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Wednesday, May 03, 2006
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Ms. V: Stepford Child Ruth Marcus, in a Washington Post opinion piece, coins a lovely phrase --“the admissions industrial complex” -- to describe the creepy corporate packaging of many Ivy League admits. After reviewing the womb-to-Harvard-dorm-room life of this Stepford child, Marcus writes: It's no excuse, but with all this third-party positioning, is it any wonder that a person -- especially a teenage person -- could forget (or ignore) the fact that some of the writing in her book is not actually hers? How easy it is for authenticity to be obscured in a world in which hired help packages preschool applications, in which the line between a real relationship with an adult and strategic sucking up is blurred. …i.e., real life isn’t a package, and people who behave as though it is have a tendency to unravel. Only in this way can we work up any sympathy for the fundamentally icky Ms. V., whose calamities are hers alone and will do nothing to stop the admissions arms race. Ms. V. is a symbol, not a solution. Barring a significant economic downturn, there is no solution. |