What's the word? 'Unworkoutable'

[Phyrebrat]

Hi,

I have a word I'm after and I can't for the life of me (since last week) nail it. I even have a descriptive placeholder word in the passage:

He bumped his head on the low shelves along walls that slanted to form the apex of some roof invisible from outside, and 'unworkoutable' from inside.

What I'm trying to say is that the sloped ceiling can't be made out from any vantage point as to where it would be in the property. The nearest I can come to is 'indecipherable', but that's not exact enough.

Any suggestions before I lose my one remaining marble?

thanks
pH

 

[Toby Frost]

I can't think of a single word that quite does what you're looking for here. I wondered about "unguessable" or "impossible to discern" but they're both slightly clunky ("unguessable" is probably worse). To be honest, I think the whole sentence is a bit awkward. I would break it up into two, and perhaps leave the whole "He couldn't have guessed they'd be there" aspect out entirely unless it's really important. Is it a Lovecraft/Hill House situation, where the inside of the building doesn't correlate to the external appearance?

 

[Phyrebrat]

Is it a Lovecraft/Hill House situation, where the inside of the building doesn't correlate to the external appearance?

Thanks Toby.

Yes, the room in question doesn't correlate to it's appearance, and furthermore, later on in the story a side room is discovered.

EDIT: I'm changing 'from inside' to 'from within.' in hopes of making it less clunky.

pH

 

[The Judge]

Undeducible. I'd have preferred "indeducible" but apparently that's not a real word! (Mind, I can't find "undeducible" in my usual dictionaries, either.) But if this is present day, why don't you have your character coin it?

Hmmm. On re-reading your post, I'm not sure that's what you want either. I shall go away and cogitate.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Is unfathomable too dramatic?

Thus:

He bumped his head on the low shelves along walls that slanted to form the apex of some roof invisible from outside, and unfathomable from within.'

 

[The Judge]

I was just coming back to offer unfathomable! I also wondered about inexplicable, but that's not quite as good to my mind.

Otherwise -- though it loses the rhythm and balance of the sentence -- something like puzzling might do the job and be more easily understood.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Inscrutable?

 

[Phyrebrat]

Thanks, all.

I think for the time being unfathomable will be the placeholder word I use until draft 2, and I've also made a note in the scriv file comments saying ('puzzling'?) so with fresh eyes in December I can hopefully get it nailed.

pH

 

[Harpo]

Hidden?

 

[Cat's Cradle]

From a slightly different approach: incongruous, or untenable?

 

[Paul_C]

indecipherable ?

 

[night_wrtr]

How about something simple like "masked."

 

[Amberlen]

underivable?

 

[nixie]

Unsolvable

 

[Phyrebrat]

Unsolvable

I thought that one nixie, but it just seems to make the architecture too much more like an IQ puzzle than something that would be unplaceable.

Thanks all. I think unfathomable will stick for the time being.

pH

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

Inconsistent
as in "inconsistent with the architecture"

 

[Alex The G and T]

inscrutable

 

[Dan Jones]

Looks like you've made your mind up but my first thought was unfathomable.

 

[Wiglaf]

Unlocatable since he can't place it spatially?

 

[Onyx]

Irreconcilable, irresolvable? Unrectifiable? Incongruous? Disconcerting?