Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Sugar. Stanzas 9-18. Discussion 2

 THE BOOK ..........................-           TENDER BUTTONS

THE SUBBOOK ...................-           FOOD

THE SUBPOEM ...................-           Sugar

WORD COUNT (Total)……...-          333

STANZA(S)............................-            18

—Stanzas 1-8                                      170

—Stanzas 9-18                                    163

THE LEADER........................-          THE STEINY ROAD POET

CO-LLABORATORS.............-           MODPO STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS

The second half of “Sugar.” also proved to be a slippery sets of stanzas to discuss and required the Steiny Road Poet to interpret comments and choose how to present what was said. While both stanzas 1 through 8 and stanzas 9 through 18 of “Sugar.” deal with sexual topics, the emphasis in the second half is less judgmental and more matter of fact. Additionally, part 2 stanzas seem more evocative relative to Steinian semantics and visual art while part 1 stanzas seem more narrative.

The last ten stanzas of “Sugar.” has a 163-word count in contrast to the 170 words of the first eight stanzas. Among the topics addressed in this post are: myths, monsters & games; comfort food versus forbidden edibles; ill effects of sugar; the chemistry of sugar; sexual panic; sex as seen through water and fire; sexual abstractions; the art of the gas jet; crosstalk between “Sugar.” & “Roastbeef.”. Here are stanzas 9 through 18:

A puzzle, a monster puzzle, a heavy choking, a neglected Tuesday.

Wet crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters, it has that and teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little green, any little green is ordinary.

One, two and one, two, nine, second and five and that.

A blaze, a search in between, a cow, only any wet place, only this tune.

Cut a gas jet uglier and then pierce pierce in between the next and negligence. Choose the rate to pay and pet pet very much. A collection of all around, a signal poison, a lack of languor and more hurts at ease.

A white bird, a colored mine, a mixed orange, a dog.

Cuddling comes in continuing a change.

A piece of separate outstanding rushing is so blind with open delicacy.

A canoe is orderly. A period is solemn. A cow is accepted.

A nice old chain is widening, it is absent, it is laid by.

“And for Stein, food has also to do with taboos, what will make you ill or sinful, what is forbidden. What is coded as sexual: a cow for orgasm, a wet place, a blaze. What has onomatopoeic force of echo and reiteration: a a a a, ca-cu-ca-cu. ‘Cuddling comes in continuing a change.’" Mary Armour

In order to discuss stanzas 9 through 18, the Buttons often drew their impressions from several non-contiguous stanzas, so Steiny is listing stanzas addressed in the subtitles of each section of this post.

MYTHS, MONSTERS & GAMES [9, 10, 16]

Karren Alenier began the discussion with stanza 9 and said:

A puzzle, a monster puzzle, a heavy choking, a neglected Tuesday.

“This stanza seems to be consumed by a perplexing puzzle that has caused the neglect of the Norse war god Tiw or Týr, his victory and his heroic glory.

“I base this on Stein’s use of the word Tuesday which Wikipedia says:”

The English name is derived from Old English Tiwesdægand Middle English Tewesday, meaning "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, victory and heroic glory in Norse mythology. Tiw was equated with Mars in the interpretatio germanica, and the name of the day is a translation of Latin dies Martis.

“Perhaps this why the sugar is causing so much choking as well as other problems that we saw in the first half of this subpoem.

“I suspect Stein is talking about herself and now sugar is something other than Alice.”

Teri Rife approached stanza 9 by looking at other subpoems of Tender Buttons:

“Here's the monster again, and this time a monster puzzle.  We've had monstrous in 1) ‘A red hat.’ and monster in 2) ‘Mutton.’.

1)A dark grey, a very dark grey, a quite dark grey is monstrous ordinarily, it is so monstrous because there is no red in it. [‘A red hat.’]

      2)Mud and water were not present and not any more of either. Silk and stockings were not present and not any more of either. A receptacle and a symbol and no monster were present and no more. This made a piece show and was it a kindness, it can be asked was it a kindness to have it warmer, was it a kindness and does gliding mean more. Does it. [stanza 9 of ‘Mutton.’]

“Karren's comment in ‘Mutton.’:

I think Stein is doing two things here simultaneously. First of all she is invoking the creation myth with all the mud and water and that monster which is likely to be the golem, a man-like creature created from mud. Except her invocation comes from a negative stance. The actual creation is some kind of sculpture. So Stein is pointing to the making of art.

“So, it would appear that the golem is back in this subpoem.  Consider Stanza #10 of ‘Sugar.’:

Wet crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters, it has that and teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little green, any little green is ordinary.

“Sounds golem-like, but for the green.

“Also, consider Stanza #16 of ‘Sugar.’:

A piece of separate outstanding rushing is so blind with open delicacy.

“This seems to echo This made a piece show and was it a kindness.. [excerpt from stanza 9 of ‘Mutton.’]  

So there's kindness in Mutton and blind-ness in ‘Sugar.’.

“A puzzle is a game, and we saw a game in green and, again, a piece in ‘A plate.’:

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 from stanza 3 of ‘A plate.’]”

Alenier responded:

“The green seems a logical outgrowth from the mud! Brilliant! It does seem we have the golem here with its blisters and teeth!

Alenier also liked Rife’s “blind-kind” association. She said,

“My theory is that wherever Stein mentions kind we are talking gender identity. Blind logically connects to kind and it seems also to connect us to the golem. Maybe something like the elephant in the room? The prohibition on same sex relationships?

To wrap up thoughts about what Rife wrote, Alenier made this observation punctuated with a question:

“So here Teri connects the object—plate—with the food—sugar—which has become this game in green. Not sure where this line of thinking goes. Any thoughts?”

COMFORT FOOD VERSUS FORBIDDEN EDIBLES [TOC, 10, 12, 15]

Mary Armour responded to what Teri Rife had to say by looking at the big picture. She said:

“I want to look at “Sugar.” from a few different angles. Right at the beginning of the Food section in TB, Stein gives a list of headings or topics:

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.

“It's all about comfort food and where food is eaten and at what time of the year and the centrality of food as structuring a togetherness and a work of art. But it is also about more than food and about the dangers or what is hidden behind food, what food stands for. In this, we go back to Stein as an etymologist, separating words from context and having them stand alone, apart, the word in itself, the ding an sich we have seen elsewhere.

“And for Stein, food has also to do with taboos, what will make you ill or sinful, what is forbidden. What is coded as sexual: a cow for orgasm, a wet place, a blaze. What has onomatopoeic force of echo and reiteration: a a a a, ca-cu-ca-cu. ‘Cuddling comes in continuing a change.’"

SEXUAL PANIC [10]

“But when I hear this sentence, my projection perhaps, I hear something akin to sexual panic:

Wet crossing and a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters, it has that and teeth, it has the staggering blindly and a little green, any little green is ordinary.

“A wet crossing as slippery and dangerous? Some kind of treacherous glissade, of loss of meaning, loss of footing, uncertainty?

“a likeness, any likeness, a likeness has blisters—some kind of contagious infection, reflections of selves that dissolve identity? What is separate and what is a piece of and what is merging or spilling over in a mirrored identity? Blisters indicate burns, infection, contagion, some open sores or repulsion in what is reflected

“it has that and teeth—this is chilling for me, as if it recalls what Virginia Woolf describes in The Years, the child Rose exposed to the gibbering man in the street who exposes himself to her kind of allergy. A reflected face that is a likeness but has blisters and teeth, something not quite human, the vagina dentata, the loathsome consequence of the broken taboo

“The same likeness has this too: the staggering blindly and a little green. Which makes me wonder if our Green Fairy absinthe is making a reappearance, the loss of control and disorder of drunkenness. [e.g., the Buttons discussed the Green Fairy absinthe in ‘Glazed glitter.’]

“And then a change, recovery of the everyday, a return to another kind of green: any little green is ordinary. A village green, a green ribbon, a salad green. The green of asparagus, celery, cucumber.”

Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Breakfast. Stanzas 1-9. Discussion 1

THE BOOK ..........................-           TENDER BUTTONS

THE SUBBOOK ...................-           FOOD

THE SUBPOEM ...................-           Breakfast

WORD COUNT (Total)……...-           840

STANZA(S)............................-            22

—Stanzas 1-9                                       312

THE LEADER........................-           THE STEINY ROAD POET

CO-LLABORATORS.............-            MODPO STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS

“Breakfast.” is the third subpoem of Tender Buttons section 2 Food. Unlike “Roastbeef.” and “Mutton”, “Breakfast.” is not a food but a time of day to eat. While stanza 14 of “Breakfast.” (this stanza will be addressed in the next blogpost) mentions roast, meat does not play much of a role in this subpoem. However, the meeting of the minds comes into play as Stein addresses daily process, philosophical discourse, creativity, and literary concerns.

The Buttons Collective begins with the first nine stanzas of “Breakfast.”, which has a 312-word count, including the title. Among the topics addressed in this post are: breaking fast—exploring the title Breakfast; the various abuses of cheese; a shining breakfast and that sudden slice that changes everything; Cubism is not imitation; a loving tongue and cups; Gertrude Stein and fashion; party in Batteau-Lavoir; cocoanut, whale tongue and more fish; and finding the calm in clamour. This is a complicated set of stanzas and while much was seen, undoubtedly more exists in these words then have been commented on.

BREAKFAST.

A change, a final change includes potatoes. This is no authority for the abuse of cheese. What language can instruct any fellow.

A shining breakfast, a breakfast shining, no dispute, no practice, nothing, nothing at all.

A sudden slice changes the whole plate, it does so suddenly.

An imitation, more imitation, imitations succeed imitations.

Anything that is decent, anything that is present, a calm and a cook and more singularly still a shelter, all these show the need of clamor. What is the custom, the custom is in the centre.

What is a loving tongue and pepper and more fish than there is when tears many tears are necessary. The tongue and the salmon, there is not salmon when brown is a color, there is salmon when there is no meaning to an early morning being pleasanter. There is no salmon, there are no tea cups, there are the same kind of mushes as are used as stomachers by the eating hopes that makes eggs delicious. Drink is likely to stir a certain respect for an egg cup and more water melon than was ever eaten yesterday. Beer is neglected and cocoanut is famous. Coffee all coffee and a sample of soup all soup these are the choice of a baker. A white cup means a wedding. A wet cup means a vacation. A strong cup means an especial regulation. A single cup means a capital arrangement between the drawer and the place that is open.

Price a price is not in language, it is not in custom, it is not in praise.

A colored loss, why is there no leisure. If the persecution is so outrageous that nothing is solemn is there any occasion for persuasion.

A grey turn to a top and bottom, a silent pocketful of much heating, all the pliable succession of surrendering makes an ingenious joy.

“These stanzas seem like a big jump from talking about breakfast. But maybe she was talking about the paintings all along?” Emily W

“The quest to become for Gertrude Stein was huge. She called it finding Gloire. She wanted the sunshine of genius, that light that shines on you so that others know you are special.” Karren Alenier 

BREAKING FAST

While the Buttons Collective did not begin by discussing what Stein’s title “Breakfast.” might indicate, the Steiny Road Poet [a.k.a. Karren Alenier] believes this is where the discussion should start. Peter Treanor had this to say but in relation to stanza 1:

Breakfast.

A change, a final change includes potatoes. This is no authority for the abuse of cheese. What language can instruct any fellow.

“Breakfast seems to have a double meaning here. Breakfast the meal and breaking from that which is fast, or fixed (her old relationship with Leo or maybe the old use of language). Or an imperative, we need to break fast, meaning quickly. So breaking free and breaking free quickly. Maybe that is part of the rapid change that is happening. This meal for the new day/age dawning.”

Karren Alenier added:

“One more thought to add to the break fast meaning is that during Yom Kippur, Jews abstain from eating to atone for the year's sins they have committed. The meal taken at sundown of that holy day is called a break fast. The holiday is about a new beginning, it is about change in behavior and there is lots of instructional language offered in those prayers. Does this relate to cheese? well, maybe. The meal typically served is dairy.”

THE ABUSE OF CHEESE

What initially caught Alenier’s attention was the phrase abuse of cheese. She said:

“Join me in standing in the 21st century like a visitor to art gallery as I stand before this phrase: abuse of cheese. Here is another instance of how Stein's work reached into the future and our now.

“Cheese in our time refers to a recreational drug made from heroin and over-the-counter cold medicines, etc. I also found a satirical statement about how modern consumption of cheese, the food, has been become an all out addiction.

“Now back to stanza 1 of "Breakfast."—the key word here is change. The French are aficionados of cheese so there seems to be some caution issued here where potatoes, a staple of eating in Western culture, represent ordinary behavior. This is then followed with a statement or rather a question about what language can inform any person? Next I'm going to look at the definition of cheese.”

cheese 1

 (chēz)

n.

1.

a. A solid food prepared from the pressed curd of milk, often seasoned and aged.

b. A molded mass of this substance.

2. Something resembling this substance in shape or consistency.

“Let's not forget that the TB Food section starts with Roastbeef, which points to cows and milk, the main substance of cheese.”

cheese 2

 (chēz)

tr.v. cheesed, chees·ing, chees·es Slang

To stop.

Phrasal Verb:

cheese off Chiefly British Slang

To anger or irritate: The footballers were cheesed off by the referee's decision that cost them the game.

Idiom:

cheese it Slang

1. To look out. Often used in the imperative.

2. To get away fast; get going. Often used in the imperative.

“Could Stein be telling us she will no longer take abuse for her decision to change her life in radical ways—giving up a lucrative profession (as a medical doctor) and marrying a woman instead of a man?”

cheese 3

 (chēz)

n. Slang

An important person.

“Is Stein the cheese here?”

cheese

 (tʃiːz)

n

1. (Cookery) the curd of milk separated from the whey and variously prepared as a food

2. (Cookery) a mass or complete cake of this substance

3. (Cookery) any of various substances of similar consistency, etc.: lemon cheese.

4. big cheese an important person

5. as alike as chalk and cheese as different as chalk and cheese See chalk6

“I'm particularly interested in this definition where cheese is described as a cake. In the Food section, cake is used 11 times. In "Breakfast.", cake is used three times in stanza 15.

“Words related to cheese from the Urban Dictionary:

sex, food, penis, dick, money, vagina, ass.”

Emily W responded:

“A change makes me think about the change in the process of making cheese. The milk is curdled by an acidic substance. Cheese used to be very handy because it was a dense energy source that was easily transported and didn't spoil so quickly as milk.

“Abusing cheese is such an odd thing to say. (I didn't know it referred to a drug nowadays!) It must be something else that is being abused that cheese represents? Or is abusing cheese—taking too much of it? Or not eating it so it grows moldy—wasting food might be considered abusive.”

Alenier answered:

“I like your description of cheese making and it is a portable food once milk is transformed into those cakes called cheese.

“I agree that abuse of cheese is odd.

“I'm thinking, however, these lines refer to Stein as the cheese—the big cheese--the important person. Whatever the change is, and she says it is final, includes something that is a mundane staple (potatoes). Forgive me, Alice, but Gertrude could be referring to the change in daily living that includes marriage to ABT and loss of GS's brother Leo from their lives. The change also involves the importance of language (Stein’s writing) in GS & ABT's lives. This will instruct audience (any fellow).”

Treanor said:

“The potatoes at breakfast make me think of hash browns and latkes. (Both are also referred to as cakes.)

“Cheese is typically taken for breakfast in France with bread and ham. So cheese and potato at the breakfast table could be seen as a meeting/clash of cultural norms maybe. Maybe the final change in the cultural landscape (of writing) will involve the US ingredient of hash browns to the cultural table that previously was solely European in flavour, with cheese that is now cheesy.

“Authority is interesting, authority as in ‘power to do so’ but also refers to author, writer, composer. An author ity, the ability to write cheesily perhaps. 

And what language can instruct any body? with all this author-ly authority you would think of a written language perhaps, but that would mean the person would have to be able to read, so I would think more of music or images (the language of painting, visual representation) as the language that could instruct any fellow. If fellow is indeed a person. And not any (who) fell low. Maybe the bible or some other holy text is one that could instruct if one has fell low.

“Final is strange, a final change, it sounds so...well…final. What change is final? Only death springs to mind.”

Alenier responded,

“I guess Stein's selection of the word final is very emotional. I'm thinking of it as a hard-and-fast decision and not so much death.”

Emily W asked:

“If she is referring to herself then as the ‘cheese,’ is she also taking on the role of the instructor in language too?”

Treanor offered:

“Yes Karren maybe final change is referring to something she has been labouring over, but has finally come to a decision about.

“It does seem that the final decision, which includes potatoes, does not give the authority to abuse cheese (the old). So the new doesn’t contain the authority to abuse the old, established, matured, solidified cheese. Is she saying that new ways don’t need to trash the old? She’s writing a new way but still sees the older ways as tasty, solid and flavorsome. She'd just like some new tastes as well, some tubers from the new world to add to the meal.”

Answering both Emily W and Peter Treanor, Alenier responded:

“Emily, Bingo! I think you hit the nail head on! Yes, I think Stein would be insinuating that she is that important person who would lead the instruction of language. instruction of language is one of the important themes of TB.

“Pete, I think you are on to something important—aspects of what is habitual (old) support what is groundbreaking (new). It's like the partnership of GS & ABT.”

Teri Rife added this abuse of cheese:

“Check out "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction," said to the the first long-lived cheap (two-penny) periodical in Britain, published from 1822 to 1847. Here's a link to a section describing how cheese is made from potatoes in Thuringia and Saxony:  https://books.google.com/books?id=50EFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA431&lpg=PA431&dq=potatoes+and+cheese+in+literatu...                                                         

“Looks like this periodical was a source of instruction (weird though it appears to be), along with amusement for any fellow.”  

Here Steiny will pause to say that whatever the abuse of cheese meant to Stein, it was important to her and may have been a popular term during her time to disparage literary work. Stein uses the word cheese again in stanza 10 which will be discussed in the next blogpost. In Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein, a collection of experimental prose and word portraits written by Stein between 1909 and 1912, she wrote this line that begins with cheese:

To lie in the cheese, to smile in the butter, to lengthen in the rain, to sit in the flour all that makes a model stronger, there is no strangeness where there is more useful color, a description has not every mission.

A SHINING BREAKFAST & SUDDEN SLICE

While Emily W and Claudia Schumann pondered what a shining breakfast might mean, Peter Treanor suggested:

A shining breakfast, a breakfast shining, no dispute, no practice, nothing, nothing at all. “I thought of eggs, fried, sunny side up, shining away, bright, yellow and glistening. A big yellow orb like the sun.”

Moving on to stanza 3, Schumann added:

A sudden slice changes the whole plate, it does so suddenly.

“A sudden slice could mean an interruption. Like on Sundays, I enjoy the quiet of morning not having to rush out to work or some place else. But while I'm enjoying my breakfast—the phone rings (a sudden slice).”

THE SLICE THAT SUDDENLY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Taking the discussion to the philosophic plane, Alenier addressed stanzas 2 through 5:

A shining breakfast, a breakfast shining, no dispute, no practice, nothing, nothing at all.

A sudden slice changes the whole plate, it does so suddenly.

An imitation, more imitation, imitations succeed imitations. 

Anything that is decent, anything that is present, a calm and a cook and more singularly still a shelter, all these show the need of clamor. What is the custom, the custom is in the centre.

“In my thinking, these 4 stanzas belong together. There is a quality about them that seems philosophic.

“Stanza 1—no dispute, no practice, nothing, nothing at all. Taken all together, Stein moves around the word shining in a cubist manifestation. She is examining. Breakfast connotes a beginning but also a change (fed after a long hiatus where one eats after abstention.)

“Stanza 2—we see a part (slice) versus entirety (whole) and there is the word change.

“Stanza 3—seems judgmental as well as declension: one intimation, more intimations and one quantity of imitations trumping another. It's some kind of philosophic argument.

“Stanza 4—there some kind of moral argument being presented in this stanza. It has to do with how to live and it dwells on what is habitual (custom).

Emily W responded:

“Breakfast is a habit for most people, not just to eat it, but even what they eat. Our habits are conveniences that make it easy to be able to think about something else.

“Karren, I've been thinking and thinking about what you said about breaking habits and getting into the chaos of life. Of course, not all habits are bad, they make life easier in many ways, and some are good. But I also think that there is a habit that is ‘being me,’ i.e., I might call it finding my style (artistically, speaking) and this is what I want to develop, so it is unique and recognizable. And at the same time, I want to develop it (break/add habits). There are many approaches, learn something new, get a new perspective, talk to someone interesting, etc. etc. Maybe one might call it ‘adding a slice’ that suddenly changes everything.

“GS talks about imitation here, and I believe that is our habit, we imitate, we soak up what we see, what we hear. The challenge is to take that imitation and rework it, add a new layer to it, that is, add our style over it, so it becomes something more than just a pure imitation.”

Treanor jumped in with:

“Custom is a form of personal, social or societal habit. What is the custom, the custom is in the centre. Habit (custom) is central it seems.”

Taking another tack, Rife offered:

“I've been thinking about the possibility that this fast we're breaking might be not a food fast (Gertrude would flip those words and make us think that she predicted the rise of McDonald's) but rather a fast from companionship--Gertrude's from Alice and Alice from Gertrude's. When I read the book of selected love notes from Gertrude to Alice, I was given to understand that it was Gertrude's custom to stay up far past Alice's bedtime to write. So, Gertrude would leave a love note for Alice to find when she got up in the morning, to keep the connection until they were together again.

“All that having been said, I'm seeing quiet daily routine each morning in need of a shake-up. Quietude: ‘...no dispute, no practice, nothing, nothing at all.’ (There are all those unusual commas signifying the breath, as we saw in Objects.) and ‘...a calm and a cook and more singularly still a shelter...’ Is this Alice moving about the house while Gertrude is still sleeping? Then, boom, it's show time. Gertrude's up! We break our fast from one another with an actual or metaphorical shining breakfast.

“I'm still thinking about the imitations upon imitations. Is Alice typing what Gertrude wrote during the night previous?”

CUBISM IS NOT IMITATIVE ART

After an exchange between Emily W and Teri Rife about creativity, Verse 39 of the Tao Te Ching, repetition, and the ability to remember what we learn, Rife said,

“Yes, perhaps imitating goes with the instructing. And though I brought up ‘endlessly repeating’ from the Tao Te Ching verse because of the cadence of the words, there's a difference between repeating and imitating, I think. It may be that ‘An imitation, more imitation, imitations succeed imitations.’ has something to do with the old ways of writing, the old ways of making art and music versus the new. I looked around for a quote from Guillaume Apollinaire we discussed previously in Objects that mentions imitation. Here it is:”

The difference between Cubism and earlier painting is that it is not an imitative art, but a conceptual art, which reaches up to the heights of creation.

When depicting conceived-reality or created-reality, the painter can obtain a three-dimensional effect, can, so to speak, cubify. He could not do that by just representing seen-reality, unless he resorted to trompe-l'oeil, with foreshortening or perspective, which would distort the quality of the conceived or created form.

Scientific Cubism is one of the pure tendencies. It is the art of painting new compositions with elements taken not from reality as it is seen, but reality as it is known.

“Everyone is aware of this inner reality. One does not have to be educated to conceive of a round shape, for example.

“The geometrical appearance which so struck those who saw the first scientific canvases resulted from the fact that essential reality was there depicted with great purity, with contingent visual and anecdotal elements eliminated from the work."

Alenier responded,

“Teri, that's an important point about imitating being old school. It makes me think of the saying ‘imitation is highest form of flattery.’ Well in this context, we Xperience 2 dimensions (flat-ery) versus 3 (cubism)!”

Stepping Up Tender Buttons Objects: “A substance in a cushion.”

THE BOOK ..........................-           TENDER BUTTONS

THE SUBBOOK ...................-           OBJECTS

THE SUBPOEM ...................-          A substance in a cushion: NUMBER 3

WORD COUNT......................-           475

STANZA(S)............................-           10

Other TBO Study Links…….-               Link 1, Link 2     

THE LEADER........................-           THE STEINY ROAD POET

CO-LLABORATORS..............-           MODPO STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS

“Is [there] a callousness that overlooks individuality?” Pramila Venkateswaran

“what is reason? what is reasonable? what is her reason? am I being unreasonable? for sugar is not a vegetable, and would it not by any other name b as sweet?” Anthony Watkins

A SUBSTANCE IN A CUSHION.

The change of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar is not a vegetable.

Callous is something that hardening leaves behind what will be soft if there is a genuine interest in there being present as many girls as men. Does this change. It shows that dirt is clean when there is a volume.

A cushion has that cover. Supposing you do not like to change, supposing it is very clean that there is no change in appearance, supposing that there is regularity and a costume is that any the worse than an oyster and an exchange. Come to season that is there any extreme use in feather and cotton. Is there not much more joy in a table and more chairs and very likely roundness and a place to put them.

A circle of fine card board and a chance to see a tassel.

What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it. The question does not come before there is a quotation. In any kind of place there is a top to covering and it is a pleasure at any rate there is some venturing in refusing to believe nonsense. It shows what use there is in a whole piece if one uses it and it is extreme and very likely the little things could be dearer but in any case there is a bargain and if there is the best thing to do is to take it away and wear it and then be reckless be reckless and resolved on returning gratitude.

Light blue and the same red with purple makes a change. It shows that there is no mistake. Any pink shows that and very likely it is reasonable. Very likely there should not be a finer fancy present. Some increase means a calamity and this is the best preparation for three and more being together. A little calm is so ordinary and in any case there is sweetness and some of that.

A seal and matches and a swan and ivy and a suit.

A closet, a closet does not connect under the bed. 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.

The disgrace is not in carelessness nor even in sewing it comes out out of the way.

What is the sash like. The sash is not like anything mustard it is not like a same thing that has stripes, it is not even more hurt than that, it has a little top.

“A substance in a cushion.” exhibits evidence (based on selected words) of these major themes: existence, appearance, gender, sexuality, morality, and union.  The Steiny Road Poet believes the first five subpoems of Tender Buttons, establish what the major themes of section 1 “Objects” are. In addition some of the subpoems of “Objects” also address printing and writing as well as gaming. Only a handful of subpoems in “Objects” address the six major themes but only three address the six major and two auxiliary themes (printing-writing & gaming): “A piece of coffee.”, “A plate.”, and “A seltzer bottle.”. In close consideration “A substance in a cushion.” might exhibit hints of gaming and writerly elements. In any case, this subpoem is highly significant to the over all work of Tender Buttons.

The 2014 Buttons Collective discussion of “A substance in a cushion.” includes highlights of comments on: language from a lab report, intoxicants, kosher versus trayfe, periodic elements, gossip, sewing, folk myths of ivy, connection to Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

WHAT COMES TO STEIN’S TABLE…OR BED

To review the thematic path into section 1 “Objects,”: “A carafe, that is a blind glass.” seems to tackle existence (possibly Stein’s birth) and “Glazed glitter.” complements with a version of Stein’s adult existence, that is, her subsistence (her means for maintaining her life)—what her career path looked like (the abandoned medical studies) and the anticipation of change. “A substance in a cushion.” picks up the theme of change in daily living (existence) and subsistence (the failed medical career) and meditates deeply on appearance (what is seen, what is not). “A substance in a cushion.” plays with sweetness (sugar) and color as life changers, such that we, as readers, suspect the presence of a beloved who will come joyfully to Stein’s table, if not her bed.

From historic background, we know the unnamed lover is Alice B. Toklas but Stein has her way of inserting signs of Toklas beginning with the article “a” which is used 40 times among the 470 words of  “A substance in a cushion.”

DEFINING SUBSTANCE

Peter Treanor pointed out that substance is “the essence of something, a particular kind of matter, an intoxicating drug, the most important part of something, the subject matter of a text/piece of work, having a solid base in reality, being dependable, quality of being important, wealth and possession.” Steiny interrupts to say substance could be Stein characterizing Alice’s importance to herself (Stein). This is Stein saying Alice is essential as a partner. Stein’s love for Alice is like an intoxicating drug. Alice is her subject matter for Tender Buttons. Nothing else in Stein’s life at this time is more important.

Peter said, 
”One or all of these could be employed as meaning here, I like the intoxicating drug one, especially in relation to the absinthe thread of thought [see the 2014 discussion of “A carafe, that is a blind glass.”]. Absinthe could be seen as cushioning the harsh realities of the world. Alcohol as a cushion to the troubles of life.” Steiny interrupts here to say that alcohol would not be Stein’s drug of choice.

ELEMENTS PENNED INTO CUSHION

In a 2013 discussion of Tender Buttons, Peter said Stein inserts instructions in her text. So taking that approach, Peter asked, “Is there a substance in the word cushion or in [the phrase] a cushion?” At first, he was stymied, but then he saw “h is hydrogen, o is oxygen, c carbon, n nitrogen, ni nickel, au gold, all substances ‘occurring’ in ‘cushion’ or ‘a cushion.’

MS Boase added copper, copper sulphate, tin and bronze to this discussion:

“Just focusing on the title... ‘A substance in a cushion.’ I loved Pete's idea that the word cushion could encode chemical symbols, the most obvious though is copper (Cu). A change in colour suggests copper sulphate (CuSO4), which a kind of (inedible) salt that has a very drastic colour change between blue and white depending on the presence of water. Also copper sulphate is IONic because it's a compound of a metal and a non-metal.

“But there's another interesting and important substance that springs to mind and that is bronze, an alloy of two metals, copper (Cu) and tin (Sn). They don't react but blend to form a very hard substance that was very important to mankind, it's discovery marked by the beginning of what we call the Bronze Age. Given this is the third poem, we should wonder if there is a bronze quality to it. If so, then we should expect to find gold (Au) in Tender Buttons one (I don't see it) and silver (Ag) Tender Buttons 2. I think I do see the latter... Ag or silver is very representative of the Alice-Gertrude partnership, A and G. I wonder if these ideas will recur later.”

Karren Alenier (a.k.a. Steiny) responded:

“MS, I agree that Pete's deconstruction of cushion into various chemical symbols is a cause for looking deeper into the "Objects" section and what it offers in a more overt way relative to elements like gold and silver.

“In the Buttons initial look at "A method of a cloak." (in 2013), Eleanor Smagarinsky saw that playful connection  of silver Ag as the Alice-Gertrude connection. Subsequently in my study of ‘Objects’ as a whole this summer (while I was working on my chapter for a forthcoming book called Forbidden Loves in the Jewish Tradition—lead editor is Corinne Blackmer), I came to believe that overall, silver stands for Alice and lead (also known as liquid silver) stands for Gertrude. [Silver and lead come up in ‘A seltzer bottle.’] Gold doesn't seem to be in ‘Objects.’ [Steiny inserts here that gold does appear once in section 2 ‘Food.’)

“Your discussion of copper, however, is quite interesting. In nature, silver can be found in lead and copper as well as gold and zinc. Another aspect of Gertrude is water. We see her aligning with water but not fire. Typically the male symbol is fire, the female symbol is water. In Jewish lore, there is male aspect to water that is involved with the Hebrew words for heaven shamayim שָׁמַ֫יִם and water mayim מָ֫יִם.  Eventually we will get to this in ‘Water raining.’ and ‘Careless water.’.”

MS answered, “The water ideas support the copper sulphate connection…Maybe the s is the substance IN cushion.”

That MS saw copper (cu) in cushion sent Peter researching copper with marked enthusiasm: “Oh my heavens MS, copper (cu) that is brilliant! Copper from Wikipedia , has so many associations with TBs…”

Because Stein employs lots of specific colors in the subpoems of “Objects” (this subpoem mentions blue, red, purple, pink, and green as well as black and white but it also hints a yellow with the word mustard), the Wikipedia copper citation, which details color and color changes, is highly relevant.

Particularly interest was the Wikipedia information about the s-orbital electron:

Copper, silver and gold are in group 11 of the periodic table, and they share certain attributes: they have one s-orbital electron on top of a filled d-electron shell and are characterized by high ductility and electrical conductivity.

In “Glazed glitter.” (the Corrected TB edition), this sentence features an “s”:

But there is, there is that hope and that interpretation and sometime, surely any s is unwelcome, sometime there is breath and there will be a sinecure and charming very charming is that clean and cleansing.

MS added: “…the S which is unwelcome is black sulfide (Ag_2 S) which tarnishes silver over time (and has application in photography, not sure if relevant, or since when), the polishing and cleansing referenced in the previous poem could then mean to keep silver sparkling...”

Karren responded to MS relative to his uncertainty whether photography figures into Tender Buttons, “The word silver comes up three times in the ‘Objects’ section of TB: ‘A seltzer bottle.’, ‘A method of a cloak.’, and subpoem 11 ‘A box.’. Hints at photography (and printing) surface in many of the subpoems, including subpoems 11 ‘A box.’, ‘A plate.’, and ‘A seltzer bottle.’.

LAB TALK OR PARENTAL ADMONISHMENT?

While Peter and MS had many more things to say about copper, for now Steiny puts that information on hold to move into stanzas 1 and 2 about which Pramila Venkateswaran said, “The first two statements sound like what one would read in a lab experiment: ‘The change of color...’ and ‘Callous...’ ‘Sugar is not a vegetable’ sounds tongue in cheek—something a parent would tell a child. Callous—the hardening seems to mark this piece.  Do we harden because of our prescribed gender roles? ‘Soft’ ‘pink’ ‘tassel’ suggest women. ‘Feathers’ reminds me of feathers in hats; also feathers in pillows and in mattresses. All these are prescribed rituals of society--dining together, writing according to rules, vacationing during ‘the season,’ which makes her [Stein] wonder if there is a callousness that overlooks individuality.

Karren Alenier agreed saying, “It fits Stein's experience as a scientist investigating objects, the life of objects, the activities of said objects.

“And to see callous in relation to gender roles and overlooked individuality captures the more veiled details from ‘A carafe.’ like a kind in glass and a cousin (something like finger pointing and accusatory—that type that I can see through and really? related to me?), a spectacle (that kind of person standing out and not conforming), nothing strange (oh, but not conforming demotes the strange person to nothingness), not ordinary (why isn't that person like everyone else?), not resembling (really that person couldn't possibly be my cousin!), the difference spreading.

“Intriguing to hear sugar is not a vegetable as a parental rebuke. Or at least to me it sounds disapproving which fits with what is callous.

“In ‘modern’ times—once people could do more than struggle to survive, that is, find food, shelter, a way to procreate—folks sought diversions, a way to reduce the stress of daily living. Then came these substances, like sugar, like absinthe.”

SUGARCANE & PILLOW CASE

From Wikipedia, Karren found this: Most sugar comes from sugarcane, which is a tropical grass. The leavings from cane juice become the powder that makes sugar.

Sugarcane belongs to the grass family (Poaceae), an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum and many forage crops. 

In India, between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous “reeds that produce honey without bees.”

Karren concluded: “Of course sugar has a long history tied up with slavery and wealth.”

Peter picked up the on sugarcane being vegetable and Therese Pope offered that you can chew on the cane but not eat it because it is tough and fibrous. Karren was doubtful about its byproduct, sugar, being labeled vegetable. Peter said, “The flower top of sugar in the picture does look like a feather and the link between sugar plantations and cotton plantations make me wonder about Come to season that is there any extreme use in feather and cotton..

Karren answered, “yes that line Come to season… seems very socio-political.”

Breaching the conversation, Steiny jumps in here to remind the reader that this subpoem opens talk about the change of color, which might be associated with the emancipation of slaves from the cotton fields of the American South. Now back to what Karren said in the ModPo forum, “The combo of cushion and feather always makes me think this is Stein's pillow talk. As with any late night talk comes the ecstasy and agony.”

Surfacing after a long absence, Claudia Schumann said, “I was just mulling over ‘come to season’ and thinking that it sounded like…the expression ‘coming into heat’ when animals are becoming fertile for reproduction. So I … thought ‘come to season’ may refer to a woman arriving at that time of the month. Then I also thought about ‘extreme use’—sometimes having sex during this time may be considered ‘extreme use.’ In reference to pillow talk, pillows are made of feather & cotton ticking—hence ‘feather and cotton.’”

Come to season…brought up the issue of Jewish woman and their cycle of menses and ritual bathing. The issue of making something kosher after it has become unclean (trayfe) plays in Stein’s phrase dirt is clean when there is volume. Karren commented, “Stein might be commenting obliquely about the unkosher same-sex marriage which must be kept under cover despite these ‘girls’ who have come to season (there being present as many girls as men). This gives a new spin on oyster (a costume is that any the worse than an oyster and an exchange), which is trayfe, unkosher, forbidden food.

Randy Parker associated cushion with a pincushion, preferably a red one and found all the surrounding associations fraught with sexual innuendo, especially the needle’s penetration of the cushion.

SWAN & IVY: A MARRIAGE OF LONGETIVITY OR A RISK?

One of the most difficult lines of this subpoem is this list that is merely a fragment but not a sentence:

A seal and matches and a swan and ivy and a suit.

For seal, Claudia ruled out the animal and suggested it was that mark of authority put on documents.

Peter offered this set of associations:

“I don’t know how it would shoe horn in but a Google search of the terms popped up with a picture of Anna Pavlova with her favourite pet swan, called Jack, taken at Ivy House where she lived. There are various photos of them but some are early 1900s and pre TBs time , so the images would have been available to GS. Jack is the name of a playing card, [Jacks, as are other cards] are ordered into suits, (bit tenuous I know).  Pavlova , Swan Lake, lovers suits , love matches? All the mythology around Swans, Zeus as a swan, swan maidens,  swan songs?”