Comments on: Ads You’re Not Going to See Again Anytime Soon – Chapter 11

By: Researcher

Researcher — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:02:17 +0000

That’s magnificent, Justin!

The first one was funny and interesting. The second was a real laugh. I particularly enjoyed a quote from page 200:

Moreover, all this new-fangled “frankness” tends to dam up, at least for civilized adults, one of the principal well-springs of art, to wit, impropriety. What is neither hidden nor forbidden is seldom very charming. If women, continuing their present tendency to its logical goal, end by going stark naked, there will be no more poets and painters, but only dermatologists and photographers…

As my grandmother used to say about certain fashions, “Let’s leave a little bit to the imagination.”

Ray asked what Stall would think about the discussions on fMh? Stall could hardly object. It sounds like he started it all.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:30:53 +0000

On another note, I've discovered that H.L. Mencken had quite a few things to say about Stall: First Steps in Divinity Blushful Mystery (e.g., pp. 195-96, 199).

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:08:14 +0000

… and on that day in 1915, there was a great sliding down of banisters by Young Boys, and a great enjoyment of excessively hot and cold foods by Women of Forty-Five! (All queer feelings were banished from heads bowed in the impotence of decrepitude, too.)

Thanks, Justin. So the religious thought that influenced his sex books is Lutheran.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:02:55 +0000

FWIW, I located a New York Times article noting Dr. Stall's death.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:46:04 +0000

I just started to skim through those guides for 45 year olds. What a riot! If you need a good laugh, there’s no need to look any further than Sylvanus Stall.

The double entendres alone! Shudder!

Anyone whose hair has started to gray should refrain from remarrying, exerting themselves in certain ways (yes, he does say that all those activities should cease!), staying up late, riding bicycles.

I love this quote; it’s so deliciously horrible: “With the impotence of decreptitude, however, we have little to do…”

And the advice to women! Unfortunately some of it is still out there in the culture. I have a “queer feeling in the head” (direct quote) but it’s not from impending menopause, it’s from reading Stall’s book.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:08:51 +0000

I came to this fascinating stuff way too late--those instructions for the man approaching 45 are, alas, of no use to me. What difficulties I might have avoided had I only seen this in time. I suspect that the references to "Cylinders" are to recordings of the chapters that could be played on an Edison Talking Machine. Here are some great photos of such a machine, with a patent date of 2002--Dr. Stall's cylinders could have been played on this very machine.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:04:20 +0000

Perhaps (just a guess) “extremes” referred to this being the period when the switch was being made from the corset to the brassiere.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:02:07 +0000

Holes at the elbow and knee, Maurine.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:34:23 +0000

Maybe I need to read WHAT a WOMAN of 45 OUGHT to KNOW, so I can learn what I missed. Seriously, the Hyrum 2nd Ward Relief Society minutes show the lesson for 14 Sep 1915 as “hygiene for women past fifty.” The lesson for 22 Sep 1915 was “clothing for women past forty,” with caution to the sisters who were indulging in extremes of style. If you look at the RS sisters grouped together in photos from that period, all alike in somber black dresses, you wonder what extremes of style they could be talking about.

By: Chad Too

Chad Too — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:52:09 +0000

Mastication?!?!??! You sent me to a website that suggests I need to perfect my mastication?!?!

Great. Now I have to have my Bishop over for dinner.