LUDIC LUNCH IN THE BUTTONS
BOX
THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER
BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK ...................-
OBJECTS
THE SUBPOEM
...................-
MALACHITE: NUMBER 33
WORD
COUNT......................-
18
THE SUBPOEM
...................-
AN UMBRELLA: NUMBER 34
WORD
COUNT......................-
24
STANZAS..............................-
1 each
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS..............-
MODPO
STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
GENRE..................................-
VIRTUAL OPERA
LOCATION............................-USA,
UK, Australia, Philippines, S. Africa, Canada.
TIME......................................-
ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK
TONE.....................................-
HEADY
“An
umbrella is a contextual framework which attempts to cover everything.” Allan
Keeton
MALACHITE.
The sudden spoon is the same in no
size. The sudden spoon is the wound in the decision.
AN UMBRELLA.
Coloring high means that the strange
reason is in front not more in front behind. Not more in front in peace of the
dot.
To open this discussion by
The Buttons Collective, the Steiny Road Poet suggested that the objects of
“Malachite.” and “An Umbrella.”—spoon and umbrella—had handles. Then she
suggested that how to get a handle on these two subpoems might be through the
words decision and reason.
ON LOVE-MAKING
Allan Keeton’s
first comments were, “I love these two. There is
something erotic in all that fronting & behinding.”
Steiny
agreed saying, “Allan, yes, they seem tactile and sexual. Spooning in
'Malachite.', a visceral description that seems like spooning in 'An
Umbrella." with emphasis on front—front occurs 3 times.”
Tamboura Gaskins saw “An Umbrella.” as “beautifully-expressed
love note from Stein to Toklas”:
“Coloring high
means that…
==> Because I am so
high-colored… ==> Because I have such a strong, vivid personality…
“…the strange
reason is in front…
==>… it is perceived, strangely, that I am
in front… ==> …that I am the leader… ==> …that I am the
dominant one…
“…not more in
front… ==>
…I am not more in front ==> …I am not the leader… ==> …I am
not the dominant one… ==> I do not overshadow you
“…behind. ==> be ∙ hind ==>
be a female deer ==> be a dear ==> B. dear ==>
Alice B. Toklas, dear
“Not more in front…
==> No, not better than you ==>
not out in front casting a shadow on you
“…in peace of the
dot. ==> Peace, be still, dot ==>
Rest assured, do∙t ==> Be peaceful, doe T ==> Be at
peace, dear Alice B. Toklas
“Simply marvelous!! Great way to
make up after a falling out!”
Steiny
notes here that the discussion for “Water
Raining.” speculated about the possibility of a love spat.
Eleanor Smagarinsky followed up on Tamboura’s love note
interpretation with:
“Tamboura
wrote:
… it is
perceived, strangely, that I am in front…
“I'm tempted
to see it also as:
...the
stranger is always in front --- meaning: when I am in public (in front), I
wear a different face .... a public persona ... and it seems perhaps like I
don't love you... as if I am a stranger...
“The words front and back remind me of running a
restaurant - there's the back
of the house and the front of the house.
I imagine, from what I've heard on some of our threads, that Alice was more back of the house and considered by most
to be the woman behind the woman.
Perhaps this is Gertrude's way of saying the
work at the back of the house is more important than what I do at the front.”
Steiny researched malachite folklore. Some of
the findings point to the Egyptians and the myth of Isis, which the Buttons
discussed in “A
Drawing.” The following passages are drawn from the Howl at the Moon website:
Folklore...
In
some parts of Germany, Malachite shares the same reputation as Turquoise in
protecting the wearer from falling. It has also been said to warn of coming
danger by breaking into pieces.
The Egyptians used Malachite for
protection and safeguarding pregnancy. They would also grind them for use as
eye cosmetics. [Not
recommend today since Malachite dust particles are highly toxic.]
Next
Steiny highlights in bold text from the malachite myths below (also quoted from
the Howl at the Moon
website). What she sees based on the following info is that Stein invokes the
power of Malachite to aid in the success of Tender Buttons.
Spiritually...
Malachite
encourages an appreciation of aesthetics, sensuality and beauty, friendship and
justice. It helps us to imagine ourselves in the position of others and be able
to empathize with them. It is an aid to rid yourself of shyness and awakens
your desire for knowledge. Malachite makes us more aware of our desires,
needs and ideals, but the realization of them is still up to us.
Emotionally...
Malachite
stimulates inner imagery. Dreams, imagination and memories become alive
and real. Suppressed feelings can be suddenly brought out in the open. It can
take away inhibitions and encourage your expression of feelings. Moods may be
experienced more intensely and then dropped again as fast as they came.
Mentally...
Malachite
strengthens your understanding of concepts. It enables you to absorb
information more quickly as your imagination makes you strong and aware of how
to handle it. Thought can flow very quickly and decisions can be made without
much contemplation. Malachite strengthens the capacity to observe. Even
the tiniest things are realized much more quickly and their meaning is easily
recognized.
Physically...
Malachite eases menstrual cramps and
problems and facilitates labor. It also encourages the development of female
sexual organs and heals their ailments. Malachite stimulates liver activity,
has a detoxifying effect, and aids in alleviating rheumatism. It stimulates
nerves and brain activity.
What
particularly interested Steiny about the malachite-body connection is the
corollary myth about waving a spoon in front of the belly of a pregnant woman
to determine the sex of the child. Might one call this spoon waving a sudden
spoon? An ongoing discussion in the study of Tender Buttons is the inability of Stein and her partner
Alice B. Toklas to have a child. Because they are two woman deciding to be
married couple, the sudden spoon—if it were thought of as a diviner of a
child’s sex—is just a wound in their decision to be a couple.
Peter Treanor dug deeper into Egyptian eye makeup
and said:
“Just
been looking around at all things malachite, and been snooping in ancient Egypt
looking for Isis too. And found that malachite was used as eye makeup, crushed and applied under the eyes. For medicinal
purposes and for protection against the evil
eye.
“The ancient
Egyptians regarded beauty as a sign of holiness. Everything the
ancient Egyptians used had a spiritual aspect to it, including cosmetics, which is why cosmetics were an integral part of their
daily lives. In tombs, cosmetic palettes were found buried with the deceased as
grave goods which further emphasized the idea that cosmetics were not only used
for aesthetic purposes but rather magical and religious purposes.
“The two
main forms of eye makeup were green eye paint and black kohl. The green eye paint was made of malachite, a green
carbonate of copper, and the black kohl was made from a substance called
galena, a dark grey ore of lead.
“In the sudden spoon, that oo makes me
think of eyes, Even the dd looks like
eyes with eye liner (kohl) on them, but turned on their side.
"And spoons
themselves are eye shaped, even look like a ‘d’ shape too from the side.
“Spoons and
eyes (suddenly they look the same shape)
“And looking
at that spoon, the shape and the tail (handle that comes off to the left) it
reminded me of the Eye of Horus.
“See the
spoon? and the handle coming off to the right?
“The sudden
spoon is the same in no size.
nose
eyes
(or that’s
what it sounds like when I say it)
"No size sounds like a mixture of nose and eyes.
“The second
sentence of the subpoem repeats the sudden spoon, it is like another eye on the
page. Written. Two eyes, Two sudden spoons
But the
second eye is the wound in the decision.
I don’t know about this, maybe decision
and incision and vision are being
suggested? (What is the root meaning of ision?
It’s in all those words). incision
seems like it relates to wound. Maybe the wound is the gap between the two
eyelids, wound as opening. The decision may be the decision to open your eyes
and see, to open the wound rather than keep them (your eye lids that and
the wound) closed, blind, shut, like a healed wound.
“To be open
/ aware is to be incisive. Incisive / incision are related.
And I’m sure
I almost caught a glimpse of Isis in decision and incision and
vision somewhere
I sis
Eye sis(ter)
I sister?”
FROM
MEASURING SPOONS TO FISH LURES
Dear Reader,
as you can see, one thing leads to another and before one can say something
Mary Poppins-ish, the Buttons go down a rabbit hole of meta-poetics as Peter
just did. So, Steiny is going to back up with Dave Green who waxed nostalgic
about how at the beginning of the Coursera Modern Poetry MOOC, he had
interpreted "Malachite.":
“Gertrude
needs to use a measuring spoon. So she quickly selects one out of a set
of copper measuring spoons. She notices that none of the spoons are
exactly the same shape, leaving aside the differences in size. Because she
selected the spoon quickly, she got the wrong size by mistake, thus making a
bad decision. There was some oxidation on the spoon, a green patina, which
reminded her of the green copper mineral, malachite.”
And should
Steiny say that right at the beginning of discussion that she had given this
factual information about malachite: “Malachite: a bright green mineral, found
in veins and in association with copper deposits. It is a source of copper
and is used as an ornamental stone. Composition: hydrated copper carbonate.
Formula: Cu2CO3(OH)2. Crystal structure: monoclinic.”
And "Malachite." made her think back to "Glazed Glitter.".
Judy Meibach mulled over "Malachite." as
follows:
“The sound
of sudden spoon is very poetic, but very odd. Particularly as it relates to
malachite—for if malachite is a decorative stone, the source of copper, it
would stand to reason that the spoon is a copper one—but when we, or maybe,
when I, think of a special spoon, if you will, I think of a silver one, not a
copper one.
However,
maybe I am off—maybe there is something special about a copper spoon—but for
what—and what is the significance of the suddenness of it all—but then we can
read the second sentence in this subpoem, and Stein repeats sudden spoon, saying it is the wound in
the decision. These to me are the pivotal words—wound in the decision—what does
that mean—maybe I am completely off, but to me it means that it is a departure
from the indulged life that somebody with a silver spoon has. The sudden
spoon represents the sense of reality—a reality check if you will.”
What Judy
said sent Eleanor Googling copper spoon and what she found were
photos of copper fishing spoons. Here’s what Eleanor said,
“The fish
decides to take the spoon (the bait) = ‘The sudden spoon is the wound in the
decision.’
“And now the
repetition of ‘The sudden spoon’—doesn't it sound like fly fishing? The
reel unwinding and then winding and again unwinding? As the fisherwoman tries
to lure her catch.”
To this Karren Alenier [a.k.a. Steiny]
responded:
“And the
hiss of all those S's, Judy, is the fly-fishing line being thrown out with that
sudden spoon! It's like Gtrude is making that lure wiggle but repeating it
twice!!
“I also
found this after I read what Eleanor had found on copper spoon:
The ancestor of the spoon had appeared
by the late 17th century, and was possibly invented in Scandinavia, but this
type of bait doesn't seem to have really caught the imagination of anglers for
another couple of centuries. A spoon didn’t look like anything at all, but
they were highly effective and not at all expensive. One of the earliest
types was the Colorado, which was truly spoon-shaped and can be identified by
the weight inside the spoon and a pair of lugs near the head, almost parallel
to the flow, which were there to make it spin.
“I love that
business about this kind of lure not resembling anything, meaning it didn't
look like a bug or a fish and that must have really appealed to Gtrude.
“What this
also means to me is that ‘Malachite.’ is now tied ‘A
Drawing.’, which has its measurement of water with Allan's association of
mark twain.
THE POLITICS
OF MALACHITE
Along the
way, especially after Peter had brought up the issue of Egyptians believing one
could ward off the evil eye with malachite, discussions about the word itself
suggesting with its opening syllable (mal) evil came this discussion by Mary Armour:
“The 'mal'
or evil in malachite for me has of course to do with mining and the mines
in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana are not good news for those who are employed
to go down or work at processing the ore. Not unlike the women working in
the dress factory [see ‘A
Long Dress.’] that caught alight, hard and dangerous work
for desperate people. Deposits of malachite are often found near to copper
deposits and hence you have the mines set up during the heydays of
the colonial Zambian Copperbelt.
“The most
important and substantial malachite deposits were once in the Ural Mountains in
Russia, where 20-ton blocks once came from the quarries and were used to
decorate the palaces of the Russian tsars. Scary to consider then the Malachite
room of the Winter Palace of the Russian Royal family. Designed in the late
1830s, the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I, used it as her
drawing-room. The room, including columns, pilasters, fire-place trimmings and
decorative vases is made completely of malachite using the ‘Russian mosaic’
technique.
‘I've always
felt that when I look at jewellery or shiny stuff, the material
conditions and means of production need a new kind of symbolism, something that
carries the memory of suffering and risk, the people who dug it out of the
earth and endured smelting furnaces and crushing or grinding machines,
and so these vivid shining metals or semi-precious stones could be
seen as an aesthetic plaything in the West.”
THE BIRDING
OF MALACHITE & UMBRELLA
A look at the
last syllable of malachite, i.e. chite, homophone to kite as in bird of prey, linked the conversation not only to the
Isis myth—she turned into a kite in order to conceive from the dead body of her
husband their child Horus—but also to “An Umbrella.”.
Allan observed, “Umbrellas have ribs
that look like the bones in a bird's wing.”
THE PREGNANT
UMBRELLA
Then riffing
off a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Philosophy of Umbrellas”
(Tamboura brought this essay to the attention of The Buttons), Allan offered,
It is not
for nothing, either, that the umbrella has become the very foremost badge of
modern civilisation—the Urim and Thummim of respectability. Its pregnant
symbolism has taken its rise in the most natural manner. [from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1894 essay “The
Philosophy of Umbrellas”]
“Pregnant
symbolism of an umbrella?
“I had never
noticed that an open umbrella is shaped like a pregnant belly
held over
one's head rather than in front.
Coloring
high means that the strange reason is in front
“The pointy
thing is the belly button which
has popped
out to become an outie.
“The baby is
not in front of the umbrella,
it is behind
the front.
not more
in front behind.
"Wholly
new conditions of intercourse.”
To this poetic flight, Tamboura responded,
“Oh, Allan,
yet another layer you've uncovered: an umbrella as protector of the
womb, a place of nourishment and nurturing.
“And I luv how
you were influenced by the R.L.S. piece...it makes me wonder if Stein herself
found inspiration there as well.”
UMBRELLA
REBELLION, ECLIPSE, POINTILIST PAINTING
For Gertrude
Stein, the umbrella was something she rebelled against. In The
Making of Americans, her character Martha, as a child, throws her
umbrella into the mud after she, on her way to school, is abandoned by her
siblings. Later this same character, as a teenager, sees a man beating a woman
with his umbrella and decides then and there that no man shall hold an umbrella
over her head, that she must become independent and get a good education. The
Stevenson essay “The Philosophy of Umbrellas” establishes this protective
device as an item of high culture, but for Stein it seemed to represent
patriarchal tyranny.
Something
else to keep in mind is this is third subpoem of the “Objects” section dealing
with the umbrella—“Mildred’s
Umbrella.”, “A
Mounted Umbrella.” and “An Umbrella.”. Interestingly the associations
brought up in this appearance of the umbrella were different, though in all
three, the sexual associations dominated.
Some of the
new associations offered for umbrella were the shade (a root meaning of umbrella derived from umbra) created by the moon passing
between Earth and sun (eclipse) and Henri Matisse’s 1905 Pointillist painting
“Young Woman with Umbrella.” Dave Green
provided commentary about Matisse’s painting:
“Coloring high
means that… ==>
The emphasis on color
over form...
“…the strange
reason is in front… ==>… means that the painting first strikes
you as strange...
“…not more in
front behind. ==> but
then that strangeness recedes to the background
“Not more in
front… ==> It no longer feels strange...
THE
END-STOPPING DOT
Because
these two subpoems are abstract, the Buttons offered many metapoetic comments
and some of these have already been documented here. Here is a bit of high art
ludic speculation from Peter:
Coloring
high means that the strange reason is in front not more in front behind. Not
more in front in peace of the dot.
“Um
this one has been driving me nuts. But what are all these in fronts all about?
There are 3 ‘in front's’ and two ‘not’s.’
“And what is
the strange reason? I have been
thinking of (il)logic or theory or delusion or lie or alibi as a strange kind
of reason .But the strange reason is in front, she says. SO I looked (and
looked) at in front. And there in front was Ont
,
the base of ~Ontological, meaning, early 18th century: from modern
Latin ontologia, from Greek ōn, ont- 'being' + -logy.
Ont meaning being, its in front and in not.
“I get a bit
dizzy trying to work out all the in fronts and behinds as directions in the
sentence. But front (in the sentence) is in front of the dot (full
stop) and Not is the first word behind it. SO maybe the in fronts and behind
refer to the position of Ont (being) in the sentence. Maybe, maybe.
And
so maybe umbrella is used in the
sense of an umbrella principle, and overarching idea or theory of being.
“A unified
theory of being, Is that what she is exploring, through her objects, with
reference to strange and colourful reasons and reasoning? Is she looking at
ideas of being, both past and present? Is that the Umbrella principle behind
(in front) this piece? Objects but with reference to theories of the nature of
being interwoven in them. Is that the thread that connects the buttons? Is she
looking at a unified theory of being, to bring peace in the Dot?
“But what is
the Dot? The point maybe? It is made by the point of the pen. The point as
reason or purpose. What is the point? The dot being the moment you make the
mark? The Yud idea again? that All is contained in that dot, mark, point?
It’s
enough to drive you dotty.”
Here is an
exchange between Allan and Karren regarding the dot that ends “An
Umbrella.”:
Allan:
“I am struck
by the dot. at the end.
“It is as if
Gertrude's periods at the end of her OBJECTS finally gets named.
“dot.
“resting
there in peace.
“It reminds
me of a reverse Yud.
[see the post
on “A New Cup and Saucer.” & “Objects.””
The dot left
at the end of a mark when the pen is lifted from the paper.
“The earth
spinning peacefully in a vast universe.
“An umbrella
is a contextual framework which attempts to cover everything.
“The dot.
“is where
everything ends up.”
Karren:
“The end
weight on dot. Might Stein being saying something about her subpoem titles? She
gives intention to each subpoem with that period, that dot. Is there some kind
of protection (umbrella) for her intention?
Allan:
“The dot is
an umbrella for her OBJECTS?
“Wow, cool
Karren.”
Karren:
“Apollinaire
in his 1913 book Alcools uses NO
punctuation. Stein who is not very punctuation oriented goes overboard in Tender Buttons. I find this
interesting.”
Steiny will
make this brief gloss about Apollinaire—she thinks Apollinaire had a fairly
strong influence on Stein while she was writing the sections of Tender Buttons.
TRANSLATING
PUNCTUATION & SOUND
Eleanor also contemplated punctuation in this
way:
“???????????
Are these
sudden spoons?
Can you see
a question in a person's eyes?
Before you
make your decision, you have to ask yourself a question.
Questions
and the decisions which follow can wound.
“In French
"mal" has many connotations, all lead to hurt of some
sort. I was experimenting with mal a
quitte as being a hint towards hurts
to leave but it's really not proper French and feels like too much of a
stretch (although fun play).
“!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are these
closed umbrellas?
Closed means
"decision made", no more questions!
What was
"the strange reason" for the decision?
(N.B. Thanks, Karren, for your leading post in this forum in which you
hinted at the connection between DECISION and REASON.)
"Coloring high means...well...it could
mean high emotion, which necessitates an exclamation mark, which takes the
place (peace--place) of the dot. And a dot does indeed give more peace than an
exclamation mark which is so excited and loud and not at all peaceful!!! Do you
see what I mean??? Yes. Ah. Peaceful again.
“in front not more in front behind. Don't they do
that in Spanish? Use spoons and closed
umbrellas in front of questions and exclamations, as well as after?”
Eventually
Eleanor began playing with the sound of umbrella
crossing back and forth between French, Spanish and English:
UMBRELLA
French:
HOMME ELLE A
HOMME EST LA
HOMME ET LA
Spanish
HOMBRE /
MUJER (man/woman)
HOMBRELLA
Claudia Schumann jumped in asking: “Do we have to go
back to the Latin? Hombrella—is that a little man? Or GS as not really
man but a sort of man???
Allan bustled in with:
“Hombrella
(little man)!
O so cool
that the
makes an
appearance
& so we
are back to alchemy & fertilization (eggs & sperm).
Such a huge
open door for a microscopic dot. of a man to walk through.”
Barbara Crary experienced this by saying the word malachite: “a picture of the spoon, with
the round sounds mala- comprising the
bowl and the sharp -chite at the end the
hard long handle.”
METAPOETIC
AFTERWORD
This from Allan to ensure, Dear Reader, that you
know the Buttons are aware that their associations get carried to tight-rope
walking extremes:
“I am sure
many people would be aghast at how far away we are willing to go to play
& at the
weird eddies we get stuck in for days.
“But we do
keep coming back trying to touch the poem in our own ways.
But is the
poem behind all our imaginings?
Are we
sometimes in front dragging the poem somewhere it doesn't want to go
&
sometimes in back stuck in our own daydream when the poem wants to
go somewhere else?
“For some strange
reason that seems to be what happens when we color high.”
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