Not just a dissertion, I think. I'm not saying that language has to be boxed in - I write for a living, I know that language is to be manipulated, and everyone has their own writing style. But honestly, if I don't get the point after the first few readings, then there isn't any. I find this particularly prolific in 'pretty' writing, and no, I'm definitely not talking about purple prose! In purple prose, it is still, well, recognizable as a fanfic. Oh dear, I think we misunderstood on that part.

What I'm talking about abstract writing. I really don't want to pull out examples or even the fics that I feel fit this post entirely, because this is a public post, so I'm going to try to describe what I think here. It's when the writers pull out literary somersaults and gorgeous, abstract descriptions - sometimes entirely in one character's POV and it makes me take a step back and gape because there's nothing there that hints to me properly that it's that character in particular, or even that there's a plot or even a plot to all of it. It becomes so abstract, so pretty in that it loses all meaning and become like the crystal vase.

Mm, no, I'm not looking down on it. I just, like you said, I don't appreciate it, thus I don't like it. And I really think it's a huge pity because writers who write like how I described above have the technical skill, but... they just aren't writing about anything, in the end, and all of that technical skill become just... flimsy, without content.