Journalists take perfectly good stories and pump them full of air and portentousness with a view to winning a Pulitzer prize.

ECONOMIST: A less-than-great American novel

It has an energy and a portentousness that is uncommon among most modern science fiction films, which are far more concerned with aliens, robots and explosions.

FORBES: Review: 'Cloud Atlas' is a Noble Disaster

But even the early sequences show evidence of trickle-down portentousness.

NEWYORKER: Zebrahead

His narrative voice slides frequently into portentousness.

ECONOMIST: New fiction