the language curtain.

Although I'm still afraid all the thoughts I have are rather obvious, I have to start somewhere.

In the section 'Scare Quotes I' Howe presents historical anecdotes, dictionary definitions, and of course quotations.

A bed hanging is a sort of curtain. An 11th century legend of a seamstress who had to discard her embroidered tapestries to evade the witch hunters (44-45) is followed shortly by a chart presenting the alphabets of different languages, which Howe presents as a "curtain" with a subtitle (47). So language is a curtain. Then she provides the definition of a curtain as " 'A cloth contracted or expanded at pleasure; To draw the curtain, to close so as to shut out the light; to open it so as to discern the objects' " (52-53).

This is a wonderful summary of how we can use language. I can't wait to throw open some curtains myself. It seems like Howe enjoys closing them, or leaving them open only a sliver.