Yevgeny Zamyatin — We [1226]

But in mid-word I tripped against the sharp, immobile spears of lashes. I stopped, remembering: this was how she looked at me that day, aboard the Integral. — Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, 1226

Note

Physicalizing emotional resistance and memory as an obstacle course of bodily features—‘sharp, immobile spears of lashes’—gives the psychological recoil a sudden, tactile sharpness.