Literary notes about mundane (AI summary)
The term “mundane” is often employed to evoke a sense of the ordinary or worldly, standing in stark contrast to the divine, eternal, or intellectual realms. In literary usage it can denote the prosaic details of everyday life or be used as a pejorative to critique an overemphasis on material affairs—as when the focus on "material, mundane things" is presented as a limitation of human thought [1]. At other times, writers use it to highlight the gap between lofty ideals and everyday practicalities, presenting the mundane as that which is unremarkable or even antagonistic to higher, spiritual pursuits [2][3]. This versatile usage allows authors to underscore the tension between the sublime and the ordinary, encouraging readers to contemplate the deeper implications of a life engrossed in the trivialities of the world.
- Both alike are guilty of the same fundamental error; both alike concentrate their thoughts on material, mundane things.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - The material, the transitory, the mundane, has given place to the moral, the eternal, the heavenly.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - For such a man, and perhaps for such a man only, was such a super-mundane love as poets and idealists have imagined, all satisfying and all sweet.
— from Mount Royal: A Novel. Volume 2 of 3 by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
