Literary notes about friction (AI summary)
Friction in literature is a multifaceted term that bridges the tangible and the abstract. On one hand, it describes a physical process—the resistance encountered when surfaces move against one another—as seen in technical discussions of machinery and energy transfer, where friction is instrumental in generating heat, fire, or electricity [1][2][3]. On the other hand, writers frequently employ friction metaphorically to signify conflict, be it social, emotional, or intellectual. In sociological works, it captures the strain between different races or ideologies [4][5], while in military theory it illustrates the gap between plans and their execution [6][7][8]. Even in narratives, friction becomes an allegory for human struggle and personal development—the idea that challenges and irritations ultimately spark growth or transformation [9][10][11]. This dual usage highlights how a single term can seamlessly integrate empirical description with symbolic meaning, enriching both technical discourse and literary exploration.
- B. Precisely; the common electrical machine, when excited by the friction of the rubber, gives out both the positive and negative electricities.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - By rubbing them you raise their temperature; for, you know, friction is one of the means of extricating heat.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - During reentry, the craft’s kinetic energy was converted to heat by friction with the atmosphere.
— from Rockets, Missiles, and Spacecraft of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution - We do not have to depend on race riots or other acts of violence as a measure of the growth of race friction.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The tendency of the growth of Roman supremacy was to diminish the number of wars, along with the number of possible causes of racial friction.
— from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant - In their impedient effects they may therefore be comprehended again in the collective notion of a general friction.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz - It is therefore this friction, or what is so termed here, which makes that which appears easy in War difficult in reality.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz - Friction is the only conception which in a general way corresponds to that which distinguishes real War from War on paper.
— from On War by Carl von Clausewitz - The spark in the flint would sleep forever but for friction; the fire in man would never blaze but for antagonism.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - But thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears out at last the best resolves of the more generous.
— from Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street by Herman Melville - Possibly our wounds will heal when they are no longer exposed to the continual friction of carping suspicion.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud
