What's missing?

In Art

I have a book of short stories by Tom Paine and in one of the stories he describes a film maker working for the state news station in a communist country. The only way this dude can come up with to be subversive is to make a film with happy people and no mention of communism. He doesn't get away with it, and the film never airs, but that got me thinking. You can probably say a lot in your art through what you exclude. How subtle. I've probably seen lots of paintings, films, stories, and so on that conspicuously left something out, and I completely missed it. Hence, I can't really think of many examples. If you come up with something good, put it in the comments. You'll sound extremely smart. I guess it's because you understand the work so well that you know know what's supposed to be there, and therefore what's intentionally missing.

You: I thought it interesting that he didn't mention sex at all. Do you suppose he was trying to make a point?
Me: You're blowing my mind.

In Relationships

If you know somebody really well, you can notice when they conspicuously don't do something. I understand exactly one person at that level. I instantly pick up on when she's upset in how she doesn't smile at a stupid joke, doesn't chat, or doesn't make eye contact. She can do the same for me, even when I try to hide it.

You: Wait, you're not complaining about that ice cream truck. Are you high?
Me: Are you psychic?

Back story: In case you've never been to my fair city, the ice cream trucks blare the same fucking song all summer long. And by summer I mean February to October. Sure if you grew up with it, it could be nostalgic, or if you haven't heard it much it can be quaint. But many immigrants like myself plant a seed of deep seated hatred for the ice cream trucks that slowly grows into a mighty forest of loathing by the spajillionth time we've heard the same jingle.

In Science

I don't really travel in science circles these days as I have to make money. I'll confess, I wrote that to tease any PhD-ers who read my blog. Rest assured that it was out of jealousy. Anyway, when I did, I was always really impressed with the folks who understood the subject so well they could critique papers based on what the author forgot to take into account, or what they didn't discuss, or what related papers they clearly didn't read.

Also sciency but less esoterically, we all have something called a confirmation bias. When we have an idea about how something works, we tend to only look for evidence that supports our idea, and neglect evidence that disproves it.

I have a friend who never learned to ride a bike as a kid, so I took her out for a lesson. We went to a rubber track and worked our way around and around until we eventually got to the point where she could mostly stay up on her own for almost a full lap. There was a soccer game that day, so lots of dads were hanging out. They cracked me up. They had completely random, sometimes conflicting advice. "You HAVE to keep your head up, looking strait ahead! Don't even look down a little bit! That's how I taught my son, and he did great." "Keep your eyes on the road, otherwise you'll fall over." "Hold on to the seat to help her balance, then she'll learn faster." "Don't hold on to the seat, she'll learn slower." Here's the thing. All these dads managed to teach their kids to ride bikes. They got some idea on how they should do it, they tried it out, and it worked! Hence, their way must be the correct way to do it. What's missing? They didn't try anything else, and now I'm blogging about how silly they sounded.