I was all Romero. There were two other matadors, but they did not count. I sat beside Brett and explained to Brett what it was all about. I told her about watching the bull, not the horse, when the bulls chared the picadrors, and got her to watching the picador place the point of his pic so that she saw what it was all about, so that it became more something that going on with a difinite end, and less of a spectacle with unexplained horrors.
I had her watch how Romero took the bull away from a fallen horse with his cape, and how he held him with the cape and truned him, smoothly and suavely, never wasting the bull. She saw how Romero avoided every brusque movement and saved his bulls for the last when he wanted them, not winded and discomposed but smoothly worn down. She saw how close Romero always worked to the bull, and I pointed out to her the tricks the other b ull-fighters used to make it look as though they were working closely. She saw why she liked Romero’s cape-work and why she didn’t like the others.
Romero never made any contortions, alwyas it was straight and pure and natural in line. The others twisted themselves like cork-screws, their elbows raised, and leaned against the flanks of the bull after his horns had passed, to give a faked look of danger. Afterward, all that was faked turned bad and gave an unpleasant feeling. Romero’s bull-fighting gave emotion, because he kept the absolute purity of line in his movements and alwyas quietly and calmly let the horns pass him close each time. He didn’t have to empahsize thier closeness. Brett saw how something that was beautiful done close to the bull was ridiculous if it were done a little way off.
I told her how since the death of Joselito all the bull-fighters had been developing a technic that simulated this appearance of danger in order to give a fake emotional feeling, while the bull-fighter was really safe. Romero had the old thing, the holding of his purity of line through the maximum of exposure, while he dominated the bull by making him realize he was unattainable, while h prepared him for the killing.