Draft suggestion: "normal" needed

Dear W3C,

I feel a "normal" element is needed in HTML. In print, certain bodies 
of text can, and should, be written in italics (not quoted). Case in point: 
Thoughts (see any popular novel for examples). 

     Hmm, that's a good idea, he thought to himself. 

However, if emphasis is needed as in...

    Hmm, that's a great idea, he thought to himself.

Normally, emphasis within a body of italicized text is simply made normal. It serves the same purpose. This is the standard accepted practice.

But...

It's simply not possible without creating a "Normal" class in the CSS. Not only would it be a drag having to place the class spans, using CSS for this is not really acceptable. After all, I'm not talking about styling here, I'm talking about the proper display of content which has meaning. It needs to be in the HTML so if styles are removed or not available it still reads right.

In HTML I need to use this:

<p><i>Hmm, that's a <normal>great</normal> idea</i>, he thought to himself.</p>

So I can get this result with or without styles. 

Hmm, that's a great idea, he thought to himself.

Without having to do this:

<p><i>Hmm, that's a</i> great <i>idea</i>, he thought to himself.</p>

I'm pretty emphatic that this is really needed. Your thoughts?

Sincerely,
Mike Cherim