From: djheydt@kithrup.com   
      
   In article ,   
   William Vetter   wrote:   
   >Dorothy J Heydt wrote:   
   >> In article ,   
   >> William Vetter   wrote:   
   >>> aileuromorphic   
   >>>   
   >>> vibrissae   
   >>>   
   >>> metapodia   
   >>>   
   >>> calcaneus   
   >>   
   >> Yes, if they were the right words for the occasion.   
   >>   
   >> I recently commented elsethead on David Brin's using words like   
   >> bromopnean and atrichic, for which he probably could have used   
   >> "stinky-breathed" and "hairless," at the cost of making the   
   >> prose a little less distinctive.   
   >>   
   >Yeah, I saw that.  That's why I posted this.  Also, no activity here.   
   >   
   >When I was in my mid-twenties, I had a book with at least two words on   
   >every page that sent me to the research library to go through volumes   
   >of OED for words.  It was a sort of romance novel/space opera hybrid   
   >where all of the male characters had hair and muscles like Fabio, and   
   >the writing was flowery.  None of the words were ever there.  I think   
   >she invented them freely from roots.  At page 50, I asked myself, "Why   
   >am I doing this?"  So when I try this with my own drafts, or at least   
   >with something that's available that resembles the thickest dictionary   
   >possible, and the word isn't there, I ask whether I am punishing my   
   >younger self.   
   >   
   I'm trying and failing to remember who wrote an essay on   
   vocabulary, specifically in F/SF, and gave the example of a woman   
   who returned a book to him, saying, "I don't like this.  I have   
   to look up too many words."  He may have been talking about a   
   book by A. Merritt, or that may have been in a different   
   paragraph; but the point he was making was that Merritt's work   
   was very rich in vocabulary.  I remember a sentence on the order   
   of " 'Crimson' isn't a word in the standard reader's vocabulary;   
   'red' isn't a word for Merritt."   
      
   The last time I read any Merritt was back in the 1960s. (I forget   
   the title -- may have been _Ship of Ishtar_ -- but I know the   
   approximate date because I borrowed it from Bjo Trimble when she   
   was living in Oakland.)  I wasn't thrown by any of the   
   vocabulary, but it seemed to have no plot, just a lot of   
   gorgeously painted dream sequences.  Suum cuique.   
      
   --   
   Dorothy J. Heydt   
   Vallejo, California   
   djheydt at gmail dot com   
   Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.   
   Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)