User blog comment:CreepyheroofTime/How Far Should Obscurity Go?/@comment-24821182-20141013194352

I think it's hard to specify exactly when it's right or wrong to be ambiguous. Typically, the reason some authors choose to be obscure is because they aren't very good at coming up with something concrete. They're aware of their lack of ability to do something legitimately spooky, so they delegate their work to the unknown.

A good example of obscurity would be the Holders series. We don't know what the 538 items are going to be used for, but even so we all know intuitively that it's for something great and terrifying.