For millennia, engineers have empowered human beings to accomplish mythical feats.
referring to the many technologies mentioned throughout the story
14 Matching Annotations
- Feb 2020
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www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.comBlack Box14
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Finding an empty seat beside a boy with very dark skin and beautiful hands is chance.
foreshadowed earlier as the narrator spoke about being married to a black man
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After violence in a closed room, cool night air will have a clarifying effect.
many lines have had to do with the ways in which nature can help calm or comfort someone in a stressful situation
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didactic
instructional purpose
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You will reflect on the fact that you are thirty-three, and have spent your professional life fomenting musical trends
person was not always a spy, had a prior profession/hobby
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A button is embedded behind the inside ligament of your right knee (if right-handed).
more futuristic spy technology
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Profanity sounds the same in every language
violent, angry words can be recognized regardless of language because of the tone or volume they're spoken in
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A microphone has been implanted just beyond the first turn of your right ear canal.
futuristic technology implanted directly in a person's head
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When you are in conversation with a beauty, it is essential that you be perceived as no more or less than she is.
blending in
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“We ask of you an impossible combination of traits: ironclad scruples and a willingness to violate them
OED definition of scruples describes it as thoughts or circumstances that trouble the mind in regards to what is right and wrong, which caused me to interpret this line as the reader being expected to have a sense of morality but also be willing to break it
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When you know that a person is violent and ruthless, you will see violent ruthlessness in such basic things as his swim stroke.
preconceived notions about a person cause you to expect/look for certain things in them and even find things that aren't necessarily there
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If your Designated Mate is widely feared, the beauties at the house party where you’ve gone undercover to meet him will be especially kind.
I interpreted "designated mate" as being a target, since one goes undercover to meet them
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Necessary ingredients for a successful projection: giggles; bare legs; shyness
forms of seduction used for distraction
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If you’re having trouble perceiving and projecting, focus on projecting.
This line is told in an instructional manner, as if the narrator is describing how to accomplish something
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