[lit-ideas] The Training of a Poetess (was: Edith Sitwell)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:14:28 EDT
spec. in Gardening, to manage (a plant or branch) so as to cause it to grow
in some desired form or direction, esp. against a wall,
And indeed, as S. Wagner said it in an earlier quote, it's the _breasts_
that get trained in the training bra, not the girl _in toto_ (_tota_?)
This incidentally reminds me of Edith Sitwell's training
"The fact that her looks were as unconventional as her nature added to her
parents' dismay. They were convinced that she was disfigured by having her nose
out of the straight; and then noticed that she stooped slightly and that her
ankles were thin and weak. They decided that something drastic must be done
to restore to the normal looks and normal shape that they so desperately
desired for her, and sent her to an orthopedic surgeon. No doubt the fact that
Sir George and Lady Ida agreed to the treatment recommended by Mr. Stout does
not, by the standards of that day, imply deliberate cruelty so much as
callousness --"
[cfr. R. Paul's reminiscence of the cruelty of Norman Malcolm]
" -- and perhaps an unconscious desire to compensate for not being able to
bend her inner nature by bending her outward physique. To us, however, the
treatment must sound utterly barbarous. 'After my first interview with Mr.
Stout,' Edith writes, 'I was trundled off to an orthopaedic manufacturer and
incarcerated in a sort of Bastille of steel. This imprisonment began under my
arms, preventing me from resting them on my sides. My legs were also imprisoned
down to my ankles, and at night-time these, and the soles of my feet, were
locked up in an excruciating contraption. Even my nose did not escape this
gentleman's efficiency, and a band of elastic surrounded my forehead, from
which
two pieces of steel (regulated by a lock and a key system) descended on each
side of the organ in question, with thick upholstered pads at the nostrils,
turning my nose very firmly to the opposite way which Nature had intended, and
blocking one nostril, so that breathing was difficult.'
'This _latter_ adornment, however, was only worn during my long hours in the
schoolroom, as it was thought that it might arouse some speculation -- even,
perhaps, indignation, in passers-by if worn in the outer world'
"A Nest of Tigers", p. 41
Compared to that, the guffaws Geary complains at receiving for the _training
bra_ are irrisory.
JL
JLS
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