Literary notes about stasis (AI summary)
The term "stasis" is deployed in literature to capture a range of meanings—from the literal halt of physiological processes to the metaphorical suspension of time and activity. In scientific and medical contexts, it is often used to describe a stoppage or congestion in bodily fluids, as when it appears in discussions of bile or blood congestion [1][2][3]. At the same time, its literary usage extends into the abstract realm to evoke an atmosphere of immobility or a momentary pause in thought or progress, as seen when a character sinks into a state of "no-thought" or is depicted as being in a suspended state [4][5]. Even within cultural critiques or philosophical musings, stasis becomes a metaphor for periods of arrested change or societal stagnation, underscoring its versatility as a concept that bridges the concrete and the conceptual [6][7].
- “The action of Veracolate is to bring about a profuse flow of healthy bile which prevents bile stasis.
— from The Propaganda for Reform in Proprietary Medicines, Vol. 1 of 2 by Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry (American Medical Association) - In a case of valvular disease with hypertrophy the onset of dyspnoea and venous stasis with dropsy tell unmistakably of cardiac dilatation.
— from A System of Practical Medicine. By American Authors. Vol. 3 Diseases of the Respiratory, Circulatory, and Hæmatopoietic Systems - Venous stasis is evinced by dyspepsia, nausea, vomiting, and hæmatemesis.
— from A System of Practical Medicine. By American Authors. Vol. 3 Diseases of the Respiratory, Circulatory, and Hæmatopoietic Systems - Having thus distracted it from the presence of death, he sank back gratefully into a stasis of no-thought.
— from The Short Life by Francis Donovan - He's just in stasis—in a state of totally suspended animation.
— from Pagan Passions by Randall Garrett - It means certainly a stasis and not a kinesis.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - At that time, they reached cultural stasis.
— from Temple Trouble by H. Beam Piper
