Turner’s ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’ I started reading this: Something Rather Scandalous,a review of various books about Rupert Brooke that segues pretty easily and scandalously into a review of his sexual life and mores, complete with one of the most erotic photographs I've ever seen in a mainstream publication, a picture of the Oliver sisters naked on the beach at St Ive's. Prurience and genuine awe mean that I must reproduce it here - so here it is:
The Olivier sisters in Cornwall in 1914. From left, Margery, Brynhild, Noel, Daphne
Proof that people had a lot of fun a hundred years ago, that sex was and always will be such a driving motivation. The picture is in the LRB because Rupert Brookes was in love with, or certainly eager to get into bed with Noel, for some years, but she kept him at arms length. The reason why that might be is fairly mundane and obvious - while all the young men were fairly busy having sex with one another (Rupert Brookes was bisexual), the women and girls were unable to join in this rampant promiscuity. The boys could get away with it, the girls faced pregnancy and ruined reputations. The popularity mentioned, later in the review, of swimming naked as recommended by the Headmaster of Bedales( the progressive school where Noel Olivier went) at the time must have allowed for a tantalizing eroticism that was seldom sated with actual sex. Hang on though, why this picture of Noel Olivier? (there are loads of others). Yes it does fit in with the very sexual themes of the Rupert Brooke's life, but you have to conclude that even the LRB knows that salacious pictures and sex sells. I'm not complaining - I think it's a fantastic picture. They are very beautiful. The review does mention that Noel studied medicine - in fact she became a doctor, in a lot of ways she is a much more interesting character than Rupert Brooke (apopros of available pictures there is a great, if completely unsalacious, picture elsewhere on the web,of Noel Olivier, Maitland Radford, Rupert Brooke and Virginia Woolf.
By Unknown - National Portrait Gallery: NPG x13124
The picture is dated 1911, so she is 19 perhaps. Brooke met her and fell for her when she was 15).
But anyway back to sex and nudity - I knew that a theme was emerging in this post. It's interesting and sad the terrible taboos we still have on nudity - that poor guy who likes to walk nude is always being imprisoned for it. And when I say "terrible taboo", I mean internal, self - censoring taboos, the kind of inner dialogue which says "Ohh I wouldn't want him / her / it to see my naked body, ohhh they're all pervs, that's what they are". The kind of dialogue that means if you want to swim naked in Brighton you have to go all the way up to the marina and climb a steep bank of stones. And then of course you do meet the very "pervy" behaviour that people are so frightened of, men with paunches slowly walking up and down the beach seeing if they can look at a woman naked. It does spoil it a bit - I'm not sure I would be comfortable being a woman alone on a nudist beach just for the sheer heavy traffic of passers by just hoping for a glance, which would make you feel a bit self conscious if not unsafe.. Which is a real shame because I hate swimming with trunks on, they just drag you down, and I feel perfectly comfortable being naked especially on the beach.
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