Literary notes about Obtrusive (AI summary)
Writers employ "obtrusive" to denote a presence or quality that stands out with unwelcome boldness, disrupting a scene’s natural balance. It might describe a character whose demeanor or physical features command attention in a way that borders on the intrusive—as in a boastful or overly assertive individual ([1], [2])—or a detail in a setting that disrupts the overall aesthetic, like an ornament or a patch of crude color ([3], [4]). The term can also be applied to moments in the narrative where an excessive or discordant element interferes with the intended mood, whether by drawing attention to itself or by clashing against the prevailing tone of a passage ([5], [6]). Through such varied applications, "obtrusive" becomes a tool for critiquing and underscoring the tension between what is meant to be seen or heard and what ultimately unsettles the reader’s experience.
- ‘This is a very obtrusive lad!’ said Mr. Gradgrind, turning, and knitting his brows on him.
— from Hard Times by Charles Dickens - Not the less, however, came this importunately obtrusive sense of change.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - A prime fault of the Roman taste was then, as it has always been, a love of gorgeousness, of excessive and obtrusive ornament.
— from Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul by T. G. (Thomas George) Tucker - An obtrusive inscription in Greek characters would have spoiled the consistency of the whole scheme.
— from The Vanishing Man A Detective Romance by R. Austin (Richard Austin) Freeman - “A lie, Watson—a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, uncompromising lie—that's what meets us on the threshold!
— from The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle - In prose, the sentence turns upon a pivot, nicely balanced, and fits into itself with an obtrusive neatness like a puzzle.
— from Essays in the Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson
