involute

The visual tone of the show, like its deadpan, involute gags, is adult in the sense of 'grown-up,' as opposed to simply 'not for kiddies.'

From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2013

Co-scripted by Damon Lindelof of Lost, this film shares that series’ love for nested mythologies and involute philosophical riddles. is more interested in piling on big questions than in answering them.

From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2012

They were involute, introvert, indirect; they did not like questions and answers.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Vitaceæ, 112 Calyx 4–5-cleft, valvate in the bud; petals involute.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Ours perennials, 1–2° high, with narrow and soon involute leaves, hairy sheaths bearded at the throat, and a small simple panicle or raceme of about 7-flowered spikelets.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Parsed into 10 “chapters,” with its swirling rhythms, involuted structure and flights into abstraction, “Time Passes” presents an especial challenge to the pre-post-pandemic brain.

From New York Times ● May 8, 2021

That is to say, their binding element is Katniss Everdeen, a heroine whose virtues are involuted to say the least.

From Slate ● May 21, 2020

The eldest boy, Ratan—Moni’s father—and my grandmother had shared the adjacent room, but, as Jagu’s mind involuted into madness, she had moved Ratan out with his brothers and taken Jagu in.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 28, 2016

It’s so involuted the way people use those things.

From Forbes ● Sep. 9, 2014

The eldest boy, Ratan—Moni’s father—and my grandmother had shared the adjacent room, but as Jagu’s mind had involuted into madness, she had moved Ratan out with his brothers and taken Jagu in.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee