Word: corset
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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With thirteen other novels to her name, Oates has perfected a lush style whose recurring symbols anything from a bottle of orange-flavored medicine to a full figure corset almost escape our conscious notice. A Bloodsmoor Romance, although packed with laughs and adventure cannot be read quickly and its prodigious length barely serves to tie up all the loose ends. Not many apparently light contemporary novels leave the reader feeling so punch drunk...
...that the vertebrae would separate. In the early 19th century, English fashion in female bodies was ethereal, emaciated; a tubercular fragility was considered attractive. Women subsisted on a diet of vinegar and belladonna to achieve the Pre-Raphaelite "fatal slimness." The crowning, confining glory of Victoriana was the whalebone corset, which gave Actress Lillie Langtry her "ideal" 38-18-38 measurements, and which sometimes displaced internal organs. For some women, that was not enough: in pursuit of the hourglass figure they underwent surgical removal of their lower ribs...
Confecting an English accent was easy for her; "I think of myself as a great mimic." Classical training also helped, "primarily in getting me used to wearing a corset for hours at a time." Playing Sarah posed problems "because the reasons for her actions were so vague. I knew only that she was 'ambitious.' And because so much was covered up during Victorian times, I had to come on as though there was a fire inside, while remaining outwardly calm. I had, as the English say, to be careful about not going over the top. I played the monologue like...
...very first animated Popeye cartoon, while singing his macho theme song, Popeye reveals that, under his shirt, he wears a corset. Robin Williams might have developed this image, but in Altman's limited and narrow Popeye, we never find...
What is the purpose here? This seems to be dumpy, old Isadora Wing, dressed in pantaloons and a corset, belting out "I Am Woman" in Olde English...