Word: oblongata
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...tries too hard. Fantasy requires a softer touch and more control than are found in these stories. Some of Ozick's figurative language is spell-breaking. The phrase "suckled the Nazi boot" seems to have dropped from a punk rock lyric. A "transient mirage" that teases the "medulla oblongata" is not only overwrought but inappropriate for this part of the brain...
...sworn not to let the Eastern establishment whales-on-their-ties and Brooks-Brothers-charge-cards-in their-pockets set get to you, they will. And the idea that Harvard is something very special--and that you are special for having gone here--will slither silently into your medulla oblongata and fester even as you listen to the last lecture...