THE SUBBOOK
...................-
FOOD
THE SUBPOEM
...................-
Sugar
WORD COUNT (Total)……...- 333
STANZA(S)............................-
18
—Stanzas
1-8 170
—Stanzas 9-18 163
THE LEADER........................- THE
STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS.............-
MODPO
STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
The second half of “Sugar.” also
proved to be a slippery sets of stanzas to discuss and required the Steiny Road
Poet to interpret comments and choose how to present what was said. While both
stanzas 1 through 8 and stanzas 9 through 18 of “Sugar.” deal with sexual
topics, the emphasis in the second half is less judgmental and more matter of
fact. Additionally, part 2 stanzas seem more evocative relative to Steinian
semantics and visual art while part 1 stanzas seem more narrative.
The last ten stanzas of “Sugar.”
has a 163-word count in contrast to the 170 words of the first eight stanzas. Among
the topics addressed in this post are: myths, monsters & games; comfort
food versus forbidden edibles; ill effects of sugar; the chemistry of sugar; sexual
panic; sex as seen through water and fire; sexual abstractions; the art of the
gas jet; crosstalk between “Sugar.” & “Roastbeef.”. Here are stanzas 9
through 18:
A puzzle, a monster puzzle, a heavy choking, a
neglected Tuesday.
Wet crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness
has blisters, it has that and teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little
green, any little green is ordinary.
One, two and one, two, nine, second and five and
that.
A blaze, a search in between, a cow, only any wet
place, only this tune.
Cut a gas jet uglier and then pierce pierce in
between the next and negligence. Choose the rate to pay and pet pet very much.
A collection of all around, a signal poison, a lack of languor and more hurts
at ease.
A white bird, a colored mine, a mixed orange, a dog.
Cuddling comes in continuing a change.
A piece of separate outstanding rushing is so blind
with open delicacy.
A canoe is orderly. A period is solemn. A cow is
accepted.
A nice old chain is widening, it is absent, it is
laid by.
“And for
Stein, food has also to do with taboos, what will make you ill or sinful,
what is forbidden. What is coded as sexual: a cow for orgasm, a wet place, a
blaze. What has onomatopoeic force of echo and reiteration: a a a a,
ca-cu-ca-cu. ‘Cuddling comes in continuing a change.’"
Mary Armour
In order to discuss stanzas
9 through 18, the Buttons often drew their impressions from several non-contiguous
stanzas, so Steiny is listing stanzas addressed in the subtitles of each
section of this post.
MYTHS, MONSTERS & GAMES
[9, 10, 16]
Karren Alenier began the discussion with stanza 9 and said:
A puzzle,
a monster puzzle, a heavy choking, a neglected Tuesday.
“This
stanza seems to be consumed by a perplexing puzzle that has caused the neglect
of the Norse war god Tiw or Týr, his victory and his heroic glory.
“I base this
on Stein’s use of the word Tuesday
which Wikipedia says:”
The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdægand Middle English Tewesday, meaning
"Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, victory and heroic glory in Norse mythology. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio
germanica, and the name of the day is a
translation of Latin dies Martis.
“Perhaps
this why the sugar is causing so much choking as well as other problems that we
saw in the first half of this subpoem.
“I suspect
Stein is talking about herself and now sugar is something other than Alice.”
Teri Rife approached stanza 9 by looking at
other subpoems of Tender Buttons:
“Here's the
monster again, and this time a monster puzzle. We've had monstrous
in 1) ‘A red hat.’ and monster in 2) ‘Mutton.’.
1)A dark grey, a very dark grey, a quite dark grey is monstrous
ordinarily, it is so monstrous because there is no red in it. [‘A red hat.’]
2)Mud and water were not present and not any more of either. Silk
and stockings were not present and not any more of either. A receptacle and a
symbol and no monster were present and no more. This made a
piece show and was it a kindness, it can be asked was it a kindness to have it
warmer, was it a kindness and does gliding mean more. Does it. [stanza 9 of
‘Mutton.’]
“Karren's
comment in ‘Mutton.’:
I think Stein is doing two things here
simultaneously. First of all she is invoking the creation myth with all the mud
and water and that monster which is likely to be the golem, a man-like creature created from mud. Except her
invocation comes from a negative stance. The actual creation is some kind of
sculpture. So Stein is pointing to the making of art.
“So, it
would appear that the golem is back in this subpoem. Consider Stanza #10
of ‘Sugar.’:
Wet
crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters, it has that and
teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little green, any little green is
ordinary.
“Sounds
golem-like, but for the green.
“Also,
consider Stanza #16 of ‘Sugar.’:
A piece
of separate outstanding rushing is so blind with open delicacy.
“This seems
to echo This made a piece show and was it a kindness.. [excerpt from stanza 9 of ‘Mutton.’]
So there's kindness
in Mutton and blind-ness in ‘Sugar.’.
“A puzzle is
a game, and we saw a game in green and, again, a piece in ‘A
plate.’:
A kind of
green a game in green and nothing flat nothing quite flat and more round,
nothing a particular color strangely, nothing breaking the losing of no little
piece. [excerpt from stanza 3 of ‘A plate.’]”
Alenier responded:
“The green
seems a logical outgrowth from the mud! Brilliant! It does seem we have the
golem here with its blisters and teeth!
Alenier also liked Rife’s “blind-kind”
association. She said,
“My theory
is that wherever Stein mentions kind we are talking gender identity. Blind
logically connects to kind and it seems also to connect us to the golem.
Maybe something like the elephant in the room? The prohibition on same sex
relationships?
To wrap up
thoughts about what Rife wrote, Alenier
made this observation punctuated with a question:
“So here
Teri connects the object—plate—with the food—sugar—which has become this game
in green. Not sure where this line of thinking goes. Any thoughts?”
COMFORT FOOD
VERSUS FORBIDDEN EDIBLES [TOC, 10, 12, 15]
Mary Armour responded to what Teri Rife had to say
by looking at the big picture. She
said:
“I want to look at “Sugar.”
from a few different angles. Right at the beginning of the Food section in TB, Stein gives a list of headings or
topics:
ROASTBEEF;
MUTTON; BREAKFAST; SUGAR; CRANBERRIES; MILK; EGGS; APPLE; TAILS; LUNCH; CUPS;
RHUBARB; SINGLE; FISH; CAKE; CUSTARD; POTATOES; ASPARAGUS; BUTTER; END OF
SUMMER; SAUSAGES; CELERY; VEAL; VEGETABLE; COOKING; CHICKEN; PASTRY; CREAM;
CUCUMBER; DINNER; DINING; EATING; SALAD; SAUCE; SALMON; ORANGE; COCOA; AND
CLEAR SOUP AND ORANGES AND OAT-MEAL; SALAD DRESSING AND AN ARTICHOKE; A CENTRE
IN A TABLE.
“It's all
about comfort food and where food is eaten and at what time of the year
and the centrality of food as structuring a togetherness and a work of art. But
it is also about more than food and about the dangers or what is hidden behind
food, what food stands for. In this, we go back to Stein as an etymologist,
separating words from context and having them stand alone, apart, the word
in itself, the ding an sich we have seen elsewhere.
“And for
Stein, food has also to do with taboos, what will make you ill or sinful,
what is forbidden. What is coded as sexual: a cow for orgasm, a wet place, a
blaze. What has onomatopoeic force of echo and reiteration: a a a a,
ca-cu-ca-cu. ‘Cuddling comes in continuing a change.’"
SEXUAL PANIC
[10]
“But when I
hear this sentence, my projection perhaps, I hear something akin to sexual
panic:
Wet
crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters, it has that and
teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little green, any little green is
ordinary.
“A wet crossing
as slippery and dangerous? Some kind of treacherous glissade, of loss of
meaning, loss of footing, uncertainty?
“a
likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters—some kind of contagious infection,
reflections of selves that dissolve identity? What is separate and what is a
piece of and what is merging or spilling over in a mirrored identity? Blisters
indicate burns, infection, contagion, some open sores or repulsion in what is
reflected
“it has
that and teeth—this is chilling for me, as if it recalls what Virginia
Woolf describes in The Years, the child Rose exposed to the gibbering
man in the street who exposes himself to her kind of allergy. A reflected face
that is a likeness but has blisters and teeth, something not quite human, the vagina
dentata, the loathsome consequence of the broken taboo
“The same
likeness has this too: the staggering blindly and a little green. Which
makes me wonder if our Green Fairy absinthe is making a reappearance, the loss
of control and disorder of drunkenness. [e.g., the Buttons discussed the Green
Fairy absinthe in ‘Glazed
glitter.’]
“And then a
change, recovery of the everyday, a return to another kind of green: any
little green is ordinary. A village green, a green ribbon, a salad green.
The green of asparagus, celery, cucumber.”
The Wet
crossing stanza made Claudia
Schumann think of ill effects of sugar:
“Somehow
this part reminds of the physical damage of sugar. GS was a trained to be a
doctor so she knew the chemical side effects of sugar on the body. We love the
sweetness of sugar but the ‘likeness has blisters’ or it is really bad for you.
‘Staggering blindly’ could refer to the loss of eyesight from diabetes and ‘a
little green’ could be problems with infection for diabetics but you don't
notice the infection happening because it is only ‘any little green.’ Diabetes
was a killer in those days because they didn't really know how to cure it.
Alenier thought Schumann’s diabetes reading
worked well. She said,
“I'm reading
‘Favored Strangers’: Gertrude Stein and
Her Family. I'm not sure, but I think her brother Simon may have died from
diabetes. I know he had a significant weight problem. Oops, no, he died in 1917
according to Linda Wagner-Martin from the natural causes of obesity. Still, we
know sugar probably played a role.
“We also
know Gertrude had a huge weakness for cakes and sweets. She too had a huge
weight problem until she was diagnosed with abdominal tumor in 1922. To avoid
surgery, she reduced the amount she ate and by early 1920s, she ate relatively
little. Apparently she was terrified of dying the death her mother suffered.”
[Gertrude’s mother Amelia Stein had an undiagnosed cancer, centered in the
pelvic area. Gertrude Stein died of ovarian cancer and it is more likely her
mother also had this type of cancer versus stomach cancer.]
THE
CHEMISTRY OF SUGAR [4, 11, 18]
Moving on to stanza 11, Alenier conjectured:
One, two
and one, two, nine, second and five and that.
“My guess is
that these numbers pertain in some way to the chemical makeup of table sugar
which is a disaccharide, meaning it has two parts. Sugar is one part
glucose and the other fructose.
“The disaccharide
has a reference to water elimination which may synch well with stanza 2 where
Stein writes about water squeezing. Here’s what I found in Wikipedia:”
A disaccharide or biose[1] is the carbohydrate which is formed when two monosaccharides (simple sugars) undergo a condensation
reaction which involves the
elimination of a small molecule, such as water, from the functional groups only. Like monosaccharides,
disaccharides form an aqueous solution when dissolved in water.
Rife responded:
“This
information on the chemistry of sugar is very compelling and, in addition, all
of this one and two stuff seems like it could relate to Gertrude
and Gertrude + Alice. I'm trying to get the math to work literally, too. (1+2)[one, two]+[and](1+2)[one, two]+ second (1+2) again=9(nine)
And the number of numbers (1,2,1,2,9) is five.”
Alenier
answered:
Ah, yes,
Teri, I'm thinking what is the polymer chain in relation to Gertrude's chain of
numbers and you see that she uses that word chain at the end of this
subpoem— A nice old chain is widening.
“And lookee!
in stanza 4 she also uses the word chaining:”
A peck a
small piece not privately overseen, not at all not a slice, not at all
crestfallen and open, not at all mounting and chaining and evenly surpassing, all the bidding
comes to tea.
MONSTER
PUZZLES ENCORE [9, 10, 13, 15]
Referring to stanzas
9, 10, 13, 15, Rife responded to
Armour:
“Just about
the time you posted, I had started thinking concentratedly (not a word?
spell-check doesn't like it) about the word puzzle.
Everything about TB seems to be
a puzzle—a monster puzzle. Yes, separating words from context. I thought
of a contemporary artist I heard speak on Modern Art Notes Podcast (do you know
it—it's great) who said that his approach to viewers trying to figure out his
paintings is that once that happens, the painting is dead—no reason to look at
it any more. Hmm...was Stein of this mind?
“And, on a
different note, I thought that puzzle rhymes with muzzle, and
muzzle goes with: heavy choking, teeth, dog, and dog with:
pet and cuddling.”
WATER VERSUS
FIRE & SEX [6, 10, 12, 13]
Taking a
step back but focused on stanza 12, Alenier took an extended look at the Food
section of Tender Buttons:
A blaze,
a search in between, a cow, only any wet place, only this tune.
“Stein uses
the word water 8 times in the Food section. She uses the word wet
9 times. However, there is no use of the word fire or flame but she does use the word blaze.
“I bring
stanza 12 up because it connects to stanza 10 with all the wetness. I also
think Stein is making sexual references in both of these stanzas. I'm basing
this on words like wet crossing, likeness, blaze, cow. Her emphasis
is on female sexuality.”
Next Alenier looked at stanzas 12 and 13:
A blaze,
a search in between, a cow, only any wet place, only this tune.
Cut a gas
jet uglier and then pierce pierce in between the next and negligence. Choose
the rate to pay and pet pet very much. A collection of all around, a signal
poison, a lack of languor and more hurts at ease.
“In stanzas
12 & 13, Stein gives us blaze and
gas jet. We also have furnace in stanza 6.”
Schumann agreed and proceeded with a closer
reading:
“Definitely
erotic! Sex as a blaze, looking for what is in-between the legs, a cow (sexual
act), wet, and only this tune (the female way to do it).
“Also quite
erotic—cut a gas jet could be
quitting of arousal, then trying to get to the place and when it doesn't happen—negligence.
“Choose the rate to pay may have
something to do with prostitution. We all know about petting. The last sentence
may have something to do with the dissatisfaction of prostitution or sex
without love—or sex with men (who knows).”
Alenier responded:
“Did you
know Leo visited prostitutes? The woman he married Nina of Montparnasse was an
artist's model and known for sleeping about. Gertrude was furious with him for
marrying down because she felt he needed an educated woman, a woman who suited
his financial and intellectual class.
“I also
noticed that the word furnace was used in ‘Roastbeef.’”
Sincerely
gracious one morning, sincerely graciously trembling, sincere in gracious
eloping, all this makes a furnace and a blanket. [stanza 23 of
‘Roastbeef.’]
Steiny will
pause here to say that stanza 13 of “Sugar.” might be pointing to Leo Stein and
that there are instances of cross talk between “Sugar.” and ‘Roastbeef.’ which
will come up at the end of this discussion. Close readings of ‘Roastbeef.’ evoked
the waning days of Gertrude and Leo living together at 27 rue de Fleurus.
GAS JET
[stanza 13]
Rife reported about seeing a Picasso painting with a gas jet:
“Regarding
the gas jet, I was Xcited to see a cubist painting by Picasso titled ‘Guitar,
Gas-Jet and Bottle’ (1913) yesterday at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. The
exhibit is from the National Galleries of Scotland. So, the gas-jet was a
subject in cubist works, which might have how Stein put mention of this in
‘Sugar.’.”
Steiny notes
that Picasso's "Guitar, Gas-Jet and Bottle" was dated 1913 and Stein
wrote Tender Buttons from 1912
through 1913.
Rife also said:
“I was back at the Kimbell Museum exhibit, and this
time they had the acoustiguides available. There was commentary on this
painting (not the Braque) from George Shackelford who said Picasso was ‘giving
us a puzzle to work out, testing our eye’ and putting forward the message that
‘all media, methods and materials are fair game.’ Picasso wants the
viewer to enjoy the process by which the painting is made, because the fact
that it is a made object is meant to be evident. The vertical strip that
is part of the guitar is painted with ripolin, ordinary house paint.
Scratched into the white shape is the suggestion of a glass and the
objects are on a table, as suggested by the curving forms below. The gas
jet is charcoal drawn directly on the canvas.
“Interesting
words, no?
“Also in the
exhibit is Monet's ‘Poplars on the Epte’ (1891) which was one of a series of
paintings on this subject. The acoustiguide said that Monet began these ‘series’
paintings, examining the same subject under different conditions in that year.
Hmm...we see Stein doing something like that in her writing.”
SEXUAL
ABSTRACTIONS [9-11, 13, 14-18]
Because
stanzas 14 through 18 seemed especially abstract, Alenier looked first at stanza 15:
Cuddling
comes in continuing a change.
Here are
some possibilities for cuddling:
—tender
holding—not just as in hugging but as
in money (tender as money).
—a little
wad (cud that is small) relates to cows and sex
—a baby
(babies cling but also as in cub)
Referring to
the last five stanzas of “Sugar.”, Rife
offered:
“This
section strikes me as a combination of ‘How do I love, thee?...’ and ‘Bob and
Carol and Ted and Alice’ (Leo and Nina and Gertrude and Alice)—complicated love
(as always) and complicated relationships. All those lines that begin
with "A." Alice, you are this and this and this; or Alice, my
love for you is this and this and this: A puzzle, A blaze, A
collection, A white bird, A piece, A canoe, A period, A cow, A nice old chain.
“And the
scary stuff, mostly in the two longest stanzas, may be the Nina and Leo
elements in the equation: monster puzzle, heavy choking, neglected
Tuesday (war, as Karren pointed out), blisters, teeth, staggering
blindly, green (jealous?), uglier, pierce pierce, negligence, poison, lack of
languor and more hurts (hurts what?--the state of being ‘at ease.’)
“Back to
Alice, there's: pet pet very much and cuddling. Or, that
may be Leo petting and paying his prostitute, as Karren has said.
And speaking
of paying, the transactional language in the first 8 stanzas continues: green,
one, two, nine, five, the rate to pay, change, piece, laid by, and, as
Karren said, the tender-ness in cuddling.
SUGAR & ROASTBEEF CROSS TALK [2, 4-6, 14, 16, 18]
To conclude,
Alenier also found additional cross
talk between “Sugar.” and “Roastbeef.”:
To bury a slender chicken, to raise an old
feather, to surround a garland and to bake a pole splinter, to suggest a repose
and to settle simply, to surrender one another, to succeed saving simpler, to
satisfy a singularity and not to be blinder, to sugar
nothing darker and to read redder, to have the color
better, to sort out dinner, to remain together, to surprise no sinner, to curve
nothing sweeter, to continue thinner, to increase in resting recreation to
design string not dimmer.
Stanza 30 from “Roastbeef.”
“There are
connections between ‘Roastbeef.’ (s.30) and ‘Sugar.’
Roastbeef
Sugar
blinder
eye glasses (stanza 2), blind (stanza
16)
chicken
peck (stanza 4), white bird (stanza 14)
slender
a little slight shadow (stanza 6)
sinner
shame (stanza 6)
repose/settle
laid by (stanza 18)
splinter
sectionally (stanza 5)
“I think this
is some how connected to Gertrude wanting to find her 'gloire'—her quest to be
seen as a genius.”
Participants: Karren
Alenier, Mary Armour, Teri Rife, Claudia Schumann
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