THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK ...................-
FOOD
THE SUBPOEM
..................- Roastbeef
WORD COUNT
(Total)……..- 1757
STANZA(S)............................-
37
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS.............- MODPO
STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
Here are
“Roastbeef.” stanzas 22 through 29 with a 165-word count. Among the topics
addressed in this post are: the beef between Gertrude and Leo Stein, Stein’s
Objects versus Food strategies, Stein’s As
You Like It influence, the alchemy of Stein’s colors, all topics of meat
(roast beef and turkey) from its killing to its eating, and hearing bells.
Claiming nothing, not claiming anything, not a
claim in everything, collecting claiming, all this makes a harmony, it even
makes a succession.
Sincerely gracious one morning, sincerely
graciously trembling, sincere in gracious eloping, all this makes a furnace and
a blanket. All this shows quantity.
Like an eye, not so much more, not any
searching, no compliments.
Please be the beef, please beef, pleasure is
not wailing. Please beef, please be carved clear, please be a case of
consideration.
Search a neglect. A sale, any greatness is a
stall and there is no memory, there is no clear collection.
A satin sight, what is a trick, no trick is
mountainous and the color, all the rush is in the blood.
Bargaining for a little, bargain for a touch, a
liberty, an estrangement, a characteristic turkey.
Please spice, please no name, place a whole
weight, sink into a standard rising, raise a circle, choose a right around,
make the resonance accounted and gather green any collar.
“Gather green any
collar... sounds like gathering people of any stripe. As if everyone [including
blue- and white-collared workers] is invited to the same table for the same
meal.” Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo
TRIANGULATING THE BEEF AT 27 RUE DE
FLEURUS
The Steiny Road Poet begins the discussion for these stanzas with a
biographical reading in keeping with what has been seen in the earlier stanzas.
Claiming nothing, not claiming anything, not a
claim in everything, collecting claiming, all this makes a harmony, it even
makes a succession. When Gertrude Stein’s
brother Leo left 27 rue de Fleurus, they divided up things up but Leo took the
lead. Steiny suspects that this stanza is in Gertrude’s voice as are the
following stanzas. She had a hard time with Leo’s departure. They had been
close and living together off and on since the family broke up and left
Oakland, California, where they grew up.
Sincerely gracious one morning, sincerely
graciously trembling, sincere in gracious eloping, all this makes a furnace and
a blanket. All this shows quantity. In
this stanza, Gertrude is talking about her elopement with Alice Toklas—how they
were sleeping together creating loving heat (furnace) under their blanket. The
statement seems to be directed to Leo as if Gertrude were trying to make him
understand that her relationship with Alice has value (quantity) and this value
supersedes the issue over the cost of having Alice in their shared home.
Like an eye, not so much more, not any searching,
no compliments. The eye of this
stanza might be a private eye or detective. Gertrude was always fond of
detective stories. Gertrude may be reflecting on her brother’s behavior as he
carefully examines what he wants to take away from the house.
Please be the beef, please beef, pleasure is
not wailing. Please beef, please be carved clear, please be a case of
consideration. Gertrude was
conflicted over her brother leaving their shared home. He was critical of her
work (beefing about it) and without him in the apartment, Gertrude would be
free to work.
Search a neglect. A sale, any greatness is a
stall and there is no memory, there is no clear collection. The key word in this stanza is collection, referring to their jointly owned modern art collection.
Leo needed to sell much of what he took away from 27 rue de Fleurus.
A satin sight, what is a trick, no trick is
mountainous and the color, all the rush is in the blood. In this stanza, Gertrude is reflecting on a piece
of art in the collection and how she regrets that she will no longer be living
with it.
Bargaining for a little, bargain for a touch, a
liberty, an estrangement, a characteristic turkey. Perhaps this stanza also points to the Stein art
collection and, in particular, Woman in a
Hat, the portrait Matisse painted of his wife. Steiny thinks Madam
Matisse’s hat suggests the head and body of a turkey. Neither Gertrude nor Leo were
super concerned about the retaining the paintings by Matisse. Gertrude was keen
on those by Picasso and Leo of those by Renoir.
Please spice, please no name, place a whole
weight, sink into a standard rising, raise a circle, choose a right around,
make the resonance accounted and gather green any collar. Alice provided the spice in Gertrude’s life. To
protect Alice in Tender Buttons,
which is a love poem for her bride, Gertrude did not use Alice’s name though
she pointed to it with her excessive use of the article “a.” Their union,
frowned upon by Western standards, had no where to go but up. Holding up a
wedding ring may be what raise a circle
indicates. Gertrude wanted her partner to stand by her at all times and that is
precisely what Alice did. The resonance accounted and gather green may
refer to money with Gertrude’s point being that Alice, who had no money of her
own, was worth whatever the cost.
Peter Treanor had a slightly different take on stanzas 22 through 25 that is also
biographical:
“After
all the claiming (staking a claim to Alice) in stanza 22, things seem to heat
up and become sincere and gracious and sensuous. It reads like
somebody (GS?) wakes up one morning, trembling, eloping (or
enveloping) in a hot fiery passionate furnace (of desire). The
blanket makes me think they are maybe in bed or gives the impression of
warmth and comfort. They look at each other (like an eye), no
questioning or talking or searching for compliments. And it seems
that things get very heated, please be the beef (cows and bulls and
beef) seems very sexual and beef seems very masculine. The pleasure and wailing
seem sexual and orgasmic too. There is pleading (please, please, please,
please) and pleasure, and carving the beef seems sexual too,
cut into the (my) flesh. It seems very hot and steamy to me, all that carving,
biting and chewing of flesh.”
Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo responded:
"Claims are also
verbal, poetic acts. That sense could be at play here too, how this production
of sound and play not merely a process of cooking but also consumption. Maybe
in the sense that the performance at the dining table (conversation, eating)
forecasts the events of the bed.”
THE WRITING STRATEGY OF FOOD VERSUS OBJECTS
Treanor
backed up to see the bigger picture:
“Reading Roastbeef. as a whole, there are certain words that are
repeated [Treanor puts his commentary in regular font and bolds words from
Roastbeef.]
“first there is feeling
then there is a bit of change and difference
then considering
then kind
sound
some supposing
choices and bones
hope
and here there is claiming
“Feeling, considering, supposing, hope, and claiming all are
states of mind or being. They seem to be being emphasized in the writing.
“Thinking, feeling, hearing (sound), difference, type ( kind),
and change seem to be the framework (skeleton or bones) of the piece.”
Karren Alenier answered:
“I agree that ‘Roastbeef.’ is very state of mind and moving
strongly to the emotional side.
“It is also clear that her writing strategy in ‘Food’ is
different to the strategy she uses in ‘Objects.’ ‘Food’ may be harder
because to appreciate it, the reader needs a wide experience of literature. The
Stein scholars will say Stein doesn't do literary allusion but she sure as heck
does a lot of pointing.”
SHAKESPEARE’S AS YOU LIKE
IT CONNECTION TO TENDER BUTTONS
Referring to stanza 26, Aguinaldo
offered:
"Search a neglect
sounds like fault-finding, and that process spills over to the market place.
Where one finds food, I suppose. And greatness... where one finds ideas? From
the quotidian and the neglected
details of everyday life, maybe.
"Collection has
been repeated, and here, working as it does with memory and clear seems to
suggest the word recollection. But
this is the first instance, where memory is being made.”
Speaking to Dennis Aguinaldo, Alenier offered a
tip-of-the-iceberg glimpse at work she did on showing how Shakespeare’s comic
play As You Like It figures in to Tender Buttons:
“This stanza—well, really most of these stanzas—is/are making me
take a deeper look at this bit of dialog from Shakespeare's As
You Like It:”
ORLANDO
Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you:
I thought that all things had been savage here;
And therefore put I on the countenance
Of stern commandment. But whate'er you are
That in this desert inaccessible,
Under the shade of melancholy boughs,
Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time
If ever
you have look'd on better days,
If ever
been where bells have knoll'd to church,
If ever
sat at any good man's feast,
If ever
from your eyelids wiped a tear
And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied,
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be:
In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword.
DUKE SENIOR
True is it that we have seen better days,
And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church
And sat at good men's feasts and wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd:
And therefore sit you down in gentleness
And take upon command what help we have
That to your wanting may be minister'd.
ORLANDO
Then but forbear your food a little while,
Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn
And give it food. There is an old poor man,
Who after me hath many a weary step
Limp'd in pure love: till he be first sufficed,
Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger,
I will not touch a bit.
“The tone of Roastbeef.
stanzas 22-29 is pleading, prayerful, contrite.
“So there is Orlando who has eloped to the forest of Arden with
his servant Adam but they are unprepared and without food. It's a terrible
neglect of planning.”
Steiny
would also like to point out the repetition of the phrase “if ever” which has a
dialectic authority and intonation. Stein does a lot of this in “Roastbeef.”,
including this section where she repeats the word claiming or claim. A
close look at As You Like It turns
out to be roadmap for Tender Buttons
in such matters as odd grammar, use of animals and color, pronouncement on
social justice, inventive lexicon, gaming, sexual identity as well as
particular strategies for repetition. For examples, see AS YOU LIKE IT Seen Through TENDER
BUTTONS.
USING AS YOU LIKE IT AS SOURCE TEXT FOR TENDER
BUTTONS
Alenier
had more to say about Shakespeare’s influence on Tender Buttons:
“I've taken to looking up
words that Stein uses in the Shakespeare
Dictionary
and am discovering interesting things. This is part of what I'm doing in
annotating the text of As You Like It
with bits from Tender Buttons.
“But
here it gives me pause to think that the reason Stein settled on simple
Anglo-Saxon words comes from her reading of Shakespeare.
“Here's
a reference to furnace in Jaques
speech that begins all the world's a stage:”
...And
then the lover,
Sighing
like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made
to his mistress' eyebrow.
Treanor
replied:
“Ah, Karren, I see what you
are doing now. I was wondering before on your previous post why you were
putting such emphasis on one word being in both passages. But now the penny has
dropped! It feels here that there is a commonality in the way furnace is being used in both, so that's
really interesting. So maybe there is a connection between the two pieces and
she is....she is doing what? dipping into AYLI
and scooping out words, using them in TB
in the sense that they are used in AYLI?
Using AYLI as a sort of source text.”
STEIN’S
ALCHEMY OF COLORS
Treanor added this on a seemingly
unrelated topic:
“And
as an unrelated aside, I was listening to a radio programme yesterday
discussing the development of Alchemy. And got all excited when they talked of the
underlying principles
of it. They talked of the Nigredo , which was a central idea, an idea that all transformations (especially
to/of/by the philosopher's stone) comes from the dark, black or filthy nature
of things. Like life comes from decay and growth and fertility from manure. I
just thought this was very interesting in view of all the dirt and dark and
black that we see in TB.
“The
stages of transformation are Nigredo (blackness), Albedo (whiteness), Citrinitas (yellowness) and Rubedo (redness). All
these colours are repeated so frequently in TB.
And Rubedo has a very interesting note to it in wiki:”
The
symbols used in alchemical writing and art to represent this red stage can
include blood, a phoenix, a rose, a crowned king, or
a figure wearing red clothes.
Alenier
got excited about Treanor suggesting AYLI was a source text for TB saying this
put Stein ahead of her time and she continued:
“I'm super Xcited about what you heard about alchemy! Her colors
begin to take on a new sense! Let's keep this in mind as we wend our way
through the text both here in ‘Food’ and in ‘Objects’!”
BACK TO THE OVERDONE BEEF
Judy Meibach
brought up good points relative to beef be a central meal of so many Jewish
American families:
“Karren, I am obsessed with
why Roastbeef. has so many stanzas—if it has to do with food—the way Jews deal
with it—particularly roast beef—roast beef is so central to every Jewish
holiday and the Sabbath.”
Alenier
replied:
“Judy,
Certainly Ashkenazi Jews—and Stein's family coming from Germany was Ashkenazi—make
roast beef the central entree in their special meals. So your point is well
taken.
“Like
coffee, roast beef brings people together Xcept in this case, it brings family
together. Perhaps the abundance of stanzas is Stein indicating how meaty this
subject of feeling, particularly feeling that brings people together.”
PLEASING
THE BEEF
Aguinaldo referring to stanza 25
posed these questions:
Please
be the beef, please beef, pleasure is not wailing.
“Hm.
Hysterics does not a poem make? Is this a call for substance? But if we're
looking at the processing of food, wailing would happen maybe as animal becomes
beef. Or if the cook or butcher is injured in some way? Could it also occur
while consuming, eating? Or afterwards?
Alenier posed her
own question with a possible answer:
“Could
we be talking about kosher killing of an animal? See:”
Shechitah (sheh-HEE-tah) is
the Jewish ritual of slaughtering permissible land animals and fowl so that
they are considered Kosher and are able to be eaten by Jews. Keeping Kosher is
a very important aspect of Judaism because it benefits the mind, body, and
soul; however non-Jews often consume Kosher meat because of the special process
involved. Shechitah ensures the animal is slaughtered so that it feels no pain,
and also ensures the meat is of the best quality. It is a very difficult
process, however, and it requires years of experience, a vast knowledge of
biblical laws, and experience with the anatomy of the animal being slaughtered.
While you will not be able to do this yourself, because of the training
involved, you might want to know the processes so you can understand why the
price is considerably higher.
Aguinaldo responded:
“I
only had a vague idea of what kosher is, much less how it's done. This
connection is indeed fertile: the idea of pleasing
the beef is there, of somehow easing the living animal into the state of death,
preparing it (and ritual participants too, I think) for food and what it means,
what it means to take something like this on the table, into the self.
HOW
THE AMERICAN TURKEY FITS IN
Aguinaldo moving on to a related
topic suggested:
“So
maybe it's beef versus turkey, about which of the plates will take the table,
and that it could also be a question of identity if not politics (and maybe
economics, as it ‘bargains for a touch’).
Alenier responded:
“Dennis,
Yes identity is always on the table with Stein.
“I
think she brings in turkey to her Roastbeef because turkey is American. Stein
is always identifying herself as American.”
Referring
to stanza 28, Aguinaldo continued:
Bargaining
for a little, bargain for a touch, a liberty, an estrangement, a characteristic
turkey.
“The
‘characteristic turkey’ (just the sound of that!) follows ‘an estrangement’
which seems to me also a formal estrangement, the cadence and feel (and type)
of the first four suddenly thrown off by her pièce de résistance.”
Alenier
replied:
“Dennis,
Good point about characteristic turkey following an estrangement.
“So
what is a turkey?”
A large North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) that has brownish plumage
and a bare wattledhead and neck and is widely domesticated for food.
“Is
Stein the characteristic turkey estranged from America?”
Treanor jumped in:
“Karren,
yes, GS could be the strange and estranged exiled turkey, and when she is
dressed in those big bellowing brown dresses [corduroy robe] she does look a
bit like one.
“There
seems to be a lot of bargaining going on in the line. Bargaining for a little,
a touch, a liberty, an estrangement. These seem related to (a) relationships,
seem to be suggesting wanting to have distance or separation from a
relationship or type of relationship. Is she making a comment about distancing
and is the characteristic turkey a reference to the way that a turkey’s
head resembles male genitalia? From the front it does have an uncanny
resemblance. Is she suggesting bargaining a distance away from sexual
relationships with men? And calling something/someone a turkey has negative
connotations to the thing called it, so she maybe hitting men (or sexual
relationships with them) with a double whammy.”
Alenier answered,
“Pete,
Good point about Stein in her brown monk's robe looking quite like the fatted
bird!
Hehe,
a turkey head & neck as penis! Those parts make a gross looking bird!
“Roastbeef
mentions quite a few animals/meats for the table—turkey, mutton, chicken,
pigeon.”
Aguinaldo agreed:
“I
don't think the reference to genitalia is at all out of place, and I'm glad you
brought it up. And it's ‘characteristic’: so maybe the male presence was
perceived as an inevitable, tolerable intrusion or something of a threat in the
space between Stein and her lover.”
FLAGGING
A STANDARD
Alenier suggested comparing stanza
29 with stanza 25:
Please
spice, please no name, place a whole weight, sink into a standard rising, raise
a circle, choose a right around, make the resonance accounted and gather green
any collar.
“Does
anyone besides me think this stanza open similarly to:”
Please
be the beef, please beef, pleasure is not wailing.
Narrowing
down to a single word, Alenier
offered a definition of the word standard:
stan·dard (st
n
d
rd)
ndrd)
n.
1. A flag, banner, or ensign, especially:
a. The ensign of a chief of state, nation, or city.
b. A long, tapering flag bearing heraldic devices distinctive of a person or corporation.
c. An emblem or flag of an army, raised on a pole to indicate the rallying point in battle.
d. The colors of a mounted or motorized military unit.
2.
a. An acknowledged measure of comparison for quantitative or qualitative value; a criterion.
b. An object that under specified conditions defines, represents, or records the magnitude of a unit.
3. The set proportion by weight of gold or silver to alloy metal prescribed for use in coinage.
4. The commodity or commodities used to back a monetary system.
5. Something, such as a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed,
especially because of
its excellence.
6.
a. A degree or level of requirement, excellence, or attainment.
b. A requirement of moral conduct. Often used in the plural.
7. Chiefly British. A grade level in elementary schools.
8. A pedestal, stand, or base.
9. Botany
a. The large upper petal of the flower of a pea or related plant.
b. One of the narrow upright petals of an iris. Also called banner, vexillum.
10. A shrub or small tree that through grafting or training has a single stem of limited height with a crown of
leaves and flowers at its apex.
11. Music A composition that is continually used in repertoires.
Then Alenier provided a close reading
of stanza 29:
“Please spice (add zest), please no name, place a whole
weight, sink into a standard rising (this could be a scale for weighing
gold or silver), raise a circle (could this be a ring? or a sphere of
interest or influence?), choose a right around (choose a just claim),
make the resonance accounted (make the richness accountable) and gather
green (money to go along with the gold, silver, the richness) any collar
(maybe that circle is a necklace and Stein is pointing to the throat where
speech comes from).
Treanor
replied:
“I
really like standard as referring to
gold standard and the adding of a bit of spice to a relationship by giving a
piece of gold jewelry, a wedding ring maybe or a necklace, as a gift or love
token. Collar makes me think of a dog collar too and how that could be seen as
a symbol of ownership or subservience, maybe the wedding ring/ love token is a
sign of being on the leash also.”
Alenier answered:
“Good
points, Pete. I'm thinking standard
is a watchword for us in how we look at what Stein is doing. I am running into
this in my deeper look at As You Like It.”
Aguinaldo added:
“Thanks,
Pete and Karren. Looking also at a, b, c, d, definitions, as I feel that the
words ‘sinking’ and ‘rise"’ put so close to ‘standard’ tend toward that
image of a flag maybe in the context of a conquest, a contest, a demarcation of
territory.”
Steiny will weigh in here to say
that Stein was interested in exceeding standards and so she uses the phrase sink
into a standard rising, which seems
negative given the word sink. Also
the word sink is contrary to the word
rising. Another thought is that
standard might be a stand in for penis and the phrase might suggest
intercourse.
GATHERING
GREEN
Addressing
the end phrase of stanza 29 (gather green any collar), Aguinaldo observed:
“The
sound of collard greens at the end, hmm. Gather
green any collar... sounds like gathering people of any stripe. Or, both
the blue- and the white-collared workers. As if everyone is invited to the same
table for the same meal.”
Alenier added:
“Stein
was known as a democratic writer or at least that was how she wanted to be
perceived. She took her lead from Walt Whitman. The idea was invite everyone to
the table.”
HEARING
BELLS IN THE PARTICIPLES
However,
Treanor stepped back and had another
go at the entire 29th stanza:
“I
find this last bit really difficult, the only thing that pops out for me is
bell ringing! I was looking at bell ringing in stanza 22 also:”
Claiming
nothing, not claiming anything, not a claim in everything, collecting claiming,
all this makes a harmony, it even makes a succession.
“All
that ing-ing ringing and harmony and succession made me think of a
peal of
church bells. Stanzas 23 through 28 seemed to move away from this and now in
the last line of stanza 29, the text got me thinking of bells ringing again:
“Please spice could refer to rope
splicing which
you do to the ropes of the bell. Place a whole weight either the
weight of the bell or the bell ringer to move the large bell. Sink into a
standard rising maybe gives the idea of the bell swinging up (rising) and
down (sinking), raising the circle could be the bell ringers standing in a
circle or the circle of the mouth of the bell. Choose a right around,
is a round, a round of the ringers ringing the bell? And the resonance, is it the resonance of the bell?
“Not
sure about gather green any collar other than a peal of bells is sent
out to gather all the worshipers into church. The bells of
Notre Dame would
be chiming out over Paris, all the Notre Dame bells have got names (Please
no name) or maybe please know
name.
“The
Notre Dame bells are named:
Emmanuel13271 kg261 cmE♭2
Marie6023 kg206.5 cmG♯2
(I think this is new, post 1914)
Gabriel4162 kg182.8 cmA♯2
Anne
Geneviève3477 kg172.5 cmB2
Denis2502 kg153.6 cmC♯3
Marcel1925 kg139.3 cmD♯3
Étienne1494 kg126.7 cmE♯3
Benoît-Joseph1309 kg120.7 cmF♯3
Maurice1011 kg109.7 cmG♯3
Jean-Marie782 kg99.7 cmA♯3
“And
they would be ringing out on a Sunday when you maybe having your roast beef
dinner and on Christmas Day when you would be having your turkey.”
Alenier also heard bells in this
fashion:
“Stanza
22 (Claiming nothing, not claiming anything, not a claim in everything,
collecting claiming, all this makes a harmony, it even makes a succession.) provides a new aspect to Stein's
grammar—a declension of things: no-thing, any-thing, every-thing. The
repetition of claim-ing sets up a kind of ringing (like a bell) that creates
the harmony and succession.”
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