The Spirit of Nudism

I simply can't resist this 1933 cartoon by James Thurber! The discomfort of Mr. Spencer in his underwear is priceless. Thurber's cartoon seems to me to be more about wife-swapping than about nudism, which means there may be more at stake here than merely Mr. Spencer's modesty.

James Thurber's wonderful cartoon has given me the perfect opportunity to give one of my blog posts a somewhat suggestive title. I suppose I should entitle the post "James Thurber and the Spirit of Nudism," but this way is much more fun. I'm simply curious whether this title will garner more page views than average. Not that I'd want to lure anyone here with false promises, heaven forfend!

"See how beautifully your wife has caught the spirit of nudism, Mr. Spencer."
James Thurber,
The New Yorker, March 11, 1933, page 13

"See how beautifully your wife has caught the spirit of nudism, Mr. Spencer."
James Thurber,
The New Yorker, March 11, 1933, page 13

January 20, 2013 Update:  In the nine months since I wrote this post, it has been viewed some 901 times, or about one-hundred times each month. "The Spirit of Nudism" is my third most popular post from April 2012, after posts about Edvard Munch's The Scream and Jean-Jacques Sempé's Library Cat. "Nudism" was the fifth most popular keyword search that brought people to my blog this past month, although over the long term it is not in my top ten list. No one has complained to me of disappointment. In short, I think I may be on to something here!

Note:  My post on a James Thurber dog can be found here.

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