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I am trying to find a word that expresses the pretentiousness of an obvious design, or maybe the feelings of disgust/disdain associated with such pretentiousness. Something like the feeling you might get from an affected art piece or performance. I feel like "pretentious" is probably the closest word, but I think it's vague/general enough term that further explanation is required to describe the sensation.

An example usage: "While Osamu's novel about the waning cultural influence of aristocratic families in in postwar Japan was generally well received by critics, the book's title The Setting Sun was often criticized for its [pretentiousness of intentional/efforted design]" Where "The Setting Sun" is an obvious, even gross metaphor for the book's theme.

Alnitak
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  • Please add an example usage sentence for single word requests. – aaa90210 Apr 21 '17 at 02:53
  • You can talk about the latest and greatest redesign. Also, the person who made this decision jumped on the workplace reorganization bandwagon. Some equivalent phrases to pretentious are politically correct and modernistic. – aparente001 Apr 21 '17 at 02:58
  • I guess they think an annulus engenders annualized growth. – Phil Sweet Apr 21 '17 at 03:00

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You could use pompous as an adjective, or pompousness as a noun.

characterized by an ostentatious display of dignity or importance

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pompous?s=t

In your examples:

the book's title The Setting Sun was often criticized for its pompousness.

or

the office design was widely scorned because of its pompous design.

RaceYouAnytime
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  • Nice! Not sure why I didn't think of that, though I think it works better for the first example than the second. – Alnitak Apr 21 '17 at 04:50