TOKENS IN THE BUTTONS BOX
THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER
BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK
...................-
OBJECTS
THE SUBPOEM
...................- A
DOG: NUMBER 50
WORD
COUNT......................-
30
THE SUBPOEM
...................- A
WHITE HUNTER: NUMBER 51
WORD
COUNT......................-
6
STANZA(S)............................-
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.....................................-
JAUNTY BUT CRAZED
“I knew
there was a pornographic frisson about this poem.”
Eleanor Smagarinsky
“A
little money goes like donkey piss.” Allan
Keeton
A DOG.
A little monkey goes like a donkey that
means to say that means to say that more sighs last goes. Leave with it. A
little monkey goes like a donkey.
A WHITE HUNTER.
A white hunter is nearly crazy.
MAESTRO TAPS HER BATON
Now we are ready to roll up
our sleeves and see the grassroots talk of the TB MOOSG. The Steiny Road Poet
selected what she will call the highlights. In part 2 of Stepping on Tender Buttons: “A
Dog.", “A White Hunter.", The Buttons converse about crazy lyricism, carnality,
Stein’s transformation of English into a language we do not know, dominance
perpetrated by white males, barbarians, masks of Venetian masquerades,
dragonflies, A Midsummer’s Night Dream,
word play A Dog è Goad. Also note that some of this conversation can be
heard in Eleanor Smagarinsky’s sound
file “Dog
and Hunter Overture.”
Judy Meibach:
“I
love the first one ["A Dog."]—there is a crazy lyricism—to it—I love the rhythm
—what is GS' obsession with animals—and then the second sub-poem: Hunter—what
is this thing about animals—am I off?”
Karren:
“Nope,
not off at all, Judy.
“Base
instincts are what I think we have here. Stein's background as undergraduate
was psychology. She understands the pull of sexual attraction.”
Allan:
“A dog is a
little monkey in that it seems to have primate consciousness in its affinity
for the human.
Oh it means
to say. It truly means to say.
But it goes
on all fours like a donkey & it cannot say.
It more
sighs as it at last goes.
“OooooOOOOOoo
“morse eyes
[more sighs]
lass ghost” [last goes]
Dave Green:
“Animals
keep transmuting into other types of animals. This is driving the white hunter
nearly crazy.
“Stein keeps
transforming a language we think we know into something else. This is driving
the conventional reader nearly nuts.
“We think
her poem is one that means to say, that means to say...but then we end up with
just more sighs.
“Best to
‘Leave with it,’ to just go with the flow.”
Allan:
“Great Dave.
“The hunter
of language uses his dog to scent
out the
words so that he can take his kill home.
Dead &
understood to mount in a frame in his den.
“But that
damn dog keeps changing into a mischievous monkey
which
transmutes into a stubborn donkey.
The words
won't play straight & they have captured
his sense
of meaning.
“What does
it mean to say?
“Or perhaps
the great white hunter's
whale is hunting him
& now he
is monkey-brained
&
jack-assed.
“Why do
Caucasians hunt this way?”
Eleanor:
“And
why do white men write in that way which has become the ‘norm’?
“White male
writers capturing words in a way that seems ‘nearly crazy’ to women writers?
“Are women
the prey of the male word-hunters?
(present
company excluded...the male writers in our group are superlative :-)”
To make her
point clear, Eleanor linked to Monica McClure, reading her poem “Hey Dick.”
THE HUN IS ACOMING
Referencing what Dave said, Karren worried about the incoming
conventional reader of poetry who might appear as ModPo 3 opens in September
2014:
Animals
keep transmuting into other types of animals. This is driving the white hunter
nearly crazy. Stein
keeps transforming a language we think we know into something else. This is
driving the conventional reader nearly nuts. [Dave Green]
“OMG, Dave,
this so
nails what we are moving into when we get to ModPo 3—the dance with
the conventional reader. The conventional reader as WHITE HUN-TER.
Hun (hŭn)
n.
1. A member of a nomadic pastoralist
people who invaded Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. and
were defeated in 455.
2. often hun A barbarous
or destructive person.
3. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a
German, especially a German soldier in World War I.
MORE SAVAGERY
Meanwhile Eleanor picked back up the theme of
base instincts. She showed the Buttons, a new way to arrange the letters of the
title “A Dog.”
“’A
DO G.’
"’Alice
Does Gertrude.’
“I knew there was a pornographic frisson about this poem, but the title really brings it home. Of course, 1914 might be far too early for this use of ‘do,’ but Stein does continuously surprise us, so you never know.
“Interestingly,
‘to do someone’ can also mean ‘to kill’...which is what a hunter does.
“There is a
sense that Stein is going further, and taking more risks, with each of her
poems at this late stage of the book (linguistically & sexually). I feel a
male presence, and can't help wondering if she's comparing penis sizes,
pointing to anal sex (donkey=ass), and introducing a bestial slant. There's
something savage about these poems, and I keep going back to what Sarah
[Maitland Parks] said about the escalating violence in the poems—Sarah, I
really do feel it. I won't lie....this arena of dogs, monkeys and donkeys is
not the most comfortable place to inhabit.
MASQUERADE
“Perhaps it's
about role playing? I suddenly had an image of a Venetian masquerade ball, and
those amazing masks...so I looked them up here and found:
“I searched for ‘dog’ and ‘la dogaressa’ mask showed up:
Italian, from
Italian dialect (Venice), from Latin ducatrix female leader, feminine of duc-,
dux leader.
“I doubt this
is what Stein had in mind, but for the sake of jump-starting our imaginations,
I reckon this does the trick very well. Because this is what we're all
wondering, isn't it? Who's the dog? monkey? donkey? Is someone the ducatrix?
Hmmm.....
“On a lighter
note....our study group is a masked ball in many ways. We know very little
about each other, and yet we dance quite intimately. Much like our relationship
with Stein's texts.’
Here Karren interjected:
“Eleanor, you
are so on the money honey to take this discussion to Venetian masks. A
& G honeymooned in Venice!! Here they are in Piazza San Marco.”
OF FEATHER,
LEATHER, DRAGONFLIES
Eleanor:
“By the
by....I noticed that the masks are divided into feather and leather.
Reminded me of "A
Little Called Pauline."—‘Cough out cough out in the leather and really feather it
is not for.’”
[Steiny thinks testing the subpoems for
masquerade should be added to that Kushiot list.]
Allan:
“I was
looking up ducatrix & was surprised to find it
is
also a dragonfly.
“This guy
looks like a little monkey with wings.”
Eleanor
quoted Shakespeare from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Act 2, Scene 1:
OBERON
Having
once this juice,
I’ll watch
Titania when she is asleep
And drop the
liquor of it in her eyes.
The
next thing then she waking looks upon—
Be it
on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On
meddling monkey or on busy ape—
She
shall pursue it with the soul of love.
And ere I
take this charm from of her sight—
As I can
take it with another herb—
I’ll make
her render up her page to me.
But who
comes here? I am invisible.
And I will
overhear their conference.
[Leading
Steiny to think that the Shakespeare test should also be added to that Kushiot
list. Really? “meddling monkey or busy ape” and don’t forget how Bottom becomes
a jackass (donkey):
BOTTOM
Nothing, good monsieur,
but to help Cavalery Cobweb
to scratch. I must to the
barber's, monsieur; for
methinks I am marvellous
hairy about the face; and I
am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me,
I must scratch.]
WHAT KEY IS
THIS?
Code being a
specialty of Peter, he said anagrammatically,
“A Dog,
is she goad-ing us here,
prodding us, or someone else into action?
“I think she
might be, maybe both monkey
and donkey, hold the key to something,
maybe they have that in common, a key that is..
A little
(and) like each other but what do they unlock?
“There are
two goes, two goes which
look like muddled up egos to me. And there's nothing more complicated
than a muddled ego (except two of them maybe).
“So who or
what are the monkey and the donkey? Alice and her [Stein]? the
reader and the writer? Both a little like each other, both holding the key to
something, maybe each other, both with muddled up egos (goes). Both
stimulating, following, guarding and goading each other like a faithful dog,
man's best friend and possibly woman's too (after the diamonds of course).”
[Stay tuned for more on key
conversation.]
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