Literary notes about flak (AI summary)
In literature the term "flak" often transcends its original military meaning to become a vivid symbol of chaos and danger, painting a picture of relentless, destructive force. It is portrayed literally through the explosive impact on both people and machines—as in the depiction of a wound inflicted "by a piece of flak" that tore through flesh ([1]) or the soaring aircraft forced to climb higher due to bursts of enemy fire ([2]). At the same time, "flak" finds a more poetic and metaphorical role, as seen when it is invoked in evocative, almost allegorical language to set a dramatic scene (cf. [3] and [4]). This dual usage underscores how writers harness the term both to convey the immediate, physical hazards of warfare and to evoke the broader, more disruptive energies that accompany conflict.
- His wound had evidently been made by a piece of flak that had ripped through his thigh like a dull knife.
— from Barry Blake of the Flying Fortress by Gaylord Du Bois - Now, however, the Jap flak was forcing them to fly higher.
— from Barry Blake of the Flying Fortress by Gaylord Du Bois - The following line in Chaucer, As flakès fallès in grete snowes, House of Fame.
— from The Shakespeare-Expositor: An Aid to the Perfect Understanding of Shakespeare's Plays by Thomas Keightley - There ye flak'd surge opprest my darkening sight, And there my eyes for ever lost the light.
— from In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious by W. T. (William Thomas) Vincent
