Literary notes about mutation (AI summary)
In literature, the term "mutation" is deployed with remarkable versatility, signifying transformations that range from the literal to the metaphorical. Some authors use it to illustrate dramatic shifts in attitudes or beliefs, as in the conversion of life values and religious commitments ([1], [2], [3]), while others invoke it to suggest a fundamental metamorphosis in the very structure of society or nature ([4], [5]). In scientific and natural contexts, mutation is often presented as a gradual, yet sometimes revolutionary, process of change—the variation of species explained by Darwinian theory ([6])—or even the alteration of language itself, with words evolving in meaning and form ([7], [8]). Additionally, in certain narrative or speculative dimensions, mutation appears as a symbol of otherness or transformation in identity and existence, extending even into the realms of science fiction ([9], [10], [11], [12]). This multiplicity of connotations underscores the rich, dynamic role that the word "mutation" plays as an emblem for change and transformation across literary genres.
- Conversion is the sudden mutation of life-attitudes through a reorganization or transformation of the wishes.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The changes that occur in accommodation are frequently not only sudden but revolutionary, as in the mutation of attitudes in conversion.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Accommodation may be regarded, like religious conversion, as a kind of mutation.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Ask nothing of men, and in the endless mutation, thou only firm column must presently appear the upholder of all that surrounds thee.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Time itself stops, does revolution begin and end; cease to be ordinary mutation, and again become such?
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Why does not every collection of fossil remains afford plain evidence of the gradation and mutation of the forms of life?
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - Still more remarkable is the mutation and addition of new words of especially definite meaning among certain classes.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - Such differentiations in tone our own people make also, and the mutation of meaning is very close.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - “Mutation
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone - “There’s been mutation on Beta,” he said.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone - “Sure, it’s possible that prehensile tails could be produced by mutation, but so far as we know it hasn’t happened in human history.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone - After all, an impartial court declared the Lani alien—and the Betan mutation isn’t known throughout the Brotherhood.”
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone
