6 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2023
  2. Oct 2020
    1. superstitious

      i love how Robinson Crusoe is such a running bit through throughout the entire story. also interesting word choice of "superstitious" on betteredge here right considering all he's been telling jennings about how he believes their experiment (which struck me as rather scientific) to be hocus pocus/trickery. the typical demarcation of superstition as part of an Indian worldview is now blurred

    2. It was quite unintelligible to his mind, except that it looked like a piece of trickery, akin to the trickery of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and the like

      It's interesting to compare Ezra's test with clairvoyance here considering the people who use that sort of magic are the Indians. Ezra himself mentioned earlier that one of his parents was born in the colonies, and Franklin describes his appearance as being striking and causing him to stand out. I wonder if this is a case of a sort of "respectable" othered person, or if its only the case that Ezra is a good guy in the book because he's half English.

  3. Sep 2020
    1. The Indians had gone clean out of my head (as they have, no doubt, gone clean out of yours)

      Interesting meta comment because at least personally no, they haven't. While the current theory is that Rachel has stolen her own diamond, it's clear the Indians are still somehow involved. I wonder if this is meant to throw the audience off by making us think we have the answer already, or to show how Betteredge isn't as good of a detective as he thinks he is

  4. Apr 2018
    1. The government using the word "funding " leads the public to believe that it's tax dollars being used to pay for First Nations communities.
  5. Sep 2015
    1. Moreover, promoters promised that the conversion of New World Indians would satisfy God and glorify England’s “Virgin Queen,” Elizabeth I, who was verging on a near-divine image among the English

      Seems to be more of a competition with the Spanish rather than satisfying God.