Literary notes about distorted (AI summary)
The term "distorted" is often used to evoke both visual and conceptual corruption in literature. It may describe a physical transformation—from the savage, misshapen visage of a creature ([1]) to the ghastly, contorted features of a fallen figure ([2], [3], [4])—thus instilling horror or disquiet in the reader. At the same time, it functions figuratively to indicate a deviation from an original state, whether in the recounting of historical facts ([5], [6]) or in the warped presentation of inner emotions and dreams ([7], [8]). In this manner, "distorted" not only characterizes altered appearances but also symbolizes the deeper misrepresentations and upheavals in human experience.
- Holmes had already drawn his revolver, and I whipped out mine at the sight of this savage, distorted creature.
— from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle - She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed, her head hanging down and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Suddenly the broad disk of the moon arose and shone full upon his ghastly and distorted shape as he fled with more than mortal speed.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Up came the man, and his face became more frightfully distorted than ever, as he drew nearer.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - The story may be a distorted historical tradition.
— from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney - how strangely has that word been distorted from its original sense of a common witness.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - But from the very beginning we expected to be able to bring the distorted dreams under the same viewpoint as the infantile.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - We are bound, however, to establish wish-fulfillment in every dream no matter how distorted, and we certainly do not wish to withdraw from this task.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
