Literary notes about Interplay (AI summary)
In literature, "interplay" conveys a dynamic exchange between forces, ideas, or elements that enrich the narrative and deepen meaning. Authors often use the term to illustrate how seemingly disparate components mutually influence and transform one another, as when reflective qualities lend brilliance to objects or characters ([1]). In historical narratives and social commentaries, it might depict the complex negotiations between conflicting interests or emotions, reminding readers that outcomes are rarely the product of isolated agents ([2], [3]). The word is also applied in scientific or technical contexts, like describing the coordinated functions within the body or the harmonious blending of artistic components ([4], [5]). Even in evocative, atmospheric descriptions, "interplay" suggests that natural or metaphorical lights and shadows engage in a continuous dialogue, enriching the text with layers of meaning ([6]).
- They become elements, interesting chiefly by their interplay, and shining by a light which is mutually reflected.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Each step of the retreat was accompanied by a complicated interplay of interests, arguments, and passions at headquarters.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - The desire to assert oneself is no less powerful, in the social interplay, than the impulse to submission.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - What we call 'seeing' is far more the result of an interplay between the retina carrying the nerves, and the choroid carrying the blood-vessels.
— from Man or Matter
Introduction to a Spiritual Understanding of Nature on the Basis of Goethe's Method of Training Observation and Thought by Ernst Lehrs - The plot has mystery, surprise, interplay of mind and motive—had a novelist invented it, the reader might declare it improbable.
— from The Great Taxicab Robbery: A True Detective Story by James H. (James Hiram) Collins - He was standing in the passage under the feeble gas-lamp, and his face was a grotesque interplay of shadows.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells