A short note on authors with favorite words

[badgerbag]

Words perhaps too frequently used by M. John Harrison in the Viriconium books: muculent, gelid, gamboge.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Has a thing for very viscous liquids, has he?

[dharma_slut]

Could be worse...

[wild_irises]

Such unpleasant words. Does he want to be Delany?

[dharma_slut]

Everyone wants to be Delany!

[badgerbag]

I think "algid" is in there too. I still fondly remember Stephen R. Donaldson's love of the word "chiaroscuric" and Gene Wolfe obsessing over "fuligin".

My 50-cent word frequency sins are things like elytra, chiasmic, metonymy... there are more. How embarrassing!

I have no objection to "gamboge" but 5 times in one book is too much.

[jesse_the_k]

I think metonymy and synechdoche are cool concepts, and very tersely convey a complicated idea. I also give poets more leeway than prose stylists. "Tenebrous," however, should be hurled into an active volcano.

[zond7]

Donaldson also loves "preternatural"!

[wild_irises]

I know I do!

[sparkymonster]

Me too!