Literary notes about ephemerality (AI summary)
In literature, "ephemerality" is wielded as a powerful tool to evoke the transient nature of art, emotion, and human experience. Authors use the term to highlight the fleeting quality of spoken words and impressions that persist beyond their immediate delivery [1, 2]. It also captures a sense of delicate fragility and distress—a reminder of how quickly moments, moods, or even news can vanish [3, 4]. Moreover, this notion of transience is not confined to language alone; it permeates various creative and artistic expressions, where it both challenges and enhances the impact of enduring style and legacy [5, 6]. In certain contexts, the term even contrasts permanence with a kind of brief brilliance that defines modern sensibilities, suggesting that the allure of the moment is both a gift and a risk [7, 8, 9].
- Once written, words not only defy the ephemerality of the sounds of speech, but also enter the realm of potentially conflicting interpretations.
— from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin - In this ephemerality alone were they impressionists; indeed, their methods were the most exact and probing of any painters of that time.
— from Modern Painting, Its Tendency and Meaning by Willard Huntington Wright - I was distressed with a sense of ephemerality, of pale, erratic fragility.
— from The White Peacock by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence - The news, formed and conveyed outside the institution of media, reads as a manifesto of immediacy, but also as a testimony to ephemerality.
— from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin - Design projects this sense of immediacy and ephemerality not only through T-shirts or the Internet.
— from The Civilization of Illiteracy by Mihai Nadin - The one thing that gives flavor outlasting the ephemerality of the subject is Mr Bennett’s pointed journalistic style and pungent choice of epithet.
— from The Book Review Digest, Volume 13, 1917Thirteenth Annual Cumulation Reviews of 1917 Books by Various - Sad will it be when the genius of ephemerality has invaded all departments of human actions and human motives!
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various - Helen’s face has none of his ephemerality but has, instead, a country wholesomeness I love.
— from Voices from the Past by Paul Alexander Bartlett - Cézanne, regarding its atmosphere as an ephemerality, portrayed the lasting force of light.
— from Modern Painting, Its Tendency and Meaning by Willard Huntington Wright
