To call it weird would be a cowardly evasion. It is creepy, eccentric, eerie, flaky, freaky, funky, grotesque, inscrutable, kinky, kooky, magical, oddball, spooky, uncanny, uncouth and unearthly. Especially uncouth. What I did was, I typed the word 'weird' and when that wholly failed to evoke the feelings the film stirred in me, I turned to the thesaurus and it suggested the above substitutes - and none of them do the trick, either.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author argues that 'weird' is too weak a word to describe the film's impact, listing many stronger alternatives that still fall short.
- In plain terms
- No single word can fully capture how strange and unsettling the movie feels.
- What can you take from it?
- Language sometimes fails to express intense emotional reactions to art.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What word best captures your reaction to a film?
- When has language failed to describe your experience?
Another view
Listing many words can be verbose and still not convey the exact feeling.
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