THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER
BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK
...................-
OBJECTS
THE SUBPOEM
...................- Glazed
glitter: NUMBER 2
WORD
COUNT......................-
45
STANZA(S)............................-
1
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS..............-
MODPO
STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
“Almost
every analysis of Stein begins with rhythm analysis.” Mary Armour
GLAZED GLITTER.
Nickel, what is nickel, it is originally
rid of a cover.
The change in that is that red weakens
an hour. The change has come. There is no search. 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. Certainly glittering is handsome and convincing.
There is no gratitude in mercy and in
medicine. There can be breakages in Japanese. That is no programme. That is no
color chosen. It was chosen yesterday, that showed spitting and perhaps washing
and polishing. It certainly showed no obligation and perhaps if borrowing is
not natural there is some use in giving.
The 2014
Buttons Collective discussion of “Glazed glitter.” includes highlights of comments
on: currency/money,
fluidity/rhythm/sex, graven image/sacred text, interconnections between the
first 2 subpoems, apocalypse, black sulfide as well as various word/phrase
deconstructions. The Steiny Road Poets invokes her time machine and compass to
offer a little background.
AT THE
WAY/WEIGH STATION
While “A
carafe, that is a blind glass.” goes head on with Stein’s existence in the
universe, “Glazed glitter.” is a way/weigh station on her matrimonial route.
She is both pausing to contemplate how she got to this trip down the wedding
aisle and she is weighing the change she is experiencing. As stated in Steiny’s
October
7, 2013 post: in “Glazed glitter.”, “Stein
is talking about money, specifically the American coin called the nickel
and possibly the chemical element which is used to make up the American nickel.
She is also talking about one’s livelihood and specifically her own, which
formerly had been predicated on her study of medicine.” Here are some
highlights of Steiny’s original look at “Glazed
glitter.”:
· — The
buffalo nickel went into production in
1913. Because Stein wrote the “Objects” section last and Tender Buttons was written from 1912 to 1913 (and published in the
spring of 1914), the new nickel was probably something Stein was aware of.
·
— —“As a chemical element, nickel presents a
silvery-white shine but may oxidize (turning a rusty red) when exposed to air
or water. Maybe Stein considers this oxidation glazed glitter and is
suggesting the oxidation is a temporal condition in the phrase red weakens
an hour. In nature, nickel is often found in combination with the chemical
element iron. Maybe Stein was referring to this condition of existing with iron
in the opening line, Nickel, what is nickel, it is originally rid of a
cover where cover stands for iron.”
·
—While “Glazed glitter.” is heavy on negatives (5 no’s and 1 not), it is counter balanced with the linking verb is
(without not) 13 times and to be with modal verbs twice
(i.e. will be and can be).
BUFFALO, THE PERIPATETIC COW, &
OTHER MOVING PARTS
Some new
thoughts that occur to Steiny based on reviewing what she wrote originally are:
·
—Cows,
cattle, sheep—cloven beasts—matter to Stein’s Tender Buttons landscape. (This will be
learned later, especially in the “Food” section which begins with “Roastbeef.”
and is followed by “Mutton.”.) While “Glazed glitter.” does not feature what
adorns the American coin called a nickel, it does enough pointing—Nickel, what is nickel. It is originally
rid of a cover—to make the discerning reader dig and find that the
Liberty Head nickel circulated as the American five-cent coin from 1883 to 1912.
Is Stein ironically remarking about the symbology for a nickel employed by the
United States government—America, land of liberty (not for someone like Stein
who was choosing a same-sex partner) now covered with a wild beast known better
by the nomadic native Americans called Indians. Was Stein thinking of herself,
she who had left America to make her home in France where she could better exercise
her choices and be more liberated?
·
—The history and
making of Tender Buttons can be
referenced in “The Making of ‘Tender Buttons’: Gertrude Stein's
subjects, objects, and the illegible” by Joshua Schuster. One
sticking point is that Schuster was unable to determine whether “Food” or
“Rooms” was written first.
·
—If “Carafe…”
with its containers (carafe and glass) and family words, like cousin and resembling, emphasizes existence, then “…Glitter.” weighs in
heavily on appearance. Cover raises
the question of what is underneath and the specter of “keeping up appearances.”
Charming suggests how appearance or
form can be changed with a magic spell or just pleasing behavior that alters
another person’s bad mood. Clean, cleansing, washing, and polishing are what we
do to make us look good, if not feel better. Also color declares itself
strongly with that
red weakens an hour but it comes with
contradiction: That is no color chosen.
It was chosen yesterday (perhaps a ruse to keep something too bright, too
smart from getting too much exposure).
HOW A NICKEL
POINTS TO THE GOLDEN CALF
Judy Meibach asked what glazed glitter has to do with nickel? Karren Alenier (a.k.a. Steiny)
answered:
“This
subpoem is about change. Nickel is one type of change.”
Then Karren
suggested looking at this list of words:
change
red weakens
change has
come
search
hope
interpretation
unwelcome
breath
clean and
cleansing
glitter is
handsome
no gratitude
in mercy
breakages
chosen
yesterday
showed no
obligation
if borrowing
is not natural
some use in
giving
Karren
continued building a case about how glazed glitter is connected to nickel.
“If you buy into Tender Buttons being
a sacred declaration of Stein's marriage to Toklas (and you may not, especially
if you haven't had much time to sit with the "Objects" section), then
you might sense a whiff of things Jewish and of sacred texts.
“I think
this list of selected words might help you see the Jewish connection.
“For
example, the word chosen, as in The Chosen People. Here's an excerpt
from Wikipedia:
In Judaism, chosenness is the
belief that the Jews are a people chosen to be in a covenant with
God. The Jewish idea of being chosen is first found in the Torah (five books
of Moses) and is elaborated
on in later books of the Hebrew Bible.
This status carries both responsibilities and blessings as described in the
Biblical covenants with
God.
“Except
something is broken (breakages), weak (red weakens) and there are
other problems like no gratitude and no sense of obligation. And why is borrowing
not natural and this—a half hearted some use in giving?
“If you go
back to Stein's text: there will be a sinecure
(a cushy job paying well). The root meaning of sinecure means without
care. What is so good about a sinecure? Because glittering is
handsome and convincing.
Then Karren suggested the possibility that Stein was associating the 1913 buffalo nickel with the Golden
Calf. From Wikipedia:
When Moses went up
into Biblical Mount
Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:12-18),
he left the Israelites for forty days and
forty nights. The Israelites feared that he would not return and
demanded that Aaron make
them "gods" to go before them (Exodus 32:1).
Aaron gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings, constructed a "molten
calf" and "they" that demanded "gods" declared:
"These [be] thy
gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus
32:4) The plurality of gods depicted or honoured on the ear-rings became a
united image of a calf, fashioned by Aaron with a "graving tool", a
plurality in unity.[2]
Karren
continued: “Then glazed glitter might refer to a graven image made from metals
coming from the earth.
“What does
the Golden Calf / glazed glitter represent to Stein?
“Could it be
the lost income from that cushy job as a doctor? There is no gratitude
in mercy and in medicine.
NICKEL AS TENDER
Therese
Pope reporting on her live ModPo study group in California, said her group
associated nickel with currency
(nickel is a monetary coin) and how that relates to Stein’s overall title Tender Buttons (tender—something,
especially money, offered in payment)
Mary Armour responded, “The current of attraction/repulsion
running through currency!”
Wanting
clarification, Therese asked, “Do
you mean the ‘flow’ of attraction like the current/connection between two
people (maybe Gertrude and Alice?) and ‘repulsion’ for money/currency?”
Mary answered:
“I was
thinking here about what happens to currency in circulation. Nickel, inferior
to the original gold louis or franc, was a commonly held international
reserve currency in the 19th and 20th centuries—in France nickel 25-centime
coins were introduced in 1903.
“The
etymology of currency and connection to a current:
1650s,
"condition of flowing," from Latin currens, present
participle of currere "to run" (see current (adj.));
the sense of a flow or course extended 1699 (by John Locke) to
"circulation of money."
“There are
coins glazed and glittering, new coins but as you say, all is not gold that
glitters. This may refer to new nickel that will become tarnished nickel. As
coins pass from hand to hand in circulation, from trouser pocket to shopkeepers
till, what happens to the 'cover' or surface of such coins? They
become tarnished, greasy, —but perhaps more shiny, rubbed shiny
with spit and polish. They acquire a patina perhaps, or they lose
original lustre to take on another value or surfacing.
Nickel,
what is nickel, it is originally rid of a cover.
“My mention
of an electrical current responding to forces of attraction/repulsion
arises from what seems to me ambivalence in tone for certain phrases.
Certainly
glittering is handsome and convincing.
“Could this
be read ironically? What glitters may be handsome, but not necessarily
convincing. Handsome is as handsome does. And if we read this as an ironic
aside, what about that statement in the previous sentence—
there
will be a sinecure and charming very charming
“What could
be charming very charming about a sinecure? Within some of Stein's
sentences are embodied contradictions—how do we read phrases that seem to stand
alone rather than integrated into the sentence? How are we meant to read handsome,
convincing, charming except as terms that could point to either attraction or repulsion? Is sincerity found in
what glitters?
“I am very
taken with the reading you and Charles give of that complex last sentence which
points one way and then another.
It
certainly showed no obligation and perhaps if borrowing is not natural there is
some use in giving.
“That word certainly
again. Do we read it this time without irony? And then the pointer towards the
value of altruism, giving. That tension between borrowing and giving—which
incurs obligation, which shows obligation? Obligation in the exchange of
currency referring to that sense of forced contractual obligation which means
'I owe you'.”
WHEN PHRASES
XCEED THEIR SENTENCES
Here Steiny pauses
for Mary’s unattended question: “how do we read phrases that seem to stand
alone rather than integrated into the sentence?” Perhaps these stand-alone
phrases are signposts that direct competing thoughts as if we readers were
driving along a highway where the signs are not quite the language we are
familiar with. This very phenomenon has caused Steiny to chart the kinds of
words encountered in Tender Buttons into thematic categories. Steiny sees these themes in Tender Buttons: existence, appearance,
morality, sexuality, gender, union, games, and printing-publishing-writing.
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