(urth) Tang and Napoleon
Dave Lebling
dlebling at hyraxes.com
Tue Jun 30 16:09:15 PDT 2009
I posted about Ludwig's book years ago when this came up. The theory
that I like best is that the hand-in-coat pose was actually a common
artistic convention in Napoleon's era, particularly in France. Today few
have heard of it and so it seems strange and bizarre.
My take on Weer's story is that he was doing what many highly
intelligent but socially awkward types do in conversation (at MIT we
called it "nerdulating"), which is to claim more authoritative knowledge
than he had.
-- Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha
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