Literary notes about Inanity (AI summary)
In literature, inanity is wielded as a sharp critique of vacuity, often highlighting the trivial, foolish, or absurd aspects inherent in human behavior and social institutions. Writers use the term to evoke a sense of emptiness or purposelessness, suggesting that beneath the veneer of societal norms or intellectual pursuits lies a profound lack of substantive meaning. For instance, H. G. Wells employs the term to underscore a loss of empathy amidst the overall foolishness of existence [1], while another author uses it to emphasize how physicality can mask a deeper unreality [2]. Satirists and essayists similarly label pompous rhetoric and misguided actions as inanity to stress their inherent absurdity [3][4]. This versatile use of the word not only critiques surface-level trivialities but also invites readers to question the underlying value of the ideas, practices, and institutions that shape our lives [5][6][7].
- I appreciated my loss of sympathy, but I put it down to the general inanity of things.
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells - It is our intelligence Chaitanya alone, that awakens us to the knowledge of the unreality and inanity of gross material bodies.
— from The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2) by Valmiki - And what can be more vain than to make inanity itself the cause of the production of things?
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - Nothing should ever shock the spectator out of his interest in the picture by its incongruity, extravagance or inanity.
— from Writing the Photoplay by Arthur Leeds - Frivolity so extreme as they were required to represent demands the utmost nicety of colouring to rescue it from silliness and inanity.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - Madame, how should I hate such a recommendation of being a clever fellow at writing, and an ass and an inanity in everything else!
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - I wish meanwhile to close this lecture by showing that rationalism's sublimity does not save it from inanity.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James
