* arms wide, then up, then down *

February 6, 2015 8:15 PM

A series of diagrams from A System of Elocution, with Special Reference to Gesture, to the Treatment of Stammering, and Defective Articulation (1846) by Andrew Comstock. To illustrate the proper gestures to adopt when public speaking Comstock has a figure enact out a section from Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which Satan, expelled from Heaven and finding himself in Hell, delivers a speech to awaken his legions.
posted by curious nu (14 comments total)

Something similar, in .gif form.

The whole book is available here.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:36 PM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

....and heeeey macarena.
posted by The Whelk at 9:42 PM on February 6, 2015 [4 favorites]

One of the bits of the old HBO series Rome that I found myself strangely fascinated by (as an old forensics hand from high school), was the gesturing that David Bamber as Cicero would do in speeches he made in the Senate. He would move his hands and arms and position them just so off the side of his face, pause, and then speak. I wish I could find a clip of it as an example.

The Sanders gif reminds me of the Debbie Reynolds line early on in Singin' in the Rain about silent film acting being "a lot of dumb show". I never moved my hands or body much during forensics competitions.

And that's why I don't have my Best Actress Oscar today.
posted by droplet at 9:52 PM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Watch the ex-players during desk or stand up shots during sports shows. Most of them go through the same repetitive motions:

-Hands together, fingertips touching.
-Reach out and form a kind of "hold the hips" movement.
-Move hands back together to touch fingertips.
-Variety: sometimes form a steeple with hands or rub hands together.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

One of the caveats I learned for television (I was a TV weatherman) was to never just let hands stay by your side...and absolutely forbidden was to put a hand in the pocket!
posted by CrowGoat at 10:00 PM on February 6, 2015

Do The Satan! ♫Do-doot-doot-doo-doot-to-doot-doot-do♫
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:03 PM on February 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Jazz hands!
posted by cazoo at 10:29 PM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

and always be twirling, twirling towards freedom!
posted by The Whelk at 10:36 PM on February 6, 2015

One of the bits of the old HBO series Rome...

It was absolutely full of tiny pieces of ancient Roman culture that were dropped in without any special emphasis being placed on them, which only added to the feeling of authenticity.

I also observed the different gestures used in oratory by different characters, (Lucius Vorenus's first speech to the people of the Aventine on his candidacy for magistrate is a great example, as his accompanying gestures were deliberately stiff, ungainly and formal)

Roman gestures used in oratory apparently have a well-documented history. I'm informed that Gregory S. Aldrete's Gestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome is a very solid foundation to start from. Many historians appear to be curious about the exact ways in which they were performed, since carvings and depictions of oratory are at a premium.
posted by The Zeroth Law at 11:08 PM on February 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

This is fantastic, looking forward to digging in.

Here's the newsreader from Rome doing I guess a less formal version? Here's a Senator (but not Cicero), and here's Lucius Vorenus.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 11:26 PM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Temba, his arms wide, then up, then down
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:36 PM on February 6, 2015 [7 favorites]

Came here for the STNG reference, was not disappointed.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 11:50 PM on February 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

With that many broad gestures of the whole arm he's in danger of taking flight.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:26 AM on February 7, 2015

Joel Osteen gesticulates like Satan.

Is Jay Z pushing Satanism?

(The newsreader in Rome was my favorite character.)
posted by bukvich at 6:46 AM on February 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is "hand making a fist with thumb held to the outside of the hand, punctuating. every. word. by sharply moving it downward" in there?
posted by ArgentCorvid at 7:52 AM on February 7, 2015