Ishiguro’s pithless, neutered prose is mimetically effective.

It is on the ground of form that philosophy has been reproached and accused by the religious party; just as conversely its speculative content has brought the same charges upon it from a self-styled philosophy—and from a pithless orthodoxy.

The emaciation of my body was extreme, my limbs were pithless reeds, my skull grinned through the tensely stretched skin, and my eyes were enormous.

Wilt, wilt, v.i. to droop, lose energy.—v.t. to render limp or pithless.

It lags behind the flock, ascends a slope with difficulty, and has a listless, heavy, pithless appearance.