't use "forged in X" without sounding ridiculous. And lastly, because overextending metaphors is just as bad as mixing them: "The human psyche is the wellspring of national character and the stream which bears all national behavior along in its powerful current."
So in either field you can get published without a mental censor for things that make no sense or just sound silly! This is clearly a good thing.
