Remember what the Steiny
Road Poet said in her discussion of “A Substance in a Cushion.”—that
she felt as if she was entering deep and dark disorienting woods? Things have
changed for exploring “Dirt and Not Copper.”—the Steiny Poet is not alone on
this journey, which threatened to be a battle with the elements of Gertrude
Stein’s amazing mind.
Joining in on this journey through Tender Buttons with
varying degrees of talking and listening contributions are MOOC Modern Poetry
students Eleanor Smagarinsky, Mark Snyder, Judy Melbach, Tracy Sonafelt, Nicola Quinn,
T. De Los Reyes, Susan Scheid, and Tamboura Gaskins.
Here is the poem segment:
DIRT AND NOT COPPER.
Dirt and not copper makes a color
darker. It makes the shape so heavy and makes no melody harder.
It makes mercy and relaxation and even
a strength to spread a table fuller. There are more places not empty. They see
cover.
To start the conversation
with the ModPo students, the Steiny Poet suggested picking out several words
and working from these first. Wanting to avoid prejudicing the others, the
Steiny Poet kept her selection of color,
table, and cover to herself. She figured these words had been used by Stein in
earlier poem segments and seemed important. However, she had not worked out how
the other words in “Dirt and Not Copper.” interacted with this trio of words.
What broke lose after the
Steiny Poet went to bed for the night (her night on the East Coast of the
United States) was a monologue from Mark (he too lives on the East Coast of the
United States) egged on by Judy (what, for Pete’s sake, is her time zone?)
telling Mark, “Stein would have not wanted you to
get some sleep—wake up!” We all know, Dear Reader, that Stein did her work at
night, yes? Rachel Blau DuPlessis said in a live ModPo webcast October 2, 2013,
that Stein worked in a hypnogogic
state—that period just prior to sleep. Maybe some would call this lucid dreaming. DuPlessis stressed Stein
did not do automatic writing. Her writing was controlled.
In Mark’s
monologue as cheered on by Judy, he had
connected dirt, copper, alchemy and the relationship of these things to gender.
Mark said, “The alchemic symbol for copper is the
symbol for Venus (and a common symbol for female
or femininity), according to
Wikipedia.” Then Eleanor, having a clear case of FOMO (fear of missing out)
burst on the scene with a eureka outcry, “Reading your comments right now I suddenly
saw it - THE TABLE, Mark, Judy, Karren - the table is THE PERIODIC TABLE.”
From Mark’s
monologue on dirt and copper:
Dirt and not copper makes a color darker.
The previous paragraph (the
last in “A Piece of Coffee.”) makes several references to cleaning and
maybe laundry (silk, cotton). Dirt, therefore, connects this passage to
the previous passage. Dirt, depending on where you are, is dark, maybe
black with rich fertile soils (around here in North Carolina it's red clay), so
if you get your silk or cotton dirty it will indeed get darker.
Copper, on the other hand,
is metallic, and shiny, and bright. When copper gets dirty (tarnished),
it doesn't get darker, it turns a dull green:
The question is raised for me:
what was copper used for back in the time Tender Buttons was written. Coins, sure. Pipes? I
don't know. I think most decorative or household metal objects would more
likely be brass or bronze (alloys that included copper), silver, gold than
copper since it tarnishes so easy (though I'm no metallurgist).
From Mark’s
monologue on alchemy and gender:
This is interesting, but as
yet unconnected to anything—I'll throw it out there. No idea if Stein was
aware of this. The alchemic symbol for copper is the symbol for Venus
(and a common symbol for female or femininity), according to Wikipedia anyway.
Could Stein have been aware
of an association between femininity/female gender, Venus, and copper? I
have no idea but if she did, it can certainly be no accident that she chose
copper and not iron, which is associated with Mars and therefore tied to male
gender.
Just playing with this idea—Copper
(womanhood) doesn't make the color darker, dirt does. With gender in
mind, dirt (with associations to dirty boys out playing in the mud, dirty old
men, iron works and industry being both filthy places and places in her time
dominated by males) makes the color darker. Maleness makes the color
darker, but femaleness doesn't.
Okay, I am
riffing on alchemy and Wikipedia surfing, so I may be getting farther and farther
from Stein, but take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigredo
Alchemists
were trying to create or find what they called the philosopher's stone (an idea
borrowed by J. K. Rowling for the Harry Potter book).
According to
the page cited here (for what it's worth), in alchemy darkening
(nigredo) is decay or putrefaction—returning to a state of becoming
dirt! Hence, maleness is associated with decay and putrefaction, while
femaleness is not. (I note that she didn't say that copper made the color
lighter, only that dirt made it darker). But in alchemy, nigredo is a
necessary first step toward creating the philosopher's stone. You have to
degrade, burn to ashes before you can create. Nigredo leads to albedo
(whiteness, lightening)—neatly dovetailing with copper's association to Venus
(the morning star, the bringer of light), femininity, and illumination.
Putting
these together, using alchemy ideas as symbols (which I do only tentatively,
since I have no idea whether Stein knew anything of alchemy), she must first
embrace her own maleness (whatever that means) before reaching a higher state
of embracing her own femaleness, and with it enlightenment.
The next big
breakthrough came from Tracy who said, “Dirt and copper are both used to create
paint pigments, dirt or clay as a base, copper silicates to make brighter
colors ranging from blue to green to purple.”
The next
line: It makes the shape so heavy and makes no melody harder stumped Tracy as it did Mark and
Eleanor. Tracy questioned, “A
darker (“dirt”ier, more grounded, more natural?) shape appears heavier, more
solidified, but I’m not sure about melody.
I know we’ve used metaphors from both painting and music to describe the rhythm
and repetition in Stein’s verse, so I feel that association here, but I don't
know what to do with it.”
Here the
Steiny Poet jumped in:
One of its
meanings of melody is "a poem
suitable for setting to music or singing."
So, if dirt
added to color makes the shape of a painting heavy, then maybe dirt is also gossip (Stein tends to double up on meanings) and that's how Stein
jumps to "makes no melody harder" -- meaning gossip has no
effect on the lyricism of a poem that is suited for singing, meaning Stein’s
art of writing trumps the dirt of gossip. What this brings to mind for the
Steiny Poet is composer Virgil Thomson telling Stein when he was first
introduced to her how much Tender Buttons affected him. Probably, he, as a gay
man, was not only tuned into the musical qualities of her work but also to the
eroticism (which unfortunately was fodder for gossip).
One other
framing idea put forward (by Eleanor) dealt with death. In particular, the
words mercy and empty in combination with the word dirt and the phrase makes a
color darker conjured the possibility of a graveyard while pointing to the
Jewish custom of not listening to music in the mourning period. However,
Eleanor could not find a way to relate this framework to more places not empty.
Here are
some of Eleanor’s thoughts:
But if
people have died why are there "MORE places NOT EMPTY" at the table,
there should be more places empty as the people are missing. Maybe we are in a
GRAVEYARD? And in that case, the dead don't "see cover" because they
no longer see, now is their time to SEEK cover - under the ground - in the
dirt, which is darker, but then it turns - like copper when it's out in the
elements - into the colour of not-copper - green. Grass? Plant life, LIFE,
which the survivors then eat at their table, which is, in turn, spread fuller.
It's life at
its most fundamental - back to the ELEMENTS - back to the original table of
living.
It makes mercy and relaxation and even
a strength to spread a table fuller.
About the
third sentence (there are only five in “Dirt and Not Copper.”), Tracy said, “I
think of spreading a feast on a banquet table (a version of what Stein does in
hosting her famous salons). It (whatever “it” is–groundedness? Rootedness?)
makes mercy to put aside petty differences and welcome everyone to the table.
It makes an atmosphere of unhurried relaxation and leisure for conversation to
thrive. It makes strength to spread that table fuller and further and welcome
all ideas.”
The Steiny
Poet thinks the it in, "It makes
mercy and relaxation and even a strength to spread a table fuller," is
the melody -- music is mercifully relaxing and allows those at the
table to continue taking in nourishment.
There are more places not empty. They
see cover
Tracy concludes, “So more places are full than empty. The table is near
capacity. The painting is almost complete. The ideology is almost fully formed.”
The Steiny
Poet finds what Tracy said about the last lines of “Dirt and Not Copper.”
economical and poignant. To this the Steiny Poet adds, “The nourishment then
flips back to the creation of the painting but because of the nourishment, more
color has filled in, covering the canvas.” In the live ModPo webcast October 2,
2013, Bob Perelman provided an example
of Stein pointing to Cezanne applying small patches of
color on a canvas where all of the patches were equal, drawing attention
neither to foreground nor background and saying this was also Stein’s approach
with words.
Who knew
this leg of the journey through Tender Buttons would reap so many riches? The Steiny Road Poet thanks
everyone who came to the ModPo study group and lent his or her support. Talking and
listening is highly recommended.
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