THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER
BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK ...................-
FOOD
THE SUBPOEM
...................-
Breakfast
WORD COUNT
(Total)……...- 840
STANZA(S)............................- 22
—Stanzas
1-9 312
—Stanzas
10-16 224
—Stanzas 17-22 304
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS.............- MODPO
STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
The last
stanzas of “Breakfast.” provoked extensive discussion among the Buttons
Collective that went in different directions without unifying stanzas 17
through 22 or this third of the subpoem to the prior two segments. Recent
discoveries made by the Steiny Road Poet pertaining to crosstalk between Tender Buttons “Breakfast.” and Moby Dick
will be addressed in the next post.
Among other
topics addressed in this post are: cereal versus tea; photography; martial marital minister; the language of mathematics; Steinian cocktails & cut and
paste; gender dilemma; Steinian code; knife scissors cat—a new kind of game;
and Passover rituals.
Burden
the cracked wet soaking sack heavily, burden it so that it is an institution in
fright and in climate and in the best plan that there can be.
An
ordinary color, a color is that strange mixture which makes, which does make
which does not make a ripe juice, which does not make a mat.
A work
which is a winding a real winding of the cloaking of a relaxing rescue. This
which is so cool is not dusting, it is not dirtying in smelling, it could use
white water, it could use more extraordinarily and in no solitude altogether.
This which is so not winsome and not widened and really not so dipped as dainty
and really dainty, very dainty, ordinarily, dainty, a dainty, not in that
dainty and dainty. If the time is determined, if it is determined and there is
reunion there is reunion with that then outline, then there is in that a
piercing shutter, all of a piercing shouter, all of a quite weather, all of a
withered exterior, all of that in most violent likely.
An excuse
is not dreariness, a single plate is not butter, a single weight is not
excitement, a solitary crumbling is not only martial.
A mixed
protection, very mixed with the same actual intentional unstrangeness and
riding, a single action caused necessarily is not more a sign than a minister.
Seat a
knife near a cage and very near a decision and more nearly a timely working cat
and scissors. Do this temporarily and make no more mistake in standing. Spread
it all and arrange the white place, does this show in the house, does it not
show in the green that is not necessary for that color, does it not even show
in the explanation and singularly not at all stationary.
“Perhaps
this is the most violent passage so far in Tender
Buttons and yet it could just be nothing more than soaking some grain to
prepare it for cooking.” Karren Alenier
“Tender Buttons as collage—cut and
paste.” Teri Rife
ON CEREAL AND
TEA
Burden
the cracked wet soaking sack heavily, burden it so that it is an institution in
fright and in climate and in the best plan that there can be.
With words
like burden, cracked, heavily, institution, fright, best plan, stanza
17 is literally overloaded with weights that seem threatening and for which a
good strategy doesn’t exist. Karren
Alenier opened this Tender Buttons
discussion noting that Stein uses the word burden
as a verb and that Stein insistently uses the preposition in and this repetition adds to a climate indicating something bad
might happen. If the occasion is not dangerous, then perhaps it is boring like
cracked wheat cereal soaking in its sack, such that the institution of
breakfast has become habitual.
While Peter Treanor could see the cracked
wheat cereal grains, he could also see “a tea bag, a wet sack with cracks or
holes, burdened with water, burdened with the task of making a cup of tea.” In
this case, the tea is heavily sugared which serves as a shock or fright to
one’s system “on a cold or hot day supposed to be beneficial in any climate.”
He referenced Wikipedia: The first tea
bags were hand-sewn fabric bags; tea bag patents date as early as 1903.[2] First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were
successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan
from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world.
Then moving on to stanza 18, he suggested Stein might be pointing to
coca tea:
An
ordinary color, a color is that strange mixture which makes, which does make
which does not make a ripe juice, which does not make a mat.
“On the
theme of tea, an ordinary colour could be the brown/tan of the tea? Brown/tan
being perhaps ‘ordinary.’ A colour is that strange mixture which makes,
the mix of the tea with water or the mix of the tea with milk maybe. It isn’t a
juice, well tea isn’t a juice and is more often from leaves not fruit, juice
being more often from fruit. Which does not make a mat, well could that
be playfully referring to, Spanish (Latin Am) for infusion/ tea. Mate de Coca being coca tea.”
ON PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEA ‘N T
Stanza 19 provoked sightings related to photography and more tea talk.
A work
which is a winding a real winding of the cloaking of a relaxing rescue. This
which is so cool is not dusting, it is not dirtying in smelling, it could use
white water, it could use more extraordinarily and in no solitude altogether.
This which is so not winsome and not widened and really not so dipped as dainty
and really dainty, very dainty, ordinarily, dainty, a dainty, not in that
dainty and dainty. If the time is determined, if it is determined and there is
reunion there is reunion with that then outline, then there is in that a
piercing shutter, all of a piercing shouter, all of a quite weather, all of a
withered exterior, all of that in most violent likely.
Alenier on
the subject of cameras offered:
“The timeline for the
development of photography adds much to
understanding this stanza, including use of celluloid film (1887), the 1888
Kodak box camera touted as first easy-to-use camera, the 1900 Kodak Brownie
(very inexpensive user-reloadable point-an-shoot box camera).
“While I'm
not sure what the cloaking of a relaxing rescue is, the
winding could pertain to the box camera and its film.
“Sentence 2
which talks about something cool and not dusting, not dirtying in smelling
could be comparing the old method of photography which used gunpowder to create
a flash of light. It smelled bad and created dust.”
Treanor
able to put on Alenier’s glasses for photography responded:
“It
does sound very photography—winding a
real winding does sound like the reel winding the film, and then the outline, the shutter, shouter (say cheese).”
However, Treanor was still seeing and hearing an
explosion tea ‘n T:
“But I’m
still a little obsessed with tea and tea bags. work and winding real winding of the cloaking,
sound like ringing out or squeezing the exterior of the bag to make the tea
brew quicker, the cloaking being the bag the tea is in. The relaxing rescue could
be the tea, a relaxing, revitalizing and rescuing drink. It has a certain aroma
(smelling). White water sounds like it could be milk. Dipped and dainty
sound like the tea bag dipping in the dainty porcelain tea cup, all those
dainties feel like it dipping in and out and in and out to make it brew.
“Then there
seems to be a run of words with the letter T in them and lots of T sounds
If the
time is determined, if it is determined and there
is reunion there is reunion with that then
outline, then there is in that a piercing
shutter, all of a piercing shouter, all of a quite weather,
all of a withered exterior, all of that in most
violent likely.
“All
those T’s, Leaves of Tea, tea leaves, rather than Leaves of Grass.”
Alenier
thought Treanor’s obsession with the tea bag a good complement to the meal of
breakfast but she added on more thought on shutter speed: “I had one other thought and this has to do with with
shutter speed and how this has to break fast when one shoots. This is also time
determined, particularly in low light conditions.”
Emily W picked up the discussion on
photography and moved the discussion tangentially with the word plate into stanza 20:
“The
repeated use of ‘dainty’ makes me wonder about if she is referring to the
subject of the photo. A captured moment
on a plate. Cameras aren't exactly
dainty but they are fragile and the lens is small, and one must be careful with
the resulting image to not damage it.
“Also, the
repetition makes me think about the way a person could use a camera to get many
different perspectives on a subject, like a cubist painter might, but effect is
different since the images are separate while a painting has more freedom to
include everything in one.
“I just
listened to the Poem
Talk about Barbara Guest's poem ‘Roses’ (ModPo Plus chapter 8). As I
understand, the poem is a reference to something GS said, that a painting has
no air in it. A photo doesn't either, but the image created has a realism
beyond what a painter can do, so I'm back to the daintiness of the people in
the photo with the air sucked out, shrunk down from their original size.”
MARTIAL
VERSUS MARITAL
Alenier picked up the conversation by looking
at stanza 20 more comprehensively:
An excuse
is not dreariness, a single plate is not butter, a single weight is not
excitement, a solitary crumbling is not only martial.
“With this
stanza, could Stein be referring to her ‘failed’ career as a
medical doctor An excuse is not dreariness, but simultaneously
saying that her decision was not bleak. Then she goes to persuade the reader
that a single woman (plate-weight) that is, herself, might
disintegrate and that would be a violent thing (a solitary crumbling is not
only martial).
“The word martial
led me to the mythological Mars, God of War and lover of Venus.”
Teri Rife joined the discussion, saying:
“That word martial is interesting. Depending upon
where the ‘i’ is located, either before or after the ‘t’ (for Toklas?), it is
seemingly very different—i before t = marital; i after t = martial. But maybe
there are aspects of both in a relationship.
“I think
that this line could also be talking about aspects of finishing a meal. The
statement, ‘May I please be excused?’ is not as dreary as many other excuses
made. A single plate is not—a butter plate? A single person left waiting
(sounds like weighting) at the table is not exciting. A solitary crumb-catcher
finally clears the field of battle on the dining table.”
Alenier thanked Rife for “spelling out the
martial/marital double take! I kept stumbling over that word the first few
reads but didn't consciously realize why.”
MINISTER: A MIXED PROTECTION
In picking up the forward
movement through the last “Breakfast.” stanzas, Alenier observed:
A mixed
protection, very mixed with the same actual intentional unstrangeness and
riding, a single action caused necessarily is not more a sign than a minister.
“I
think this one is particularly obscure. So I'm starting backwards and going for
minister:”
min·is·ter
(mĭn′ĭ-stər)
n.
1.
a. One who is authorized to perform religious functions in a Christian church, especially
a Protestant church.
b. Roman Catholic Church The superior in certain orders.
2. A high officer of state appointed to head an executive or administrative department of
government.
3. An authorized diplomatic representative of a government, usually ranking next below an
ambassador.
4. A person serving as an agent for another by carrying out specified orders or functions.
“I'm putting
my money on— #4: A person serving as an agent for another by carrying out specified orders or functions.
“Here is the
root of minister:”
Middle English, from Old French ministre, from Latin minister, servant; see mei- in Indo-European
roots.]
“I'm
thinking the minister is Alice. She is the one cooking breakfast.
“And perhaps
the word riding points to inroads?
• road - First meant ’riding’ or ’hostile incursion on horseback’—a sense preserved in ’inroads.’”
Agreeing that the word minister has the most interest and
possibility in this stanza, Rife
suggested looking at the meaning as a verb.
verb: minister;
3rd person present: ministers; past tense: ministered;
past participle: ministered; gerund or present participle: ministering
1.
attend to the needs of (someone).
’her doctor was busy ministering to the injured’
(archaic)
provide (something necessary or helpful).
’the story was able to minister true consolation’
2.
act as a minister of religion.
synonyms:
|
administer (a sacrament).
Origin
Middle
English (sense 1 of the noun and sense 3 of the noun): from Old French minister
(noun), ministrer (verb), from Latin minister ‘servant,’
from minus ‘less.’
This meaning
of minister seems to dovetail nicely
with ‘protection’ near the beginning of the sentence. Of course, this is Stein,
so it could well be both a noun in one respect and a verb in another. I'm
really amazed that the base-level Latin root for the verb is ‘minus,’ or less. This
makes me think of the arithmetic language you pointed out previously. Could we
have ‘minister’ as ‘minus,’ which is certainly an arithmetic ‘sign.’ And, for
some reason, ‘a single action’ rings of math, too. ‘Not more’ is less
(minister), too.
Here Steiny
will pause briefly to note that Alenier alluded to something in algebraic geometry called a Kummer
quartic surface which Gertrude
Stein’s friend Man Ray used as a jumping off point for his oil painting
entitled ‘King Lear.’ ‘King Lear’ is part of series he named Shakespearean
Equation where each painting carries the name of a Shakespearean play and
is inspired by a mathematic model. Alenier brought up this rather complex
mathematic model because Stein’s language in Tender Buttons often hints at the
lexicon of mathematics.
Now,
back to what Rife said. Alenier
agreed that minister and protection complemented each other. She said, “a single action caused
necessarily is not more a sign is so math oriented and in that convoluted
negative way!”
STEINIAN
COCKTAILS POINT TO GENDER DILEMMA
Alenier
suggested the next thing to look at was mixed. She asked, ‘Didn't we
just see that as mixed music?’ and answered:
“OK, yes, we
saw that in ‘Mutton.’. Also the word mixed was used with that long
needle in ‘A Seltzer Bottle.’.”
Does it dirty a ceiling. It does not.
Is it dainty, it is if prices are sweet. Is it lamentable, it is not if there
is no undertaker. Is it curious, it is not when there is youth. All this makes
a line, it even makes makes no more. All this makes cherries. The reason that
there is a suggestion in vanity is due to this that there is a burst of mixed
music. ‘Mutton.’—stanza
10
…Supposing a certain time selected is
assured, suppose it is even necessary, suppose no other extract is permitted
and no more handling is needed, suppose the rest of the message is mixed
with a very long slender needle… ‘A Seltzer Bottle.’—excerpt
“Stein
keeps making slightly different cocktails of these words! Mixed indeed.”
Rife answered:
“Speaking of
cut and paste:
very
mixed with the same actual intentional unstrangeness and riding
It's as
though the ‘un’ has been cut from the word ‘unintentional’ and pasted onto the
word ‘strangeness.’ Unintentional
strangeness would be way less strange than intentional unstrangeness. It's
very mixed up; and then for more strangeness, ‘riding’ is pasted on at the end.”
Mentally
slapping herself in the head, Alenier
responded:
“Duh! of
course! Mixed music, mixed solutions (that slender needle in the bottle of
seltzer) = collage!!
“Wow, how
much more understandable this stanza becomes in a way I can't precisely
articulate but can viscerally feel. That mixing is a protection, maybe a potion
for the gender thing which isn't acceptable in Stein's time and which is barely
acceptable now. Lots more lip service than actual.”
However, Rife pulled this gender dilemma back
into the world of mathematics. Here are excerpts about the Bernoulli Trials,
which Rife says are great mathematical
fodder for poetry. She added the bolding to highlight the many things that she
has seen in the Steinian world and added that she thought the Poisson trials (poisson is fish in French) might point
to salmon (a word used in stanza 6).
Bernoulli
Trials
An experiment in which a single action, such as flipping a
coin, is repeated identically over and over. The possible results of the
action are classified as ‘success’ or ‘failure’. The binomial
probability formula is used
to find probabilities for Bernoulli trials.
Note:
With Bernoulli trials, the repeated actions must all be independent. Then the
probability of success and the probability of failure sum to unity (one),
since these are complementary events: ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are mutually
exclusive and exhaustive.
Therefore,
success and failure are merely labels for the two outcomes, and should not
be construed literally. The term ‘success’ in this sense consists in the
result meeting specified conditions, not in any moral judgment. More
generally, given any probability
space, for any event (set of outcomes), one can define a Bernoulli
trial, corresponding to whether the event occurred or not (event
or complementary
event).
When
multiple Bernoulli trials are performed, each with its probability of success,
these are sometimes referred to as Poisson trials.[2]
STEINIAN CODE
Having taken a short break
from the study group, Treanor
plunged in with:
“And
mixed, being mixed as a cocktail, mixed, stirred and blended, the original
distinct ingredients still there but now combined and disguised. And looking at
the words slender and needle, slender needle
and she has mixed the letters, they share 5 common letters. She’s cutting
and pasting, chopping and changing, combining and disguising letters prefixes (un)
and lord only knows what else.
“A mixed
protection (after
thinking of her mixing letters) make me think of a code. You can protect by
concealing, and conceal by mixing, by hiding or scrambling things up. Protect
what you are really talking about by concealing/en coding it.
“very
mixed with the same actual intentional unstrangeness and riding you can conceal by mixing with actual
intension by making them appear ordinary (unstrangeness) and riding (? writing)
about them. So hide things in plain sight, make them look like they are
describing something ordinary (like say house hold objects, food and/or rooms)
whilst in fact being about other than these. This mixing is coding; this concealing
is protecting.
“a single
action caused necessarily is not more a sign than a minister. I can’t help but read this as assign (a sign) and administer (a minister). And as it saying something about a single
action, (maybe of writing, deciding or creating), assigning and administering
something. Maybe assigning meaning or a metaphor and administering it is
applying the code, the concealment, to the process of riding (the pen) or writing about the thing to be concealed.
“It seems
that this single action is not more assign(ing) than administer(ing). So there is a feeling of attributing (assigning)
and administering (overseeing/ delivering) in equal measure in this process of
mixing / en coding / disguising/ cocktail shaking.”
Excited by
Treanor’s comments, Rife answered:
“There's a
contrast between the repetitious mixing (mixed, very mixed) and a
single action. There is the pair of words protection and action.
“I think assign
and administer makes sense. I seem to remember her doing something similar
very recently—maybe in this subpoem. I'll look back. And, yes, I think riding
may be writing, too.
“I was
thinking about how she uses the words necessary and necessarily so often. And
when I was looking at your clever idea about slender needle, it occurred
to me that needle has need in it.
“And,
lastly, because it's dinner time, peek ahead to the next stanza. Speaking of
cutting and pasting, we have a knife and scissors coming up!”
Rife
returning to the discussion forum, found the following:
“The
other instances like assign and administer I was thinking about are,
indeed, from ‘Breakfast.’”
Price
a price is not in language, it is not in custom, it is not in praise. [Stanza 7]
Suspect a
single buttered flower, suspect it certainly, suspect it and then glide, does
that not alter a counting. [Stanza 12]
A steady
cake, any steady cake is perfect and not plain, any steady cake has a mounting
reason and more than that it has singular crusts. [Stanza 15]
“We have
here 1) price, 2) a counting (accounting) and 3) a mounting (amounting), which could be related. Add these to assign and administer. Some structure seems to be built up.
“Stein makes
words rattle around opening up file cabinets in my brain. That word, single,
has drawn my attention again. Yes, it sings.
But there's something else—it sings AND sounds like jingle. Here's the
scoop on the word ‘jingle:’”
jin·gle
ˈjiNGɡəl/
noun
noun: jingle;
plural noun: jingles; noun: jingle shell; plural
noun: jingle shells
1 a light ringing sound such as that made
by metal objects being shaken together.
2 synonyms:
|
|
4
|
1 a short slogan, verse, or tune designed
to be easily remembered, especially as used in advertising.
2 synonyms:
|
3 slogan, catchphrase; More
|
1 a bivalve mollusk with a fragile,
slightly translucent shell, the lower valve of which has a hole through which
pass byssus threads for anchorage.
verb
verb: jingle;
3rd person present: jingles; past tense: jingled; past
participle: jingled; gerund or present participle: jingling
1 make or cause to make a light metallic
ringing sound.
’her
bracelets were jingling’
2 synonyms:
|
‘the keys jingled’
|
◦
(of
writing) be full of alliteration or rhymes.
2
Origin
late Middle
English: imitative.
“These last
bits are interesting, are they not? (of writing) be full of alliteration or
rhymes. Origin - imitative. Remember this from earlier in ‘Breakfast:’?”
An
imitation, more imitation, imitation succeed imitations. [Stanza 4]
Picking up
on these exciting discoveries, Treanor
explored more literary encoding:
First Treanor quotes Rife: We have here 1) price, 2) a
counting (accounting) and 3) a mounting (amounting), which
could be related. Add assign and administer. Some structure seems
to be built up.
“Price,
accounting, amounting, assign and administer all seem very commercial- /
retail- / finance- / management-based words, don’t they?
“I like that
there is need in needle, and there is lend
in slender also. Need, necessary,
lend, amounting, accounting, assign, price and administer. Is there banking or
money lending going on or being hinted at? Or more vaguely some sort of
commercial governance?
“And single
sings out and jingle emerges and rings out. And chimes with all the ing-ing
that she does. I notice through out that there are a lot of verbs ending in ing (does that make it present
continuous? I am grammar impaired as you may have gathered). So singing single
ringing jingle. Oh and I’ve just seen reading this back that single and
jingle have the ing ending mixed into them, hidden in the body of the
word
“From your
definitions of jingle -a light ringing sound such as that
made by metal objects being shaken together. Objects being shaken
together made me think of our ideas on mixing. Objects being shaken like a
cocktail is mixed and shaken.
“And definition
of jingle as a verb
◦
(of
writing) be full of alliteration or rhymes.
Origin
late Middle
English: imitative.
An
imitation, more imitation, imitation succeed imitations.
“This is
staggering. It seems to me that art is, (in part anyway), imitation. Painting
is (or was pre-1900) an attempt to imitate objects visually. Writing is an
attempt to imitate/ recreate using words. This imitate seems so central. And a
jingle has a relation to verse, certainly traditional verse, both having
alliteration and rhyme.
“Even though
she is not using traditional verse she is still using alliteration and rhyming.
So she still imitates in her art. Imitates old forms of creating verse,
alliteration and rhyming at times.
“Repetition
is imitation isn’t it.? The same word or phrase repeated is the word being
imitated actually on the page in front of our very eyes. Rose, rose, rose is an
imitation of the word rose.
“Imitation
seems at odds with the idea of the artist as being creatively original. I wonder
if she’s touching on this? Maybe not, I think there was a feeling at that time
that there was space and possibility to be new and original, they hadn’t been
jaded by our perspective that there is nothing new under the sun yet. But maybe
she is alluding to it, maybe there is the seed of uncreativity being sown,
maybe she’s predicting, precursoring found objects being converted to Art, Andy
Warhol and Kenneth Goldsmith.”
Talking to
Treanor, Rife came back with:
“I don't
know what this commercial structure might be. I remember, I think, over in
Objects somewhere you posted a link to an article that discussed Stein's use of
advertising-type language. Do you remember? And I definitely remember that when
I previously brought up amounting, Karren said she thought it had more to do
with ‘the difference is spreading.’
“A verb +
ing = a gerund, a complicated devil just up Stein's alley. Check this out from
Wikipedia:”
The gerund (/ˈdʒɛrənd/ or /ˈdʒɛrʌnd/) is a non-finite verb form that can function as a noun in Latin and English grammar. The English gerund ends in -ing (as in I
enjoy playing basketball). The same verb form also serves as
the English present
participle (which has an adjectival
or adverbial function) and as a pure verbal noun. Thus the -ing form in the English language can function
as a noun, verb, adjective or sometimes adverb; in certain sentences the
distinction can be arbitrary.
“You're
right—’ing’ is in single and jingle, too. This reminds me that one of
the projects I've wanted to do is to go back to the beginning of TB to look for singing. I remember this in
‘A substance in a cushion:’”
…The band
if it is white and black, the band has a green string. A sight a whole sight
and a little groan grinding makes a trimming such a sweet singing trimming and
a red thing not a round thing but a white thing, a red thing and a white thing.
[excerpt stanza 8 ‘A
substance in a cushion:’]
“a
green string, a sight, a whole sight, a
little groan grinding, a trimming, such a sweet singing,
trimming, a red thing, not a round thing but a white
thing, a red thing and a white thing
“Sing, sigh,
groan, sing and sing and sing. I never thought this before, but could the band
be a musical group (of words)?
“Also, is
the trimming more of the cut & paste talk?
“That thing
about imitation being the root of jingle shocked me. It's right at
the end and looks like it has nothing to do with the word ‘jingle.’ I thought,
is this a mistake? Anyway, I think it makes sense to ponder the artistic
implications, as you have above.”
KNIFE
SCISSORS CAT: AN UNSETTLING GAME
Just when
the Buttons think they have worked their way into Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons strategy, she unloads a
stanza with an entirely different approach. Here’s what Treanor had to say about stanza 22, the last stanza of “Breakfast.”.
Seat a
knife near a cage and very near a decision and more nearly a timely working cat
and scissors. Do this temporarily and make no more mistake in standing. Spread
it all and arrange the white place, does this show in the house, does it not
show in the green that is not necessary for that color, does it not even show
in the explanation and singularly not at all stationary.
“I’m getting TB withdrawal syndrome, sweats, nervousness, agitation and tremor,
but I’m so stumped with this one, I keep looking at it and not really seeing
any thing.
“What is a timely working cat? Timely sounds like
it could be related to clocks or time pieces in some way, or maybe working cat suggests the strings of a
guitar. violin / piano made of cat gut and put to work to make sound. But it
seems like there is cutting going on, or the suggestion of it, a knife, a
decision (incision), scissors.
“There’s
something of writing or the page maybe, the cage/page spread it all and arrange the white place, maybe the white place of
the empty page spread in front of her waiting to be filled, needing creative
decisions to be made. And stationary meaning either stillness or paper.
“Also a
definite feel of cut and paste about it as you suggested before, Teri.
Something of
confinement too—the cage, the house. Is she feeling caged in, trapped? Wanting
to cut free in someway?”
Emily W said,
“Green is an interesting
color to mention. There is plenty of association with jealousy and the natural
world too.”
GUTTING OR FLESHING OUT THE
CAT
Rolling up her sleeves, Rife responded:
“I've been
trying to work out ‘knife/scissors,’ ‘cage/cat/house,’ ‘de-cis-ion/s-cis-sors,’
‘seat/work-ing/do/make/stand-ing/spread/arrange/show/show/show.’
“A knife and
scissors have multiple purposes. They are surgical instruments, but also
kitchen utensils. Scissors are also used for sewing, embroidery, and gardening.
A paper knife was used to slit open envelopes or uncut pages of a book. Along
the surgical line of reasoning, a cage could be a rib cage; but it could also
be a cage in which to keep an undomesticated cat. A house could be a place in
which to keep a domesticated cat. Are the surgical & literary instruments,
and the jungle cat, Gertrude, and the kitchen, gardening & sewing utensils,
and the house cat, Alice?
“Because of
the commonality of the letters ‘cis’ in the word ‘decision’ and the word ‘scissors,’
I'm thinking that the word ‘decision’ may be a word newly created by Stein,
with a definition which is different from the old one. The prefix ‘de’ means
away from, down, a reversal of, or a removal of. ’Sciss,’ which sounds like the
‘cis’ in decision and scissors, is the Latin word for ‘cut.’ ’Cis’ is a variant
of ‘caes’/’cadere’—to cut. (Hmm...how is ‘caes’ pronounced in Latin? Does it
rhyme with ‘cage?’) ’Cis’ is also a prefix used in chemistry, meaning ‘on this
side of.’ Is Stein's ‘decision’ a cutting away from something?
“All those
action words—all that seating, working, doing, making, standing, spreading,
arranging and, most of all—three times as much—showing. Are these all motions
involved in a ‘Breakfast?’
“Emily, I
thought that ‘green’ might be envy, or the green of Alice's garden. But what
the heck does ‘...the green that is not necessary for that color,...’ mean? There's
that necessary/not necessary thing again”
Then Rife came back with a
frontal attack on cat:
“I forgot to talk
about the idea that ‘cat’ may have literally been cut away from the word ‘cattle,’
which would be the ‘painful cattle’ we saw in ‘A box’ (subpoem 4). And, as you
said, Pete, ‘in’ may have been cut away from ‘incision’ and replaced by ‘de’ to
produce a ‘decision.’
“Stein is
also doing that literal thing she does with the placement of words. This time,
it's ‘near,’ ‘very near,’ and ‘more nearly,’ all of which are near to one
another in the first sentence.
“Here's a ‘timely working cat:’
Too bad
these are only 82 years old! Remember when we talked about Schrodinger's cat in
‘A box’ (subpoem 11), Pete? Well, that's not old enough either.
“There is
the copy cat to consider. There is the curiosity that killed the cat to
consider.”
From
Wikipedia:
‘The
earliest printed reference to the original proverb is attributed to the British playwright Ben Jonson in his 1598 play, Every Man in His
Humour, which was performed first
by William
Shakespeare.
...Helter
skelter, hang sorrow, care will kill a cat, up-tails all, and a pox on the
hangman.
Shakespeare
used a similar quote in his circa 1599 play, Much Ado About
Nothing:
‘
|
What,
courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee
to kill
care.
|
‘
|
“The proverb
remained the same until at least 1898. Ebenezer Cobham
Brewer included this definition in
his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:”
‘
|
Care
killed the Cat.
It is
said that ‘a cat has nine lives,’ yet care would wear them all out.
|
‘
|
Transformation[edit]
The origin
of the modern variation is unknown. The earliest known printed reference to the
actual phrase ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ is in James Allan Mair's 1873
compendium A handbook of proverbs: English, Scottish, Irish, American, Shakespearean,
and scriptural; and family mottoes, where it is listed as an Irish proverb
on page 34.
In the 1902
edition of Proverbs: Maxims and Phrases, by John Hendricks Bechtel,
the phrase ‘Curiosity killed the cat’ is the lone entry under the topic ‘Curiosity’
on page 100.
O. Henry's 1909 short story ‘Schools and Schools’ includes a
mention that suggests knowledge of the proverb had become widespread by that
time:
‘
|
Curiosity
can do more things than kill a cat; and if emotions, well recognized as
feminine,
are inimical to feline life, then jealousy would soon leave the whole
world
catless.’
|
SEATING THE KNIFE & FINDING THE CAT
Alenier returning
to the discussion, said,
“I like the cat
cattle possibility. Also the decision scissors common syllable.
“I'm Having
an epiphany based on this entire thread—at Yom Kippur Day of Atonement a Jew
fasts. At sundown the faithful break fast (that is how American Jews say it).
But the
knife makes me think of Passover & making the knife Kosher for Passover by seating it in dirt.
“But hang
on! This could be the circumcision story.
“I think I
found pay dirt!”
I heard that
there is a custom to buy a new kitchen knife every year for use on Rosh
Hashanah. Did you ever hear of this, and, if so, what is the reason for
this tradition?
Answer:
Though this
is not a common custom, a little research confirmed the existence of such a
tradition, and also provided its reasoning.
G‑d is the One in charge of
everything, yet He does have a whole slew of ministering angels who carry out
His orders.
‘Chatach,’
(חתך), which means ‘cut,’ is the name of the angel in charge of
livelihood.
“KARREN:
does this look like cat or what?”
Consider
that the final letters of the Hebrew words, פותח את ידך,
‘You open up Your hand’ (Psalms 145:16),
spell ‘chatach.’ Additionally, the word that follows in the verse, ‘u'masbe'a’
– ‘and satisfy [the desire of every living being]’ has the numerical value of
428 – the same value as the word ‘chatach.’
For this
reason, purchasing a new, sharp knife is a segulah (spiritually
propitious), for livelihood, which we petition from G‑d for the upcoming year.1
May G‑d inscribe you and your family, and all
the Jewish people, for a year abundant in livelihood—and everything good!
Best wishes
for a good and sweet year!
Rabbi
Eliezer Danzinger for Chabad.org
Rife responded:
“Oh, my—ministering
angels! I was just thinking about kosher today with respect to the sudden
slice that changes the whole plate [Stanza 3]. Plates for dairy only and plates for meat only—correct?”
Alenier
answered:
“Yes, Teri.
That's right about plates for dairy only, the other plates for meat only.
“Here Stein
is bringing together custom & habit with covenant. AND Tender Buttons
is the sacred text sealing the covenant between Stein & Toklas. It's all
about being upstanding and making a house/home together that they break fast
together. Now we are back to the Shema and making two united as one.”
Treanor
added:
“This
working cat is intriguing me. I looked up if it was slang for anything maybe a
household or kitchen object. A mangle or something in dressmaking maybe. Something
that would be around in the room at breakfast time. I couldn’t find anything
that it could be slang for except:”
(n) A
spiteful woman or prostitute. His wife is a cat who makes
his life miserable.
“There seems
to be a feel of dress making sewing or tailoring going on, making alterations
to a garment. The knife and scissors, temporary (pins and tacks or temporary
stitches) and standing (standing for a fitting) no more mistake (correcting
some error in fitting). And I wondered if dressmaking or tailoring may be a
play on cat? Cat, cat's tail, tailor, tail, the tail of the cat.
The timely cat may be the rhythmical swing of the cat's tail like the swing of
a pendulum on a clock. Echoes of the rhythmical stitching movement of the
tailor's arm.
“A
working cat could be a cat who is in the house to catch mice, as a mouser too
“I can see
why curiosity kills the cat, but am interested to know how Shakespeare thought
care would kill the cat. Would it be along the lines of killing something with
kindness?
“Seat,
rather than place or put for example, is a strange word to use in relation to
the knife. Seat can mean to place but more usually means to sit down. Why is
she seating this knife? Is there anything in the Jewish ritual of buying a new
knife that involves sitting?
“The Cis
stuff is really interesting, all that cutting rearranging and moving of words
and meaning.
“And green
is so interesting too, is it the garden, is it vegetables, is it envy, is it
being naive or freshness/ newness?
THE
MEANING OF GREEN
Trying another strategy, Rife
said,
“Let us
consider the use of the color green we've seen in TB thus far. Maybe something
will come of it.”
…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 stanza 3 ‘A
plate.’)
Where is the serene length, it is there
and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only
a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet,
a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes
it. (stanza 3 ‘A long dress.’)
The band if it is white and black,
the band has a green string…(excerpt stanza 8 ‘A
substance in a cushion.’)
…It is so earnest to have a green point not to red but
to point again. (excerpt subpoem 4 ‘A box.’)
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. (stanza 29 ‘Roastbeef.’)
…Spread it all and arrange the white
place, does this show in the house, does it not show in the green that
is not necessary for that color...(excerpt stanza 22 ‘Breakfast.’)
“Hmm...so
first, in Objects (‘A plate.’), green is a game. And, indeed, quite playful
language follows. ’...nothing flat nothing quite flat and more round,...’
conjures up the popular phrase for something happening very quickly—in nothing
flat. Then the rest of it, ‘...nothing quite flat and more round..’ is simply
clever word play off the first phrase, nothing flat. (This didn't occur to me
back at the time we were discussing this.) Green, of course, is the color of
the surface of games tables and of fields of play, so that may be the reason
for the selection of this particular color to use for wordplay.
“Let's look
for more games in Objects. We have a green string and a green pointer. Ideas,
anyone?
“In Food, I
see only the two instances of green thus far, and they rhyme: ‘...gather green
any collar’ and ‘...in the green that is not necessary for that color...’ in ‘Roastbeef.’
and ‘Breakfast.’, respectively. Is that the game, or is there more to it?”
Treanor
answered:
“That’s
really interesting Teri, green as a game or an indicator of play. Green as a
golf green, or any kind of pitch to play on and green as the velvet surface of
billiard or card tables. Green has so many associations, envy, growth, games,
pitches, gaming tables, money, plants, and naivety.”
Teri Rife
also saw selected “Breakfast.” stanzas with these possibilities: soufflé making
(stanza 19), the string galvanometer that used a photographic plate and was a
precursor to the electrocardiogram (stanzas 3 and 20), and Suffragettes on
parade (parts of stanzas 18 through 22).
Participants: Karren
Alenier, Teri Rife, Peter Treanor, Emily W
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment