I wouldn't say that the use of language in writing is a superficial thing to focus on. The language is the medium through which the author expresses whatever in

I wouldn't say that the use of language in writing is a superficial thing to focus on. The language is the medium through which the author expresses whatever information they're trying to convey. It's always going to be one of the top two things to focus on when critiquing a work of fiction. All interpersonal communication in any medium is semantically lossy- language is an intermediary through which you are attempting to encode a concept or story or feeling, so that someone else can decode your words into a similar concept/story/feeling whatever inside their own head. Language is the middleman, and an author's skill with language imposes a ceiling on how well they can transfer their ideas to other people. In the case of fiction, language serves double duty as an art form in and of itself. Both the medium and the message are components of a creative work. Otherwise, every novel would be nothing more than outlines of plots describing sequences of imaginary events, which would be pointless. I would also disagree with the characterization of /r/iamverysmart- in principle at least, it isn't there for shunning people trying to sound literate. It's for teasing people (usually teenagers or college undergrads going through a phase) who have started to learn interesting things about the world, who are very impressed with their own knowledge, and are expressing ignorance and narcissism rather than the 10-megaton knowledge bombs that they think they're carpet bombing everyone with. Not that I'm in favor of shunning anyone who isn't harming others- it's too mean-spirited and easy to abuse.