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Literary notes about Obliteration (AI summary)

The term "obliteration" in literature is often used to convey a sense of complete, sometimes sudden, erasure or transformation. In some instances, it denotes an emotional or cognitive disappearance—a fading of memory or identity, as seen when past experiences or facts are selectively wiped away ([1], [2]). In other contexts, it communicates the idea of physical or structural destruction, whether the literal erasure of landscapes and objects ([3], [4]) or the progressive elimination of mental faculties ([5]). Moreover, its metaphorical potency extends to themes of cultural or social demise, capturing both the horror and finality of an irreversible loss ([6], [7]).
  1. For I felt the obliteration of all that had been for these last incredible weeks—David Littledale.
    — from The Wasted Generation by Owen Johnson
  2. It was the obliteration not of the whole memory, but simply the memory of one particular fact or group of facts.
    — from Two Women or One? From the Mss. of Dr. Leonard Benary by Henry Harland
  3. With the obliteration of the island the current left the Missouri shore and struck hard against the Kansas bluffs.
    — from The Life of Henry Bradley Plant Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company by G. Hutchinson (George Hutchinson) Smyth
  4. It has been recommended to pass a seton, so as to excite inflammatory action, and lead to obliteration of the cyst.
    — from Elements of Surgery by Robert Liston
  5. Letting the thing go involves withdrawal of the irradiation, unconsciousness of the thing, and, after a time, obliteration of the paths.
    — from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James
  6. In the obliteration of things which disappear, in the watching of things which vanish, it recognizes all.
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  7. A noteworthy feature of this scheme was the complete obliteration of all distinctions of class, creed, race, or sex among its beneficiaries.
    — from Peter Cooper by Rossiter W. (Rossiter Worthington) Raymond

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