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.”
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