what is the author trying to say in this sentence
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what is the author trying to say in this sentence
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Answer:
Okay so i can't tell you what the author was trying to say (that's a futile and unnecessary exercise).
However i shall tell you how i interpret it.
My perspective in detail:
Initially she feels uncomfortable looking at the man and being noticed. Then feels even more (or 'doubly') uncomfortable that he decides to 'take his turn' to look at her. She is, presumably at this point, very aware of being observed - which the author describes brilliantly "feels like being a woman with a man inside who is watching a woman". So not in a transsexual way, but magically having a man's perspective for a moment - while they are watching a woman (assumedly salaciously).
In between this discomfort and transportation is a parenthesis "both because being seen, especially long or longingly". So the the first of the two reasons that she feels 'doubly uncomfortable' is that she's transported into a man's perspective (the other reason we'll get to). The part of this paragraph that confuses me is in the second part of this parenthesis "especially long or longingly". If a person is being looked at longingly, they are being looked at in a way that evokes a desire in the looker for the person being looked at. So sometimes (definitely not always) a longing look, or "to be seen longingly", is filled with sexual desire. However "being seen ... long" is a strange phrase. As a native English speaker, this sounds jarring to me. It's a weird thing to read just like that. "Seen" and "long" are usually followed by words to round/fulfill their meaning. So for example "He was last seen long before you arrived" or "I've never seen long hair on you before". So to just "be seen long" seems like a poetic description of some kind. I initially interpret it as someone being observed when they are sad (cos 'long' is another word for sad).
The second reason why the speaker feels "doubly uncomfortable" is because the guy is not looking at the road anymore, but "down the length of my body" ... while writing this i realised that maybe the author is further describing the strange/jarring description earlier ("being seen, especially long") by drawing attention to the "length" of her body. So being "seen long" may be that her entire body (the length of it) is being seen/observed. So again here there is a sexual overtone.
What it essentially means is:
I am really, really uncomfortable with this guy checking me out.
But, of course this is far more boring cos it doesn't give us a poetical insight into her thinking. It is a somewhat complex sentence (essentially) saying a simple thing, but doing much more than describing a simple thing.