Literary notes about Innocuous (AI summary)
In literature the term "innocuous" is wielded with a dual sense of literal harmlessness and ironic understatement. It often appears to describe things that are physically benign—like grass rendered harmless by burning [1] or even a bomb crushed into a state of non-threat [2]—while simultaneously casting characters, remarks, or institutions in a light that belies a deeper ambivalence. Authors employ "innocuous" to signal a facade of safety or mediocrity, as when a secretive organization is depicted as entirely unthreatening [3] or when a seemingly trivial observation carries unexpected weight [4]. This multifaceted use enriches narrative texture and invites readers to probe beneath the apparent simplicity of what is rendered innocuous.
- Repeated burnings of the grass, however, render the {394} herbage innocuous.
— from In Darkest Africa, Vol. 2; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria by Henry M. (Henry Morton) Stanley - The bomb, now rendered innocuous by having been crushed in a huge hydraulic press, lay in fragments in the box.
— from The Poisoned Pen by Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve - Only Master Masons are admitted--a procedure not condemned by Grand Lodge of England, which regards the S.R.I.A. as a perfectly innocuous body.
— from Secret societies and subversive movements by Nesta Helen Webster - The mere statement of the fact would have rendered it innocuous.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
