Literary notes about Suffuse (AI summary)
In literature, the word "suffuse" is used to evoke the idea of an all-encompassing influence or permeation throughout an experience or process. For instance, Dewey employs it to explain how an activity with unremarkable outcomes fails to deeply imbue its means with interest or significance, suggesting that without an emotional or intellectual engagement, even mundane tasks remain flat and uninspiring [1]. Meanwhile, Santayana uses "suffuse" to illustrate how profoundly an experience can saturate the mind—even one that is well-equipped—by overwhelming its innate energies, will, and emotions beyond the capacities of mere intelligence [2]. Together, these examples show that "suffuse" carries a nuanced significance of permeation that can either enhance a process through full engagement or highlight its deficiency when such engagement is missing.
- For by drudgery is meant those activities in which the interest in the outcome does not suffuse the means of getting the result.
— from How We Think by John Dewey - Such an experience may suffuse the best equipped mind, if its primordial energies, its will and emotions, much outrun its intelligence.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
