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Literary notes about organism (AI summary)

The term "organism" in literature is employed in multifaceted ways that bridge the literal biological and the metaphorical social. Writers often invoke it to capture the self-regulative and cohesive nature of life, suggesting that both individuals and larger collectives exhibit similar dynamic processes ([1],[2]). In some texts, the word transcends its strict biological sense to describe the inner unity of complex systems—be they a nation's structure or the intricate interplay of creative forces ([3],[4]). At other times, it is used to highlight processes of growth, decay, and transformation that mirror the ever-changing realities of both the physical body and societal life ([5],[6],[7]). This layered usage enriches the narrative, allowing "organism" to serve as a vivid metaphor for the continuous evolution and interconnectedness of living systems.
  1. Scarcely can I emphasize enough the truth that in respect of this fundamental trait, a social organism and an individual organism are entirely alike.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  2. Consciousness is distinct from the organism it animates, although it must undergo its vicissitudes.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  3. Instead of the simplicity of the Pantheon it displays the complexity of an organism of admirably related parts.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  4. "The Ant-Colony as an Organism," Journal of Morphology , XXII (1911), 307-25.
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  5. [755] It is so intimately associated with the life of the organism that it grows with it and decays with it.
    — from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim
  6. Ultimately, the organism self-destructs.
    — from Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  7. The living organism does not allow itself to grow into its food, it changes its food into its own body.
    — from Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore

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