'a culture where mystery tends to mean something more answerable'

Then Mrs Rock did something unexpected. She departed from her usual technique and script and started telling George what she actually maybe thought.

She said that in the ancient times the word mystery meant something we're unused to now. The word itself

— and I know this will interest you, Georgia, because I've gathered from talking to you how interested in meanings you are, she said —

— Well, I was, before, George said.

— you will be again, I think it's safe to say that about you, though I'm going a bit out on a limb here and taking a risk saying it, Mrs Rock said. Anyway. The word mystery originally meant a closing, of the mouth or the eyes. It meant an agreement or an understanding that something would not be disclosed.

A closing. Not to be disclosed.

George got interested in spite of herself.

The mysterious nature of some things was accepted then, much more taken for granted, Mrs Rock said. But now we live in a time and in a culture where mystery tends to mean something more answerable, it means a crime novel, a thriller, a drama on TV, usually one where we'll probably find out — and where the whole point of reading it or watching it will be that we will find out — what happened. And if we don't, we feel cheated.

Right then the bell went and Mrs Rock stopped talking. She'd gone bright red up under her hair and round her ears. She stopped talking as if someone had unplugged her. She closed her notebook and it was as if she'd closed her face too.

— Ali Smith, How To Be Both (2014)