{"id":2481,"date":"2023-09-28T23:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T03:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=2481"},"modified":"2023-09-28T23:00:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T03:00:45","slug":"a-fear-of-the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2023\/09\/28\/a-fear-of-the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"A fear of the Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Speckled Band had a lot of intriguing moments <\/span>including the <\/span>high-level<\/span> description of <\/span>particular<\/span>\u00a0items<\/span> or places and the <\/span>repetition<\/span> of certain words. This makes sense for a detective story since every detail is vital<\/span>, <\/span>but the <\/span>emphasis<\/span> on <\/span>foreignness<\/span> is what I discovered to be most revealing. <\/span>When the mystery is <\/span>solved,<\/span> it is the result of a<\/span>n exotic snake, even the people first accused were \u201ca band of <\/span>gipsies<\/span>.\u201d The fear evoked from the speckled band seemed <\/span>caused by a<\/span>\u00a0fear of otherness or the <\/span>unknown<\/span> rather than <\/span>something familiar<\/span>. <\/span>\u201cThe presence of <\/span>gipsies<\/span>, and the use if the word \u2018band,\u2019 which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to explai<\/span>n the appearance which she had caught a horrid glimpse of by light of her match, were sufficient to put me <\/span>upon<\/span> an <\/span>entirely<\/span> wrong scent.\u201d (Conan Doyle 151) The word band is even recognized here as being an<\/span> odd descriptor but <\/span>it\u2019s<\/span> important since it<\/span> is a <\/span>multifaceted<\/span> word<\/span> that also can describe a group or \u201cband\u201d of <\/span>people;<\/span> hence Sherlock Holmes being thrown off the scent. <\/span>The mention of the brief firelight also lends to the idea of fear <\/span>being <\/span>caused by the unknown<\/span>. The dark setting, young frightful woman, mysterious sounds, and unidentif<\/span>ied speckled band all curate a perfectly <\/span>disastrous<\/span> atmosphere<\/span> lightly illuminated with a match. <\/span>When it all unravels<\/span>,<\/span> the reader can finally discover why certain words such as band <\/span>or certain motifs such as <\/span>the\u00a0exotic<\/span> animals <\/span>are stressed throughout the story.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Speckled Band had a lot of intriguing moments including the high-level description of particular\u00a0items or places and the repetition of certain words. This makes sense for a detective story since every detail is vital, but the emphasis on foreignness is what I discovered to be most revealing. When the mystery is solved, it is … Continue reading A fear of the Unknown<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5343,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}