Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Roastbeef. Stanzas 18-21. Discussion 5

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

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

THE SUBPOEM ..................-            Roastbeef

WORD COUNT (Total)……..-           1757

STANZA(S)............................-           37

—Stanzas 1-3

—Stanzas 4-8

—Stanzas 9-17

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

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

Here are “Roastbeef.” stanzas 18 through 21 with a 161-word count. Among the topics addressed in this post are: the bones of contention between Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo, kitchen items or natural elements that stand in for Alice Toklas, kind as stand in for gender, Stein’s gaming and cubism, what comes in fours (e.g. winds and humors) and the four Passover questions, Apollinaire’s and Stein’s interest in the fourth dimension, and the gematria of four which points to door.

The time when there are four choices and there are four choices in a difference, the time when there are four choices there is a kind and there is a kind. There is a kind. There is a kind. Supposing there is a bone, there is a bone. Supposing there are bones. There are bones. When there are bones there is no supposing there are bones. There are bones and there is that consuming. The kindly way to feel separating is to have a space between. This shows a likeness.

Hope in gates, hope in spoons, hope in doors, hope in tables, no hope in daintiness and determination. Hope in dates.

Tin is not a can and a stove is hardly. Tin is not necessary and neither is a stretcher. Tin is never narrow and thick.

Color is in coal. Coal is outlasting roasting and a spoonful, a whole spoon that is full is not spilling. Coal any coal is copper.

“What are spoons? Could Stein be playing with words and meaning Spoonerisms?” Peter Treanor

THE BONE OF CONTENTION BETWEEN GERTRUDE AND LEO

To continue with the theme of hidden relationships that began with earlier stanzas of “Roastbeef.”, the Steiny Road Poet offers that stanza 18 with its seven repetitions of the word bone, might be pointing to the notion of bone of contention. Here’s what Peter Treanor had to say:

“I was wondering if Stein is using bone and bones in the sense of a disagreement/argument, as in ‘I’ve got a bone to pick with you.’

“Is she saying there are four choices in a difference (disagreement)? There are bones of contention that are all consuming. The best way to separate is to have some space?

“This seems to point to a row and separation from Leo, all those kinds in there, kind=alike and kin.”

THE OBJECTS THAT STAND IN FOR ALICE

While Gertrude’s failing relationship with her brother Leo may be hidden in how she presents this subject in the text of Tender Buttons, the actual hidden relationship is her marriage to Alice Toklas.  Stanzas 19 through 21 might be pointing to Toklas, who, in other discussions, particularly those about the subpoems of section 1 “Objects”, has been associated with objects in the kitchen, such as what Stein offers in these “Roastbeef.” stanzas, as spoons, tables and stove but also as the element copper.

On the subject of copper and other elements mentioned stanzas 20 and 21, here’s what Karren Alenier [a.k.a. Steiny] had to say in the ModPo discussion forum:

“I'm thinking that the burning embers of coal look like copper in color. Copper is a stand in for Toklas who is Stein's spiritual home & the bread maker.

“I think tin is also a stand in for Toklas. Tin has 10 stable isotopes which puts it above all other elements in the periodic table. It is silvery in appearance.

Isotope means at its semantic roots in the same place (in the periodic table).

That’s why I think it points to Alice. It also has a relationship with copper.”

STEIN’S KIND

Steiny thinks it is imperative now to address in stanza 18 Stein’s repetition of kind (four times) with the additional kindly that follows up. Steiny’s theory as developed in thinking about the use of kind in section 1 “Objects” starting with the opening subpoem “A carafe, that is a blind glass.” is that gender can be substituted for the word kind. In this case, the overpowering repetition of there is a kind means that Stein is extremely concerned with and adamant about her own gender identification. That also plays into there is a bone, which might be slang for penis. Again Stein identifying as the male partner in her marriage with Toklas relates to a hidden relationship. In the contention with Leo, he is opposed to the marriage fearing that his sister will bring shame on herself.

The repetition of kind is also amplified by the other meanings of kind (a class of, type of, agreeable, loving) as well as the root word kin (family) as Treanor points out. All of these meanings showing a likeness or similarity, resemblance, relatedness. 

There are also more abstract ways of appreciating these stanzas and some of the following comments relate to gaming, art, and ways of thinking.

Emily W commented,

“Are the four choices the face of the cube?  and the four other choices on the opposite face?”

“What I notice is that everything is concrete, solid, there in the world, except hope, except daintiness and determination, which have no hope.  I'm puzzled by ‘dates.’  Are they the food or outings?”

Alenier answered,

“Surprisingly, in the studies last year of ‘Objects,’ there were various kinds of games encountered, especially card games. What has promise is not always a sure thing. Chance comes into play.

“Maybe hope in dates is pointing to hope inundates. [Steiny asks could this be a potential Spoonerism?] There seems to be a surge of this emotional state of hope but some of these items, like gates and doors, seem to be hindrances.

“I like your idea that the four choices might be a cube. Could be dice, no? I think gamblers call dice bones. I'm going to look.”

Here Steiny stops to appreciate Emily W’s comment about seeing the four faces of a cube and how this relates to Gertrude Stein being influenced by Pablo Picasso’s new style of art that came to be known as cubism. Now back to discussion forum comments being made by Alenier:

Yes, dice were often made of bones and called bones on the street.

The oldest known dice—dating back at least 8,000 years—consisted of found objects such as fruit pits, pebbles, and seashells. But the direct precursors of today’s dice were bone: the ankle bones of hoofed animals, such as sheep and oxen. These bones -later called astragalI by the  Greeks- were chosen because they are roughly cube-shaped, with two rounded sides that couldn’t be landed on, and four flat ones that could. Which side would be facing up after a toss, or a series of tosses, was as much a gamble to our ancestors as it is to us today. 

Emily W also commented, “If you count daintiness and determination as one, then there are 6 things, perfect for dice. But there is still hope in solid things not in daintiness and determination.” 

Intrigued by this kind of game, Alenier offered:

“Hope in gates, hope in spoons, hope in doors, hope in tables, no hope in daintiness and determination. Hope in dates.

“Ok, so the face of the dice show: gates, spoons, doors, tables, dates, and daintiness/determination.

“Or the face of the dice show: gates, spoons, doors, tables, daintiness, and determination with a surge of hope (not dates). It’s a little bit different game.

“So what happens if you roll gates--something obstructs you from winning as does doors. Rolling doors seems worse than gates because doors are a bigger obstruction because you usually can't see through it. Spoons seem positive, that surely you would receive something. If you roll daintiness that must be rewarding. The root meaning of dainty is excellent and worthy. But what would determination get you, an opportunity to barter?”

Stepping on Tender Buttons: “A Little Called Pauline.” Part 1 of 2

SPATS & LACE IN THE BUTTONS BOX

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

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

THE SUBPOEM ...................-          A LITTLE CALLED PAULINE: NUMBER 46

WORD COUNT......................-           182

STANZA(S)............................-           11

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

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

GENRE..................................-           VIRTUAL OPERA

LOCATION............................-USA, UK, Australia, Philippines, S. Africa, Canada.

TIME......................................-           ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK

TONE.....................................-           FANCIFUL

“Has Stein taken little things from Apollinaire's work, and incorporated them into her own cubist portrait?” Eleanor Smagarinsky

A LITTLE CALLED PAULINE.

A little called anything shows shudders.

Come and say what prints all day. A whole few water-melon. There is no pope.

No cut in pennies and little dressing and choose wide soles and little spats really little spices.

A little lace makes boils. This is not true.

Gracious of gracious and a stamp a blue green white bow a blue green lean, lean on the top.

If it is absurd then it is leadish and nearly set in where there is a tight head.

A peaceful life to arise her, moon and moon and moon. A letter a cold sleeve a blanket a shaving house and nearly the best and regular window.

Nearer in fairy sea, nearer and farther, show white has lime in sight, show a stitch of ten. Count, count more so that thicker and thicker is leaning.

I hope she has her cow. Bidding a wedding, widening received treading, little leading, mention nothing.

Cough out cough out in the leather and really feather it is not for.

Please could, please could, jam it not plus more sit in when.

“A Little Called Pauline.” is a big subpoem of the “Objects” section of Tender Buttons, not just for its size: eleven stanzas and 182 words, but also for its scope of possible meaning and methods. While larger subpoems of Section 1 “Objects” have preceded “Pauline.”— “A Substance in a Cushion.” (470 words),  “A Piece of Coffee.” (300 words),  “A Box.” (subpoem 11, 302 words),  “A Plate.” (257 words),  “A Chair.” (256 words), Stein’s strategy seems different from other particularly mysterious subpoems like “A Substance in a Cushion.”, “A Piece of Coffee.”, or the short “Malachite.” (18 words).

The Buttons Collective has looked at "A Little Called Pauline." from lots of perspectives:

--Pauline as Pauline Laurencin, mother of artist Marie Laurencin,  a lifelong friend of Stein & Toklas

--Pauline as activist Pauline Newman, who had worked at the ill-fated Triangle Shirtwaist factory

--The overall subpoem in connection with the literary work of Guillaume Apollinaire, especially his poem "Zone."

--The overall subpoem from fairytale and myth.

--The overall subpoem as depiction of birth of a child.

--The overall subpoem as depiction of birth of a piece of writing.

--The writerly elements of the poem relative to Stein's rhyme, lyricism, and embedded words within words.

--The eroticism of various words.

"A Little Called Pauline." is not the first subpoem of Section 1 to have a person’s name in the title. Subpoem 8 “Mildred’s Umbrella.” refers possibly to Gertrude Stein’s mother who was nicknamed Milly. The “Pauline" and “Mildred” subpoems share elements in common that point to color, sewing and dressing, themes that pop up regularly in the subpoems of Section 1.

So what is it that makes this subpoem seem unlike the others before it? In the odd shadows of all that has come before, the Steiny Road Poet can point with certainty to the stuttering jumble of words at the end: Please could, please could, jam it not plus more sit in when. And Steiny suggests that select vocabulary of this subpoem is a little more exotic from the earlier subpoems, such words as pope, boils, gracious, and fairy. But is that the whole nut? More on Stein’s language play soon. Here in Part 1 of this blog discussion are highlights from the study session relative to Pauline Laurencin, Pauline Newman, and Guillaume Apollinaire:

A LITTLE ON PAULINE LAURENCIN

Pauline Laurencin (1861-1913) was mother of artist Marie Laurencin who was part of Pablo Picasso's circle of close friends and a lifelong friend of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. Never married to Marie’s father Alfred Toulet, Toulet most likely gave Pauline financial assistance to move to and live modestly in Paris, earning a living as a seamstress. Gertrude Stein writes about Pauline and Marie in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas as follows:

“Marie Laurencin, leading her strange life and making her strange art, lived with her mother, as if the two were living in a convent. The small apartment was filled with needlework which the mother had executed after the designs of Marie Laurencin. Marie and her mother acted toward each other exactly as a young nun with an older one.”

How does this single mom of an artist relate to the subpoem? 

Single mom, making modest livingè No cut in pennies and little dressing, A little lace, a stamp a blue green white bow, Bidding a wedding, widening received treading, little leading, mention nothing. (Pauline works alone without partner or boss, making pennies, making or repairing the small things a seamstress does. She adds a little lace and her signature bows in various colors. Occasionally she gets a bigger job like one for a wedding where her pedal sewing machine is used but it is done under the table, she doesn’t flaunt this additional income.)

Other elements that add to the Pauline Laurencin story:

—   There is no pope. (The cloistered mother and daughter operate without pope/male head of the family.)

—   A peaceful life to arise her, moon and moon and moon. A letter a cold sleeve a blanket a shaving house and nearly the best and regular window. (Pauline has an understanding with Alfred Toulet who is represented in this passage by the letter, cold sleeve, shaving house. The understanding is that she won’t tell the higher society he lives in about his illegitimate daughter as long as she can maintain her best and regular window in her tiny Paris flat where she can live a peaceful life.)

—   Cough out cough out (By the time Stein writes this subpoem, Pauline has died, coughed her last and perhaps that collection of words that makes up the last stanza is Marie mourning: Please could, please could, jam it not plus more sit in when.

A PARALLEL PAULINE STORY

Buttons Collective member Eleanor made a case as follows for another contemporary of Stein’s who was an American activist in the garment industry.

“Perhaps Pauline is also Pauline Newman. The rhythm of the sewing machines reverberates throughout the poem, as does the strength (violence even) of this "frail-looking little woman who is hailed as the...east side Joan of Arc". Interestingly, Joan of Arc's beatification occurred in 1909, but only a Pope can canonize—There is no pope., and this [canonization of Jeanne d’Arc] didn't occur until 1920.”

A side note to Pauline Newman’s story is that because she had worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Dress factory, it is logical for the Buttons Collective to link Newman to “A Little Called Pauline.” since the Buttons had already discussed the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in subpoem 14 “A Long Dress.”

WHAT POPPED UP IN POPE

When Karren Alenier [a.k.a. Steiny] decided during the study discussion to get a definition for pope, she found something unexpected in thefreedictionary.com:

pope  (pōp)

n.

1. often Pope Roman Catholic Church The bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church on earth.

2. Eastern Orthodox Church The patriarch of Alexandria.

3. The Coptic patriarch of Alexandria.

4. The male head of some non-Christian religions: the Taoist pope.

5. A person considered to have unquestioned authority: the pope of surrealism.

The example given for item 5, a person of unquestioned authority, related to surrealism. This made Steiny think that pope was a popular term in Stein's and Apollinaire's day. André Breton is known as the pope of surrealism and was one of Apollinaire's and Picasso's friends. However, Stein wasn't into surrealism and maybe she was being negative about Breton—There is no pope.

Stein might also have been referring to the fact that neither Marie Laurencin nor Marie’s lover Guillaume Apollinaire had recognized fathers when they were growing up. The joke in Picasso's circle was that Apollinaire was the bastard son of a pope.

Stepping on Tender Buttons: “Water Raining.” & “Cold Climate.”

SEEDING THE BUTTONS BOX

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

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

THE SUBPOEM ...................-           WATER RAINING: NUMBER 31

WORD COUNT......................-           11

THE SUBPOEM ...................-           COLD CLIMATE: NUMBER 32

WORD COUNT......................-           10

STANZAS..............................-           1 each

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

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

GENRE..................................-           VIRTUAL OPERA

LOCATION............................-USA, UK, Australia, Philippines, S. Africa, Canada.

TIME......................................-           ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK

TONE.....................................-           EFFUSIVE

“Rain can make a meadow or it can make a flood. The meadow is passive. The stroke is violent.” Randy Parker

WATER RAINING.

Water astonishing and difficult altogether makes a meadow and a stroke.

COLD CLIMATE.

A season in yellow sold extra strings makes lying places.

The Steiny Road Poet saw the key words for this study session as water, raining, meadow, stroke, yellow, strings, lying. A great deal of the comments focused on objects in the natural world but veered languorously into painting, writing, the Stein love relationships, saffron, the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, string theory, and kabbalah.

WADING IN

Here are some samples:

From Randy Parker:

“Making a meadow is life-giving.

“Making a stroke--well that could be the painting reference that we talked about in ModPo—standing water in the meadow like a stroke of white or grey paint. But a stroke is a kind of statement. A striking, perhaps. Like lightning.  A stroke of genius. A stroke of bad luck. A debilitating physical stroke. Stroke can also refer to swimming.”

THE FLUIDITY OF LOVE

From Peter Treanor:

 “I wonder if water raining could be tears, is she or Alice crying? Raining seems like a very active description of what is happening to the water.  Its astonishing and difficult, maybe they have argued. And the flow of tears makes you wipe/stoke them away.

“And stretching it too far probably, could meadow be "me adieu", me ( GS) saying goodbye. Maybe that’s why there are tears, one of them is leaving?
 I like Randy's reading of this too and like the idea of the meadow as a meadow, and a meadow is such a good place to make hay..
 And "altogether" seems so "all to get her" every time I see it now that I wonder if the meadow is Alice and the stroke is GS stroking her, her meadow, and if the water is GS raining/ reigning down her love and (wet) passion, making hay and making the meadow's wild flowers grow.


“I was [also] thinking of the ways that water is seemingly like love. How it flows, how we get swept away in it, flooded  by it, lost in a sea of it, have oceans of it, float in it, swim in it, drown in it, set  sail away on an ocean of it. Are buoyed up by it. Love and water go together like a cup and saucer.

from Claudia Schumann:

“Water raining is like water passing by (or may mean people passing by). Maybe GS is thinking of May Bookstaver [Stein’s college lover] and trying to forget.”

BRUSH STROKES

From Allan Keeton:

“This makes me think of the strokes of paint in daoist watercolor paintings.

“I am struck by the graceful (astonishing & difficult to achieve)

harmony between humans & nature.”

STRING & PARTICLE THEORY

from Mary Armour:

“This [“Water Raining.”] brought back a memory of walking in a wet spring through water meadows near Richmond, London, grasses undulating and surfing my calves, and later watching some androgynous swimmer doing breast stroke in an Olympic-sized pool, the swift parting of waters and  cleaving, not as dramatic as  swimming the butterfly stroke and heaving up shoulders but scooping water horizontally, parting of ways like the Red Sea, like  tall grasses in Africa.

“The crawl stroke was what we were taught at school, the swift clean slicing forward motion taught after we graduated from doggy paddle. We had to practise it at the side of the pool before we got into the water, moving our arms through the air as if air was lighter helium-filled water.