THE SUBBOOK
...................-
FOOD
TABLE OF CONTENTS
...................-
WORD
COUNT......................- 56
STANZA(S)............................-
N.A.
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
“As food is the essence of life, the table supports the act
of eating and the act of thinking where food for thought plays. A subset of
Stein’s diet is the table of contents which points to the all important
production of books, the babies made by Gertrude Stein and her life partner
Alice Babette Toklas.” Karren Alenier
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.
Or
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.
Before the Steiny Road Poet begins
blogging the subpoems of “Food”, the second section of this long love poem that
Gertrude Stein wrote to celebrate her clandestine marriage to Alice Babette
Toklas, a few words on the table of contents that introduces “Food” seem
necessary.
THE FORMATTING OF THE FOOD TOC
In Tender
Buttons: The Corrected Centennial Edition, editor Seth Perlow explains that
the First Edition of Tender Buttons
published by Donald Evans for his Claire Marie press used semi-colons between
the strung-together items of the table of contents that precedes “Food”. Only
section 2 “Food” has a table of contents.
Perlow, who studied all the formatting
presentations of Tender Buttons,
returned in The Corrected Centennial
Edition to the typescript prepared by Toklas, which has no punctuation
between the items. However, unlike the typescript and Stein’s original manuscript
written in her scrawling hand, which was formatted in sentence case, Perlow
keeps the block capitals. In Stein’s manuscript, the table of contents appears
with the elements contained in four columns.
FOOD IS CENTRAL; TABLES ARE CENTRAL
Like the entirety of Tender Buttons, there is nothing
ordinary about her table of contents. Whatever Stein’s intention was in
arranging the items of the table in columns was never explained by the author
as far as Steiny knows. As Stein’s publishing editor, Evans liked things tidy
for as much as this was possible with this highly experimental artist. He
wanted his order of the sections: “Objects”, “Food”, and “Rooms” published.
Toklas, according to Joshua Schuster in “The making of ‘Tender
Buttons’: Gertrude Stein’s subjects, objects, and the illegible”, bound the
typescript starting with “Rooms”. Schuster also says that archival evidence
points to “Objects” as the last section. So one might conclude as does Stein’s
table of contents, which ends the item
“A CENTER IN A TABLE”, that the author considered “Food” central to what she
hoped to achieve by putting together Objects”, “Food”, and “Rooms”. Originally
and for whatever reason unknown to us, Stein considered the three sections
separate works and Schuster notes that this tri-part structure was similar to
the three short stories that make up her earlier self-published work Three Lives.
PUNNING ON EIGHT ATE
What the non-columnar layouts of the
table of contents (as seen above) look like to Steiny is a spacious prose poem.
However, the fact that Stein does not faithfully list every subpoem of “Food”
but instead occasionally indicates a category that may have several subpoems clearly
signals that Stein meant the table to be informational and not sonic as a poem
might be. Not all the items of the table are categories. The categories are:
milk for “Milk.” which appears twice and for "Cream." which also appears twice
potatoes for “Potatoes.”, “Potatoes.”, and
“Roast potatoes.”
vegetable for “Vegetable.” and “Way lay
vegetable.”
chicken for “Chicken.” which appears four
times
eating which appears twice
orange for “Orange.”, “Orange.”,
“Oranges.”, and “Orange in.”
cocoa and clear soup
and oranges and oat-meal, which appears twice
salad dressing and an artichoke,
which appears twice
Could Stein with her eight “Food”
categories being punning on the word ate?
All the categories except eating are
food. Because not all the items of the table of contents are food (e.g.
“Cups.”, “Cooking.” “Dining.”), Steiny thinks Stein meant to say something
significant by inserting a category for eating as opposed to making categories
of cooking and dining. One theory that Steiny will explore in talking about the
subpoems of “Food” is Stein is playing with Jewish numerology.
CHAIN BOATS & FOOD?
One additional thing to note is the
table of contents does not acknowledge a subpoem titled “Chain-boats.” What
does a chain boat have to do with food? During Stein’s time chain boats were
used to haul goods on shallow rivers like the Seine in Paris.
FINDING ALICE B. TOKLAS IN TABLE
Here’s what Peter Treanor had to say
about the “Food” table of contents:
“I saw somewhere, someone (maybe you, Karren
[a.k.a. Steiny]) saying how she [Stein] had laid her food out in and on a table.
Before she even started writing about the foods in the Food section, she has a
table of contents. And that TABLE seems a very constant and important theme for
her throughout TB.
“And I was looking at A CENTRE IN A TABLE at the end
of her table of contents. I don’t know if this has been stated before, but in
TABle I saw TAB or ABT, good old Alice B Toklas. Is she the centre of table,
the centre of the table?. Is she the surface that GS can spread her feast on,
the holder of the food and fruits, the centre of the scene of social
entertainment?
“The other thing I noticed was that only some of the things on
the table were food. some are meal related—BREAKFAST; LUNCH; CUPS;
COOKING; DINNER; DINING; EATING; A CENTRE IN A TABLE—and one
seems less directly so but could be associated with harvest time and the time
of most fruitfulness END OF SUMMER.
She seems to be coming at food from many different many
different angles.”
Karren Alenier responded:
“I know Xactly what you are saying about not knowing where
things have gotten posted and when you talk about Stein setting things out on
the table as she prepares to write about them, what I remember is that we
talked about this first in ModPo
2013.
“So let's just agree to double and not worry where something might
have been posted before.
“Now back to the table. It's a huge big deal because we
have all sorts of tables possible beyond the writing-eating table (Stein used
the dining room table at night as her writing table as I understand it. So
there is an interest double that has value for writing and for eating.)
“Yes, there is the Table of Contents prefacing the
"Food" section.
“I have been marveling that her ToC lists breakfast lunch dinner
in chronological order. And I hear you that some of the items are not food but
aspects of eating and food. That quirkiness makes her chronological listing
of breakfast lunch dinner more remarkable to me.
“As to finding ABT in TABle, I think Alice gives Gertrude
stability— ABT helped GS with her writing by typing it and she took care of
feeding GS.”
FOOD, A STRATEGIC ROAD MAP
In a way, the table of contents for
“Food” provides a strategic road map for the journey through section 2, which
is denser and possibly more metaphysical than section 1 “Objects”. And while Stein provides ample food for
thought, she still depends on physical objects like tables and cups. She also is intent in keeping the discipline
of bookmaking in sight. So she provides her unorthodox table of contents.
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