Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
And that really seems to threaten many people for some reason. Can't say as I understand the phenomenon, myself. I'd never dream of expecting other people's vocabularies to my conform to my own personal, preferred lexicon. Nor would I immediately assume that an author who uses words that aren't a part of my own vocabulary must be trying to "impress" someone.
Knaggy
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I'm not threatened, I'm just cranky that I'd have to go to the dictionary to find out his skull was long and narrow. I still mostly read on paper, which means going to the bookshelf and looking words up in the paper dictionary. It seriously impacts the flow of my reading. As stitchawl says, if the word is obscure, it better be worth using. There are times when I'm happy I looked up a word, and times when I'm irked. I'm not sure I can easily explain the difference, except to say that I didn't feel the word was worth using in the latter case. Yes, it's a matter of taste, but so are most parts of literature. I don't think there's anything wrong with making a bad face if you're mouthing something that is not to your tastes, and giving up if it happens too often.
If Dexter's use of obscure words is part of his schtick as an author, then looking them up is something his readers expect to do. Fine for them. I found I needed the dictionary a lot while reading Nabokov, but didn't resent it at all, as I knew the prose was carefully crafted for effect. So, I think there's more to this than intellectual fear.