“Bliss” (Donald Barthelme)

Bliss: A condition of extreme happiness, euphoria. The nakedness of young women, especially in pairs (that is to say, a plenitude), often produces bliss in the eye of the beholder, male or female. A delight, let us confess the fact, and that is why we are considering all of the different ways in which this delight maybe conceptualized, in the privacy of our studies, or in airport bars where the dry, thin drinks cost too much. There is not enough delight. Doubtless naked young women think the same sort of thoughts, in the privacy of their studies,or other sorts of thoughts obscure to us. Maybe they just sit there, in their studies studying their own beauty, the beauty of a naked thumb, a passionate, interestingly historied wrist …