Both Uses
matrix
in
The Handmaid's Tale
(Edited)
- The smell is of our own flesh, an organic smell, sweat and a tinge of iron, from the blood on the sheet, and another smell, more animal, that's coming, it must be, from Janine: a smell of dens, of inhabited caves, the smell of the plaid blanket on the bed when the cat gave birth on it, once, before she was spayed. Smell of matrix.
Chpt 21matrix = a set of conditions or environment in which something develops
- Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.
Chpt 47 *
Definitions:
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(1)
(matrix as in: arranged in a rectangular matrix) an arrangement of numbers or elements into a grid of rows and columns
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(2)
(matrix as in: the social matrix of the town) a set of conditions or environment in which something develops
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(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) See a comprehensive dictionary for specialized meanings of matrix in mathematics, biology, geology, and other fields.