Literary notes about visual (AI summary)
In literature, “visual” is deployed in diverse ways that extend beyond mere sight to encompass both concrete perception and abstract mental imagery. Authors use the term to describe literal aspects of observing and representing physical space—for instance, noting how distance is misperceived [1] or discussing the contours and movement of objects [2]—while also venturing into the realm of mental images, where visual memory and sensations play a crucial role in forming impressions and aiding creative expression [3, 4, 5]. In fields as varied as sociology, psychology, art, and even psychoanalysis, “visual” underscores how perception is not only a sensory experience but also a bridge to deeper cognitive and aesthetic interpretations, as seen in the discussions of line drawing techniques [6] or the conversion of ideas into visual metaphors [7]. Such usage reveals the layered and dynamic nature of the visual, serving both as a descriptor of what we see and as a symbolic representation of inner impressions and cultural ideals [8, 9].
- He had no visual idea of distance and would grasp at remote objects as though they were near.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The background of objects, their movement and form have decided effects on the difference in visual perception.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - The sensitiveness of the retina is so great that a visual sensation can be produced by relatively few Quanta of the right kind of light."
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - The impression carried away from a scene that has moved us is not its complete visual aspect.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - Just as the faculty of committing to memory long poems or plays can be developed, so can the faculty of remembering visual things.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - Its relationship with visual appearances is not sufficient to justify the instinct for line drawing.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - In the dream-work it is plainly a question of translating the latent thoughts, expressed in words, into psychic images, in the main, of a visual kind.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - It is to explain the true cause of visual beauty that I call in the assistance of the other senses.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke - I speak of visual objects.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
