The anti-science troglodytes…

As a writer, I love words. Sometimes I love a particular word because it’s mysterious. “Eldritch” is an example. You can understand its meaning from context when you combine it with “light”—it just looks spooky and sinister. Because English is spoken in so many places, an author can give local color to his prose by choosing particular words (often not consciously). I love the sound of “scarpered”—it just sounds like someone in a hurry to leave town. When my beta-reader knew what it meant but...