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]).
- All were clad in the same soft, and yet strong, silky material.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells - 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 - This policy I believe exercised a material influence in hastening the end.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - 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 - 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 - There was trying-on and discussion of styles and selection of material.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - 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 - 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