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October 17, 2008
The immense symbolic value of
nudity in the United States in
the early 20th century is NUDE
probably a little hard to grasp,
even today, when you can hardly
say it's lost it's power.
For example, one of the main
risque features of Thorne Smith THORNE
comedies was that the reader
was told that some characters
are running around naked.
This is not *described* you
understand, just stated-- the
bare fact of bareness is what's
important.
In the novel "The Skylark of SKYLARK
Space", one of the settings
is the alien world "Osnome" AMAZING_AUGUST_1928
where the natives go nearly
naked except for jeweled
decorations.
The point is not belabored
in the text, but I suspect
the contemporary reader
was supposed to be EMERALD_LAND
enthralled by the mental
image of green-skinned
women done up in strands
of jewels.
This is one of the
advantages of print:
you can be told
they're all naked
but without any No similar dodge
description it exists for stage,
stays this side of or screen... or TIGHTS
the pornography comics.
line.
Except for "tights"
The superhero
(Or the savage is symbolically
loin-cloth, naked.
the Savage
ripped shirt). In one of my
old Marvel
comics, a
coloring
mistake had
the hero in
flesh tones:
the clear
image of a
naked man was
suddenly very
embarrassing.
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