Subject: Re: Shirley & Louise
From: Louise Z. Brooks (invertedforest@angelfire.com)
Date: Mon Mar 13 2000 - 18:27:26 EST
I remember hearing about this controversy - just imagine, in today's atmosphere of rampant paranoia, such an article would stir up far more of an uproar than back in the days when people only half-believed such impulses existed. You've got to say this for Greene - he had a lot of balls to say so.
I was chatting to a friend the other day about the commercialism of the `nymphette' - go on, tell me Britney Spears isn't ultimately marketed to the horny daddies taking their thirteen year old daughters to her concerts. You see it even more so here in Japan (yes, the notorious Dirty Old Man shops do exist, but I've never been to one. I have however seen the pictures of the happy purple haired school girls with their panties - or more - showing). His theory was that men all yearn for the time which by the paradoxes of nature dictate that they are most hormonal but have the least access to beautiful girls. Your Britney Spears Catholic Schoolgirl uniform wearing type is simply sending him back to his school days and making him believe he's got another shot.
To relate this all back to Salinger - I'm quite sure he'd be repulsed by Graham Greene's assertions about Shirley (she addresses them with alacrity in her autobiography) - but perhaps a little intrigued by them too?
--- Louise Z. Brooks "Invention my dear friends is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation and 2% butterscotch ripple." - Willy WonkaOn Mon, 13 Mar 2000 08:41:27 Scottie Bowman wrote: > > My apologies for dragging in Grim Greene yet again > but it's triggered by Louise's reference to Shirley Temple. > > All I can personally remember of the little darling > (with whom I share the same birth year) was my astounded > delight when the screen suddenly turned to colour & there > she was - singing & dancing 'On the Good Ship Lollipop.' > For some months afterwards my great ambition was to be > a tap dancer & would, from time to time, humiliate my mother > by insisting on performing my leaden footed version for > the benefit of whichever neighbour I could persuade > to watch. (An embarrassment from the earliest years.) > > There was obviously a lot of kinky identification going > on in my young head but, around the same time, Greene > was getting into much worse trouble. He was then reviewing > films for The Spectator & had written a piece in which > he suggested Shirley's roguish twinkles & flashing little limbs > were actually intended as an incitement to lustful thoughts > in the males of the audience. The most terrible lawsuit > ensued where Louis B. Mayer deployed the wealth of the studio > to crush this filthy minded little Limey. I'm not sure what > the outcome was - I suspect the magazine had to close for a bit. > Or perhaps it was all soon drowned out by the start > of World War Two. > > By casting my mind back, I can sort of - kind of - see what > Greene meant. But I don't think Esme is in the same category. > She could never conceivably be seen as a prick tease. > Esme's the kind of passionate, & compassionate, woman > we would all wish eventually to marry. > > Scottie B. > >- >* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message >* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH >
Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com - * Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message * UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat Apr 01 2000 - 10:11:39 EST