And if the "Ruth and Oliverer" who discuss the contents of Nao's diary (the cover of which, in a nice touch, bears the Zen-Proustian imprint "À la Recherche du Temps Perdu" — "In Search of Lost Time") are merely elements in the fiction of Ruth Ozeki, then what's real for the reader of "A Tale for the Time Being"?
And when it did, it was merely another element fitting comfortably among others in conversation or debate".
The glove was merely an element in an image devised with mastery and with the powerful assistance of the then-new pop cultural phenomenon of music videos.
The election campaign laid bare the divisions in the Hindu nationalist family of organizations, of which the party is merely one element.
But maybe we're getting the opposite: a generation of kids who think the world is merely another element in their tiresome teenage existence.
Tim Baird, the schools superintendent, has defended the yoga classes as merely another element of a broader program designed to promote children's physical and mental well-being.
On Friday evening here, the bronze medal won by the British women's quartet was merely one element in a tournament marked by high-quality, high speed racing throughout the three rounds.
The Australian men should challenge the American men and the remarkable double-jointed backstroker Lenny Krayzelburg for medal supremacy, but the Australian women are merely one element in a balanced field.
He developed a style of portraiture in which the sitter became merely one element of an overall decorative pattern, which was dominated by backgrounds made of unusual materials such as aluminum foil or papier-mâché.
Shenzhen, a city of around 11 million people, is now merely one element of the Pearl River Delta, the world's largest continuously urbanised area with a population of more than 60 million people – not including all the undocumented migrants, nor the inhabitants of its two "special administrative regions", Hong Kong (7.5 million) and Macao (580,000).
Carbon footprint, however, should not be merely one element in decision-making.
