Though you won’t find it in Webster’s, there’s a word to describe the kind of meticulously constructed writing that bores even its author. A “bore-geous” novel is one that is packed with gorgeous, finely wrought descriptions of places and people, with entire paragraphs extolling the slope of one character’s nose, whole chapters describing another’s perambulations through a city. These novels are often historical or set in foreign lands, their bore-geousness inspired by the author’s anxiety about making an unfamiliar world feel convincing and true. It’s not that the sentences aren’t well-constructed, even lovely. They are. That’s part of the problem. Bore-geousness happens when you are writing beautifully but pointlessly.
Argh Ayelet get out of my brain! I was just trying to arrange my thoughts on this very subject, as it relates to a discussion I’ve been having via email about “good” writing. You are not wrong! Though I’m not entirely inclined to agree. There are so many sparkly, gorgeous exceptions that disprove this precept.
