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Literary notes about Inappropriate (AI summary)

In literature, the word "inappropriate" is deployed as a multifaceted device to signal a discord between expectation and reality. Authors use it to depict mismatches in setting or style, such as when a vivid hue clashes with its environment ([1]) or when bold designs disrupt proportional harmony in art ([2], [3]). It also characterizes internal states and behaviors that diverge from social norms: a character’s stray, unsettling thoughts intrude upon his consciousness ([4]), while a remark or attire might sharply underline a moment’s unsuitability ([5], [6]). Moreover, the term serves as a subtle critique of customs and practices, whether commenting on the misapplication of a name or the unsuitability of an action in formal settings ([7], [8]). Thus, across narrative and stylistic layers, "inappropriate" sharpens the reader's attention to contrasts between what is and what should be.
  1. They [176] wanted some big patch of vivid colour, perfectly inappropriate to the climate and surroundings.
    — from Stories of the Universe: Animal Life by B. Lindsay
  2. A Venetian chair of the 16th century shows a skilful but inappropriate treatment.
    — from A Manual of Historic Ornament Treating upon the evolution, tradition, and development of architecture and other applied arts. Prepared for the use of students and craftsmen by Richard Glazier
  3. Ribbon or colored rosettes are inappropriate.
    — from Riding and Driving by Edward L. (Edward Lowell) Anderson
  4. I listen, mechanically assent, and probably because I have had a bad night, strange and inappropriate thoughts intrude themselves upon me.
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
  5. She thought as she said this how utterly inappropriate Trewhella and Corin would look in the stalls of the Orient.
    — from Carnival by Compton MacKenzie
  6. What I mean is, that the clothes inappropriate to the man make the incongruity of him and his part more apparent.
    — from The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner by Charles Dudley Warner
  7. The real problem is in giving the innumerable casual and informal dinners for which professionals are not only expensive, but inappropriate.
    — from Etiquette by Emily Post
  8. Some years afterwards, he died of the bite of a mad dog; an end not inappropriate to a man of so rabid a disposition.
    — from The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 20: 1573 by John Lothrop Motley

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