Myrtle Wilson's Panties

In a previous blog, “Unexpected Finds at the Library,” I write of finding a pair of panties in the stacks while working on my dissertation. In this blog entry, I create a story of how those panties may have come to be in the stacks.

Myrtle Wilson’s Panties

In the Night at the Museum series, models in exhibits magically come to life at night. Similarly, on certain magical nights, characters in books can come to life in the library. On one such night of a full moon, a student studied late at the library, reading Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Occasionally looking up from the story of fairies and lovers to study the moon, the student heard the warning of closing for the night. In a reverie, the student left the book open on the table and moseyed into the moonlight.

Once the library lights clicked off for the night, and the librarians locked the doors, Oberon and Titania led their fairies out of the open book, with the four young lovers and manual laborers (known in the play as “rude mechanicals”) following. Fascinated by this awesome new world with walls of books, the characters frolicked among the stacks, pulling books off the shelves and perusing them.

Helena, known for uttering “I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, . . ./ Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,/ Neglect me, lose me . . .” found Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”  Intrigued by the title, wondering what a “Gatsby” might be, she began flipping through the pages, coming across the scene where Tom insists that Nick join him on a jaunt to New York City, leaving Tom’s wife Daisy at home. In the magic of the night, these characters also leap from the page and perform for Helena, her own personal play-within-a-play.

The rude mechanicals gather around, hoping to learn something for their own production of “Pyramus and Thisbe.” Helena finds it interesting when Tom collects his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, along the way and buys her a puppy to bring to their love nest. The rude mechanicals are transfixed when Tom and Myrtle make love with Nick in the next room. All are fascinated at the debauched party that follows.

Suddenly, Oberon issues the morning warning. All of the characters quickly return to their respective books as the full moon sinks and the sun rises. In their haste they do not carefully gather all of their belongings.

The next afternoon, when Donna Prescott strides through the stacks, thinking of the Old French fabliaux and her dissertation, she spies Myrtle Wilson’s panties at the end of a shelf of books. Curious yet disgusted, she shrugs and goes on to her carrel to research yet another lover’s trick in one of the fabliaux.

My Story—Unexpected Finds at the Library

This entry is the companion piece to “Ode to the Public Library.”

While writing my dissertation in the mid-1980’s, I had a carrel at the Morris Library where I kept books and other research materials. I learned to allow an extra 20 minutes for working because I knew I would get distracted walking through the amazing maze of stacks. As I purposefully strode in or out, titles could leap off of the shelves, stopping me dead in my tracks. In addition to finding necessary research on my dissertation topic, the Old French fabliaux—basically a funny story, usually bawdy—I found unexpected treasures on these frequent treks through the stacks.

One such title, “Dead Lovers are Faithful Lovers,” remains in my personal library to this day. The work by Frances Newman published in 1928 explores an issue not totally irrelevant today. Should a woman cultivate beauty and social grace in order to better complement her husband—perhaps become a trophy wife? Or should a woman develop an intellectual life and risk becoming an old maid? Later, when I taught Literature of the American South, I cited this title when discussing the history of this literature.

NOTE: Flannery O’Connor, a budding cartoonist before she settled in to writing fiction, poked fun at the tension between beauty and intellect. In one cartoon, she pictures a woman seated alone while dancing couples swirl in the background.  With a twinkle in her eye, the woman comments, “Oh well, I can always be a Ph. D.”

Another such title, John Lennon’s “In His Own Write/A Spaniard in the Works” (copyright 1963 and 1964) also remains in my personal library. (“Spaniard” plays on the British word for wrench, “spanner.”) Not only was Lennon a talented lyricist and musician, but a quirky writer and artist, as well. In this thin double volume, Lennon delights in the vagaries of language, adding his unique illustrations to many pieces. In one piece, “At the Denis,” he writes of an exchange between a dentist and a woman with a toothache. Ever since I read this story, I write “denis” on my calendar when I have a dental appointment.

Another unexpected find in the stacks came not in the form of a printed book, but in the form of a pair of nylon, lacy, bikini underwear, tucked away at the end of a shelf. I can only imagine the story those panties might tell! As for myself, I will restrict my pleasures in the library to those of discovery and learning. I will leave pleasures of the flesh to other venues.