James Joyce's love letters to Nora Barnacle have left whatever page I had bookmarked and I am sad. For when I wanted to reference Joyce sniffing Barnacle's arse smells, I had no direct quotes.
http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/ I want this to be real.
CRACKLE CRACKLE!
Steven Stoll says that Chinese women had their feet bound so they wouldn't run off and cheat on their husbands. Let's see if this is true or false.
Multiple theories attempt to explain the origin of foot binding: from the desire to emulate the naturally tiny feet of a favored concubine of a prince, to a story of an empress who had club-like feet, which became viewed as a desirable fashion. However, there is little strong textual evidence for the custom prior to the court of the Southern Tang dynasty in Nanjing, which celebrated the fame of its dancing girls, renowned for their tiny feet and beautiful bow shoes. What is clear is that foot binding was first practised among the elite and only in the wealthiest parts of China, which suggests that binding the feet of well-born girls represented their freedom from manual labor and, at the same time, the ability of their husbands to afford wives who did not need to work, who existed solely to serve their men and direct household servants while performing no labor themselves. The economic and social attractions of such women may well have translated into sexual desirability among elite men.
Love, Wikipedia
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Don't be vague!