obscure obscurity

[caprinus]

Some of my creative writing can be difficult to follow due to the expectations I have of the readers' vocabulary and cultural background. It is regrettable; when I write something I do not intend my style to be an impediment to meaning, but rather a tool for packing it more densely. I feel especially bad when I have written something for someone

Comments

[iolarah]

Firstly, I love your "did I spell that rifghtht" tag. I laughed

[poeticalpanther]

As a data point, I tend to use English in a similar register to your own, and I'm as native a native speaker as ever natived a word. I know others like us, too; often people who learnt much of their English by reading, rather than talking.

[jacquelinehydes]

"often people who learnt much of their English by reading, rather than talking."

Yes! Me too! I grew up on Jane Austen and that caused me SUCH difficulties in third grade...

[caprine]

Learning from reading is the primary factor in the geek social behavior of correcting each other's pronunciation without it being taken as an act of aggression (which it apparently is among mundanes).

[valkyri]

In your entire post only one word made me run for the dictionary

[jacquelinehydes]

"If this one motivation for prolix density is a kind of necessity, the second is rooted in play. I know that, for me personally, coming across a new word, an unexpected image pointing to some unknown context or derivation in someone else's writing is a moment of sweetness, of excitement, discovery. The meaning which is not plain, the message which has to be teased out, peeled apart, grasped at on my tip-toes, it's pure joy. Because I have to approach this language humbly, as a constant learner, there is no downside to finding myself challenged and confused. If I do throw in an intentional challenge to my reader, it is an invitation to play along with me. I never intend the experience to be disagreeable; but I have been given to understand that for many a native English speaker, a love poem one has to pause reading to look up a word in is a hostile love poem. That is terrible! Please, if you're ever puzzled by something I say here, it is not an attack on your education or erudition, never an attempt to belittle, always to expand, to

[little_e_]

Amusingly, your style reminds me strongly of the style of another friend of mine for whom English is a second language.

I know the goose girl, I'd forgotten Marsyas, but I've never heard of Brecht. Still, that wouldn't detract from enjoying the work. As I see it, literary life builds continually on itself--the more you know, the more deeply you understand it--but even if you don't know, you can still understand it.

Ultimately, you are the consumer of what you write.