Literary notes about omnivorous (AI summary)
The term "omnivorous" has been employed in literature to evoke a sense of boundless, indiscriminate consumption—whether it be of ideas, sensations, or even souls. For instance, in Freud's work, it describes a descent into baseness associated with a lower social standing [1], while Whitman uses it to illustrate his insatiable hunger for diverse literary experiences [2]. Joyce transforms the word into a vivid image of the forest itself, suggesting a kind of voracious sensuality [3]. In more straightforward characterizations, Herzl labels someone as an omnivorous reader [4], and Santayana even uses the term metaphorically in the context of love, contrasting it with exclusivity [5]. Coleridge, on the other hand, employs the word to depict the ruthless, all-consuming nature of a tyrant's vindictiveness [6]. This variety showcases the rich flexibility of the term in capturing the essence of total consumption across different realms of human experience.