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Literary notes about Material (AI summary)

The word "material" in literature functions as a versatile term, simultaneously referring to physical substance and to abstract significance. It is employed literally to describe tangible substances—such as cloth or construction elements ([1], [2])—while also denoting that which influences events or ideas, be it the decisive influence of policy or composition ([3], [4]). Sometimes it highlights the raw content used for creative or analytical purposes, serving as the very building blocks of narrative and thought ([5], [6]). In this way, "material" bridges the gap between the concrete world and the realm of ideas, illustrating the dual nature of what is both present and consequential in human endeavors ([7], [8]).
  1. All were clad in the same soft, and yet strong, silky material.
    — from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
  2. The shape of the skirt is the same in all classes of women, but of course the difference lies in the material with which the dress is made.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  3. This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end.
    — from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant
  4. I knew one, that when he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in a postscript, as if it had been a by-matter.
    — from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon
  5. 35-36, that he got the material for this poem, and a comparison with the narrative in Hone and the poem seems to show that this was the case.
    — from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson
  6. There was trying-on and discussion of styles and selection of material.
    — from Best Russian Short Stories
  7. No chapter in theology is more unhappy than that in which a material efficacy is assigned to prayer.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  8. But the moment we turn to the material qualities { 267} of being, we find the continuity ruptured on every side.
    — from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James

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