WE TEND TO GLOSS OVER WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND
Take an explorer's contrast of Western dancing with that of "black devils."
"Grant Dancing with Ukelema," Second Visit to Discover the Sources of the Nile by John Speke, London, 1864 |
The youths highlight the chief's exploits as villagers look on.
Since the explorer has the artist draw his partner's astonishment, he knows he's broken the rules. He thinks he's done with his pirouettes the right thing — showing Africans how to dance.
At other times men and women dance in separate lines, never touching.
The dance reflects a collective society, like that of Europe's royal courts:
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Deciphering the past means acting like a detective, pondering what seems odd.
Painting on rue de Belleville
A painting placed too high for viewing, urban voids too vast for traffic, bright yellow liveries when discretion was indispensable, etc. are clues to how unfamiliar situations work.
The phrase that introduces the heroine: "She had been trained to look for anomalies."
-- The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, 1988
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