INSIDE THE BUTTONS BOX
THE
BOOK ............ ......- TENDER BUTTONS
THE
SUBBOOK ..................- OBJECTS
THE
SUBPOEM ..................- A BOX: NUMBER 11
STANZAS............. .....- 7
WORD
COUNT............. .....- 302
THE
CO-LEADER........... .....- THE STEINY ROAD POET
THE
CO-LEADER.................- ELEANOR SMAGARINSKY
CO-LLABORATORS..............- MODPO STUDENTS/THE
BUTTONS
GENRE............. ....- VIRTUAL OPERA
LOCATION............ .....- USA, ENGLAND, AUSTRALIA, PHILLIPINES..
TIME............... ...- ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK
TONE.............. ....- RAUCOUS
ORIGINAL
BOOK CRITIQUE—1914
“The Chicago Tribune reviewer did not know whether 'Tender' of the title means a row boat, a fuel car attached to a locomotive or is an expression of human emotion. Another critic described it as a sort of Wonderland or Luna Park for anyone
who is not too busy. Max Eastman, less respectfully, said it was like the ravings of a lunatic. The Detroit
News said that after reading excerpts
from it, a person feels like going out and pulling the Dime Bank building over
onto himself. And the best from The Commercial Advertiser: "The
new Stein manner is founded on what the Germans call 'Wort Salad,' a style
particularly cultivated by crazy people . . ." from Diana Souhami's Gertrude
and Alice
"In other words, it wasn't very well received."
-----Claudia Schumann, ModPony
“In the office I have patients whose families tell them (demeaningly) 'you're crazy.' I think of
ModPo and tell them, 'All the best people are!'"
-----Mark Snyder, ModPony
“And I actually like this: The Chicago Tribune reviewer did not
know whether ‘Tender’ of the title means a row boat, a fuel car attached to a
locomotive, or is an expression of human emotion. (I think all of those
possibilities are worth exploring.)"
-----Tracy Sonafelt, ModPony
BOX
WITHIN BOXES BUT NEVER BOXED IN
From
chaos to order, and back again.
The
journey is long and arduous, but the ModPonies are a strong, lean, interpreting
machine.
There is an
intriguing thing happening here.
The nouns
are
EXPLODING!
........ .......... VOICE
& COFFIN & WOMB & ...
.............. ....come
irresistibly pouring out of that PANDORA'S BOX.
Such a
waterfall of roll calls in a single noun.
-----Allan Keeton, ModPony
BOX OF POSSIBILITIES (aka Pandora’s Box):
Cigarette box—Voice box—Coffin Box
Box as womb—Box as Vagina (slang)--Box as Gift—Shell Game
Box as Cloister
Body as a box
Pelvis, a box with wings in which the womb is cradled
Box as Hope Chest
Box as enclosed sedan chair, especially ones used to carry
brides
A
BOX.
Here
is “A Box.” stanza by stanza with selected commentary from The Buttons:
STANZA 1 – THE FIRST
A large box
is handily made of what is necessary to replace any substance. Suppose an
example is necessary, the plainer it is made the more reason there is for some
outward recognition that there is a result.
Dave Green offered: “Large boxes tend to be generic in
design. They are designed to carry any object that will fit within the box. The
plainer the box, the more you realize there is a need for a label or marking of
some kind on the outside to indicate what's specific and special about the
content.” Immediately Steiny thought coffin,
particularly the plain boxes used in orthodox Jewish burial, which Dave
clarified, are made of pine to allow box and body to return to the earth as
dust more quickly.
Most recently Steiny had a conversation with her husband’s aunt
while viewing the body of her son at his wake. It seems the box he was in was
not the box she chose. Because he was so tall, he wouldn’t fit in the standard
box. So here was a gruesome real life example of the necessity for a large box
handily made to replace the too small box and to replace the formerly living
cousin Bob, a substantial human being certainly in size but also in life
experience, back to the earth. And indeed Aunt Kay insisted that her viewing
include fully opening the coffin to see that the entire substance of her son
was fitting into this box so she could satisfy her need to label this coffin
Bob’s final cradle.
General speculation among the Buttons was that the specter of
death against the joy of Gertrude’s union with Alice comes up because they
cannot bear each other’s child.
STANZA 2
A box is
made sometimes and them to see to see to it neatly and to have the holes
stopped up makes it necessary to use paper.
Spoiler alert verging on TMI (too much information). Dear Reader,
you might want to read discussion associated with Stanzas 3 and 4 and then
return here.
Allan Keeton took up the lead on this stanza as the discussion
opened. He “noticed” cigarettes lying in the Box. He nixed possible association
of cigarette and penis. He also eliminated vagina
and mouth, leaving that kind of
association to the American pop culture TV show Saturday Night Live that might refer us to Dick in a Box or Box in
Box. More soberly he saw cigarettes as nails for the coffin or the destroyer of
the voicebox where a surgeon might make a hole and the nicotine addictedpatient might continue to smoke through the new hole in his neck.
Then, uh oh, Ellen Dillon entered the MOOSG (massive open online
study group) and gingerly suggested ciggies might be a stand-in for products of
ladies inconveniences putting vagina
back on the table. While she grabbed her coat to run, Eleanor detained her but
that’s another discussion for stanza 6.
Lest anyone worries, Steiny assures all who enter this
Collective that going down any path is supported without prejudice. And yes, we
know Gertrude Stein was not especially metaphoric and not feminist, but she was
creating coded language where words were events as Ron Silliman suggested in
the October 2, 2013, ModPo live webcast.
STANZA 3
A custom
which is necessary when a box is used and taken is that a large part of the
time there are three which have different connections. The one is on the table.
The two are on the table. The three are on the table. The one, one is the same
length as is shown by the cover being longer. The other is different there is
more cover that shows it. The other is different and that makes the corners
have the same shade the eight are in singular arrangement to make four
necessary.
Weighing in with 94 words, stanza 3 is rich in details and
reach, which Tracy Sonafelt notes in her discussion. Here are highlights from
her analysis.
Connections to other Buttons [subpoems]. “A Carafe,That Is a Blind Glass.” the difference is spreading / “Dirt and NotCopper.” It makes mercy and relaxation and even a strength to spread a table
fuller. Prevalence of containers throughout TB.
Box as Womb. When I look at Tender Buttons
(“Objects”), I see much that calls to mind female sexuality and anatomy:
“button” as clitoris, “buttons” as nipples; vessels/containers (carafe, bottle,
spoon, cup, tumbler, box, purse, etc.); liquids (water raining, careless water,
seltzer, etc.); references to red rose pink: “Red Roses.” A cool red rose
and a pink cut pink, a collapse and a sold hole, a little less hot. In
contemporary slang: “box” for vagina.
Shell Game. The one is on the table. The two are
on the table. The three are on the table. Which one has a pea
underneath?
How-To Guide. Opening a box from IKEA and
assembling a table from the pieces and instructions inside. The other is
different and that makes the corners have the same shade the eight are in
singular arrangement to make four necessary: It sounds like something
straight out of an instruction manual.
Dinner Party/Steinian Salon. Places/tables
for one, two, three, four, eight.
Syntax. Fairly regular sentence structure
this time. Repetition (one, table, different, cover). Theme and
variation. Triads.
Numerology. Relative
to one, two, three on the table, a strong connection with numerological
explanation where one is a masculine self, two is a couple with feminine
qualities, and three is a couple with child.
Exponential
Extension of the 1, 2, 3 Triad. 2 (2¹) , 4 (2²), 8 (2³) as an
exponential extension of the 1, 2, 3 triad. What’s more, there is no hierarchy.
All the numbers treated equally. Everything is on the table. Everything is
valued. Since table has both domestic and professional connotations, both
private and social connotations, the box encompasses all these different
connections.
To the numbers discussion, Steiny added dimensionality and
probability theory. The dimensions of a cube, which Allan immediately responded
to: BOX = CUBE (2^3 = 8) = CUBISM. Stein subtly built in reference
to her writing style that looks at all dimensions as influenced by the art of
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Steiny pointed out that probability
theory has its roots in efforts to analyze games of chance, which encompass the
problem of points and continuous variables. When applied to
Gertrude and Alice, what were the chances of them getting together and staying
together, given all the variables? T. De Los Reyes chimed in reminding The
Buttons about ModPo prof Al Filreis asking about the difference between
possibility and probability. T. added, “Perhaps Stein concentrates on
probability because during that time [sexual repression], the possibility was
still an impossibility.”
STANZA 4
Lax, to have
corners, to be lighter than some weight, to indicate a wedding journey, to last
brown and not curious, to be wealthy, cigarettes are established by length and
by doubling.
Stanza 4 discussion was led by Ellen Dillon, who began by
talking about a girl’s “glory box” or “hope chest,” the box that
girls traditionally filled with their trousseau in preparation for their future
married life, but talk quickly moved to those products of ladies inconveniences mentioned briefly
in the discussion of stanza 2 but now backed up by references.
Here Steiny will not hold back. Saying that cigs established by
length and doubling are stand-ins for early homemade tampons, Ellen provided a
link to a website tracking the history of such feminine implements. She also
hauled out from her arsenal of scholarly books, Lisa Ruddick's book Reading Gertrude Stein: Body, Text, Gnosis citing
on page 149 that Gertrude “compared her writing process to her feminine spots
and secretions.” Eleanor who had attempted to bring this conversation about in “ARed Stamp.” matched the feminine flow to the creative flow. Steiny injected a
what-about-the-enclosed-sedan-chair-used-to-carry-brides-to-the-husband’s-home
interruption.
The sedan chair only upped the ante for Eleanor who remembered and
then recounted details of Niddah, a
Jewish custom for handling the uncleanness
of a woman during her menstrual cycle. The
coup de grace was Eleanor mapping Niddah to the structure of “A Box.” subpoem
11:
SEVEN DAYS
So a woman checks her discharge for 7 days.
God created the world in 7 days.
"A Box." has 7 stanzas.
Jewish marriage ceremony includes "7 blessings."
Jewish marriage ceremony includes custom of the bride
circling her groom 7 times.
STANZA 5
Left open,
to be left pounded, to be left closed, to be circulating in summer and winter,
and sick color that is grey that is not dusty and red shows, to be sure
cigarettes do measure an empty length sooner than a choice in color.
Mark Snyder initiated early discussion on stanza 5 and went down
a rabbit hole looking for left-handedness in either Gertrude or Alice, which
didn’t pan out. Needless to say the phrase “red shows” clicked right into the
conversation that came up later about menstruation and cigs as stand-ins for
tampons. We Buttons sorely needed a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on those
products of ladies inconveniences but
until Ellen showed up in the MOOSG, we fumbled.
STANZA 6
Winged, to
be winged means that white is yellow and pieces pieces that are brown are dust
color if dust is washed off, then it is choice that is to say it is fitting
cigarettes sooner than paper.
Stanza 6 is where Eleanor enlisted a surprising SME to associate
wings with the bone structure of pelvis. Her daughter Yana is working on
a double major of biology and archeology. Together they provided a word-by-word
argument mapping the colors and dust to bone. Additional information about
Jewish burial inform “dust is washed off.” Not so easy to condense was the
discussion about fitting cigarettes sooner than paper. Here’s what Eleanor wrote:
"Cigarettes symbolise the male gender, paper symbolises the
female.
There's the obvious metaphor of cigarette as penis, but it's
more than that.
Paper looks flat and "plain," but it is still a box
(i.e. 3-D), and it has an additional property which makes it superlative—you
can write words on it, it is a canvas for poetry. All you can do with a
cigarette, a paper rolled and filled, is smoke it.
Papier is French
for paper. Papillon is French for butterfly.
We think the beauty of the pelvis is not coincidental, it
is a magnificent butterfly.
"Why is it fitting cigarettes sooner than paper?
"Men are more highly prized in society, so in those months before
you are born (a sudden turn away here, at the end of the poem, from death and
towards the birth which started it all) the organs which are fitted into your
pelvis will determine much about your life.
"But notice the word fitting -- this is vital. Gay people
have sexual organs, which don't 'fit' with each other. A penis fits
into a vagina. But fitting also means 'a suitable
quality,' e.g. 'it's a fitting way to end the poem.' We have to
look beyond the physical and find the spiritual truth of G&A's
relationship."
STANZA 7 –
THE LAST
An increase
why is an increase idle, why is silver cloister, why is the spark brighter, if
it is brighter is there any result, hardly more than ever.
T. De Los Reyes led the discussion for this stanza. Of
particular note is the phrase silver
cloister. As established in “A Method of a Cloak.” silver on the periodic
table is represented as Ag, which The
Buttons believe stands for Alice-Gertrude. The silver cloister is the couple seeking their privacy. Increase is idle might refer to
reproduction which will not produce a child despite the love/spark/light
relationship but it might produce this work of art—Tender
Buttons.
FINAL WORDS – Tracy
Sonafelt
What best sums up the total discussion of this subpoem “A Box.” Is
Tracy’s epiphany: Tender Buttons is a
box, A large box is handily made of what is
necessary to replace any substance. The
one is on the table: Objects. The two are on the table: Objects and Food.
The three are on the table: Objects, Food, Rooms.
Because this MOOSG learning experience is a bone fide
operatic scene, the Steiny Road Poet now invites you, Dear Reader, to hear “Tracy’sTender Story” (authored by Tracy Sonafelt and as read by
Eleanor Smagarinsky), Nicola Quinn’s piano suite “For Tender Buttons” and Mark
Snyder’s Experimental Composition Inspired by Gertrude Stein and dedicated to
The Button Collective.
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