An audience watches a memorized argument with embarrassment rather than engagement

Evidence

At the counsel table, Nesson turned in his chair so he could watch Schlichtmann, who stood to his left and behind him. But after a few minutes, Nesson turned away. He picked up his pen and began writing quickly in his trial notebook. Jan is a bit shaky. Trying to remember. Pauses that are not for effect but rather to remember what to say next. A memorized speech.… Why can’t I look at him? Why does his argument embarrass me instead of engage me? — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2288

Categorization

• APHORISMS: Phrased as lived observation: recognition of a memorized speech surfaces as embarrassment and the urge to look away, not as admiration.
• XREF: Connects to the closing sequence at 2304 and 2310 where Nesson tracks the word ‘must’ — a running clinical record of rhetorical failure. — connects to: People simultaneously dread and crave being listened to by an audience. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2244; Trial preparation treats jurors as an audience to be persuaded through staged presentation — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 850