There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating:
people who know absolutely everything,
and people who know absolutely nothing.
~ Oscar Wilde

I spent two summers in Stockholm with my then love. He was a handsome Swede, whom I met while we were both travelling. I will tell you more of him in another post. What I have been meaning to share with you as my first posting is this:

Our apartment in Stockholm was small, approximatelly 33 square metres. We were short on luxuries because we travelled before then (he for a period of two years and I, every so often). The one luxury we had and we had in abundance were books. And my story occured on a hot summer's day (oh that was the glorious year where the temperature was at a steady 30C) I began reading a book that will change my perception of the world and everything therein.

It was a biography of Pablo Picasso, along with various illustrations. What fascinated me most was a small chapter dedicated to the word "NUDE".

It has never crossed my mind till then that most paintings are of NUDES, not NAKED. Fat lady with a tub of water was "Bathing Nude". Or a lady lying on the bed was then aptly named "Reclining Nude"....... Were you like me, thinking not much for the word NUDE? Ahhhhhhhhh, I found out that afternoon that nude was not naked. Both words were not the same, although both carried a similar meaning.

Simply put, nude was "looking at sex with disinterest". That's why we called all the paintings NUDE but a pornstar, once unclothed is called NAKED. Men don't jerk off while appreciating "Reclining Nude".

So that was what the many painters were doing when they painted their subjects. As far as Picasso and the lot were concerned, they observed the subject and painted. Based on this definition of the word "nude", the ladies were as good as pieces of 'char siew' because Picasso and al et were merely interested in recording the moment as is. They never thought of shagging those young nimble things silly.

We now know it is true. They painted brilliantly. Beautiful masterpieces hanging on silent walls. Miraculously though, as I read the book, these women became naked, not nude, when the painting stopped. When they were naked, they were shagged silly. When they were nudes, they were objectified and became immortals, living in many musuems and private collections.

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That is exactly what this blog is, my dear readers. It is nude, not naked.