[Prestidigitweeze]

Then the feelings evoked by the image are what you're objecting to, which means the description worked -- good to know. Your initial comment concerned me because I thought you'd considered my use of the word arbitrary, which is something I try to avoid.

I hadn't expected anyone to love that description either unless they needed to find words for the sensation of something vague and awful in the mind becoming concrete.

When planning that piece in my head, I considered it to be social satire in the form of metaphysical horror -- anthropological murder without a body count, in which the only casualty is a group of people's collective sense of history, identity and self-awareness. I've noticed that audiences react strongly to the satirical aspect when I read it aloud. Their amusement might something to do with the fact that the majority who laugh are familiar with the neighborhood that inspired the story.

Admittedly, though, I wasn't entirely unamused myself while writing it.