the diving bell and the butterfly

“Since daybreak, an unremitting drizzle had been streaking my windows.”

—JEAN-DOMINIQUE BAUBY, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Why it’s beautiful

Weak adjectives can be deleted without affecting a sentence. Strong ones earn their place by adding some visual or mood. A drizzle is one thing, but a drizzle that’s unremitting, never letting up, feels torturous. (Makes sense, considering the author wrote this memoir from a hospital bed, paralyzed except for his left eye. An assistant would read the alphabet out loud, and he’d blink to select a letter.)