It's not the only version of that opinion that I've seen, but it was the most pointed one. Yes, I'm doing something ambitious -- but I have confidence that anyone who wants to can enjoy it. And I think sometimes readers don't get that I'm writing in a tradition where the reader isn't *supposed* to understand every single detail of the story right off the first time through. That there are *supposed* to be words you have to get the meaning of from context, or concepts that are supposed to be alien until you've seen them in action for a while.