I almost laughed when I read this passage: "He sat in a circle of light carefully observed. The blacks squatted outside their huts and watched him; they were friendly, interested, amused, but their strict attention irritated Mr. Lever. ... He couldn't touch his pocket without a craning of necks."
This mirrored my own experience in Africa almost exactly! Especially in rural areas, children stop to stare, point, and ogle one's every move. It fascinated me how open even the adults were about it, too - it's not at all like the European way of averting one's glance.
How do you cope with "strict attention"? Does it irritate you like Mr. Lever? Or do you just stare back?
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I cope by fleeing!
ReplyDeleteThere may be a fair amount of silliness in Western etiquette, but I think the dictum to not stare is the height of civility! Along with good table manners, nicely written thank-you notes and not whistling in public.
That's funny, Shanxi. I wondered if your African experience had any similarities to this story.
ReplyDeleteStaring makes me very uncomfortable. Generally I cope by looking at my shoes.
Interesting! I take it that there are no extroverts on this blog, hehe.
ReplyDeleteGenerally I get uncomfortable with staring too, so I identify with both of you. (As I said before, this was mostly with the children - and once you started getting comfortable and playing games with them, they stopped staring so much. Crisis averted!)
Again, I'm thinking of my Mexico trip, but I guess as a young woman I was schooled to definitely not stare back. In America or other places, that would be a subtle way to point out someone's rudeness, but in other cultures, it could be a sign of being promiscuous, etc. Of course, not with children, I assume!
ReplyDeleteThat passage, Shanxi really shows how palpably uncomfortable that situation would be, as annoying as the persistent cockroaches and jiggers. But Mr. Lever, with his crazy requests, his clock-watching, his ill-suited personal health and so on must have been like one fabulous TV show to a remote village.