Sentence:  The stories did not seem to me to touch life. ... They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the <WSD>shadows</WSD> on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.