Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Sugar. Stanzas 1-18 thru Moby Dick

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

About reading Tender Buttons thru Moby Dick: See introto Breakfast thru MD

“Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.” Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 1: Loomings

What did Gertrude Stein do to prepare herself for a writing career? The short answer is that she spent several months in London at the British Museum reading every novel written in English that was in that collection.

A longer answer involves her scientific background and what she said in her lectures in America. Having scientific training and experience as an undergraduate researcher at Harvard and then four years studying medicine afterwards at Johns Hopkins, Stein was not likely to build a new career without a methodology. In “What Is English Literature” from Lectures in America by Gertrude Stein, she said, “It is awfully important to know what is and what is not in your business”  (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957, p. 13).

In “Poetry and Grammar” from Lectures in America, Stein spends considerable effort saying she had not intended for Tender Buttons to be poetry but it is because she is reliant on nouns to name the thing she loves. She points to Shakespeare as having “in the forest of Arden…created a forest without mentioning the things that make a forest.” She says you sense what is there but Shakespeare “does not name its names” (p. 236). What she hoped to avoid in the language she chose was “imitation…of sounds or colors or emotions” in favor of “intellectual recreation” (p. 238).

What the Steiny Road Poet is saying is that Stein based her writing on writing already written but she did not name names. A long standing reader of Stein will sense the things that make Stein’s forest and then revel in her intellectual recreation.

In looking at “Sugar.” through Moby Dick, Steiny encountered obstacles that were actually doors to other works of literature—the Prose Edda and Uncle Tom's Cabin. The composite becomes a commentary on personal freedom relative to slavery in America, racism, homosexual discrimination, and artistic choice.

SUGAR.

So Steiny asks where is the sugar in Moby Dick? In Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand, Melville equates spermaceti oil to a sweetener. Of course, sugar is a sweetener and since Stein’s “Sugar.” has nothing to do on the surface with the white crystalline carbohydrate called sugar, a consumer of this subpoem has to look elsewhere.

No wonder that in old times this sperm was such a favourite cosmetic. Such a clearer! such a sweetener! [excerpt from Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand]

A violent luck and a whole sample and even then quiet.

Steiny will back into stanza 1 based on believing strongly that Stein draws stanza 2 from Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand. Therefore, she thinks stanza 1 pertains to what happened to Pip the cabin boy in Chapter 93: The Castaway when second mate Stubb took Pip out in his whaleboat to replace an injured crewmate. When a whale goes under Stubb’s boat, Pip, who is terrified, jumps out of the boat and worse gets tangled in the active harpoon line. Tashtego, the harpoonist is forced then to cut the line and lose his harpoon, which is attached to a whale. Otherwise Pip would have been strangled to death. Stubb gives Pip some “wholesome advice” which relates to Stein’s “whole sample.”

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, sample is from an Anglo-Norman French variant of Old French essample or “example” and example goes back to Latin exemplum “sample, imitation,” from eximere “take out.”

Here’s the passage from Chapter 93: The Castaway:

"Damn him, cut!" roared Stubb; and so the whale was lost and Pip was saved.

So soon as he recovered himself, the poor little negro was assailed by yells and execrations from the crew. Tranquilly permitting these irregular cursings to evaporate, Stubb then in a plain, business-like, but still half humorous manner, cursed Pip officially; and that done, unofficially gave him much wholesome advice. The substance was, Never jump from a boat, Pip, except—but all the rest was indefinite, as the soundest advice ever is. Now, in general, STICK TO THE BOAT, is your true motto in whaling; but cases will sometimes happen when LEAP FROM THE BOAT, is still better. Moreover, as if perceiving at last that if he should give undiluted conscientious advice to Pip, he would be leaving him too wide a margin to jump in for the future; Stubb suddenly dropped all advice, and concluded with a peremptory command, "Stick to the boat, Pip, or by the Lord, I won't pick you up if you jump; mind that. We can't afford to lose whales by the likes of you; a whale would sell for thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama. Bear that in mind, and don't jump any more." Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted, that though man loved his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.

But we are all in the hands of the Gods; and Pip jumped again.

One could say that Stubb made an example of Pip by staying true to his word—if Pip jumped out the boat again, then Pip would get left behind. The etymology of sample points to example and take out which fits what happened with Pip. The other thing about this passage is that Stubb’s threat to Pip alludes to the slave market of Alabama where Pip’s monetary value would only be one thirtieth of the value of a whale.

Water is squeezing, water is almost squeezing on lard. Water, water is a mountain and it is selected and it is so practical that there is no use in money. A mind under is exact and so it is necessary to have a mouth and eye glasses.

Given the word squeeze, what comes to mind is Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand. Here Ishmael is squeezing fatty lumps of sperm whale blubber (lard) to make it liquid. All the stress of Ahab’s quest to find the white whale vanishes into a crazy bliss that cannot be sustained by the intellect or imagination in the face of everyday callings. For now, I will table associations for mouth and eye glasses.

As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, woven almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma,—literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger; while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or petulance, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.

Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers' hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,—Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.

Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fireside, the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti. [excerpt from Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand]

A question of sudden rises and more time than awfulness is so easy and shady. There is precisely that noise.

A couple of things come to mind relative to stanza 3.  A question of sudden rises might point to whales suddenly surfacing and being under a whale boat as was the case in Chapter 93: The Castaway when Pip, startled by such action of the whale, jumped out of the boat twice. In the last chapter: The Chase—The Third Day, the crew of the Pequod see Fedullah’s body lashed to Moby Dick’s back. Melville often describes Fedullah as a shady character. Ahab drops his harpoon and cries out, reflecting on Fedullah’s prophesy about two hearses.

A peck a small piece not privately overseen, not at all not a slice, not at all crestfallen and open, not at all mounting and chaining and evenly surpassing, all the bidding comes to tea.

Melville uses birds both metaphorically and actually. Therefore, peck brings to mind avian instances such as the comment that passes between Stubb and Flask about Ahab in Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck:

But on the occasion in question, those dents looked deeper, even as

his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark. And, so full of his

thought was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now at the

main-mast and now at the binnacle, you could almost see that thought

turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely

possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward mould of every

outer movement.

"D'ye mark him, Flask?" whispered Stubb; "the chick that's in him pecks

the shell. 'Twill soon be out."

In Chapter 134: The Chase—Second Day, Ahab is overheard muttering to himself about the loss of Fedullah, whom he refers to as the Parsee, and what Fedullah’s death means. Ahab says it is a puzzle that like a hawk’s beak pecks at his brain. This passage also seems to be operative for Stein’s stanza 9.

"And as mechanical," muttered Ahab. Then as the men went forward, he

muttered on: "The things called omens! And yesterday I talked the same to Starbuck there, concerning my broken boat. Oh! how valiantly I seek to drive out of others' hearts what's clinched so fast in mine!—The Parsee—the Parsee!—gone, gone? and he was to go before:--but still was to be seen again ere I could perish—How's that?—There's a riddle now might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the whole line of judges:—like a hawk's beak it pecks my brain. I'LL, I'LL solve it, though!"

These two passages seem to set up the use of the word peck in Chapter 135: The Chase—Third Day. Melville uses the word peck twice in this chapter. The first reference pertains to a hawk visiting the Pequod to peck and tear away the red flag flying on the mainmast. Flags often carried the crest of owners and so we could view this theft as a crest falling incident.

“…drive off that hawk! see! he pecks—he tears the vane"—pointing to the red flag flying at the main-truck—"Ha! he soars away with it!—Where's the old man now? see'st thou that sight, oh Ahab!—shudder, shudder!"

The second use of peck depicts Tashtego nailing up a new flag to the mast but his effort is hampered by the marauding hawk that ends up getting nailed to the mast. As Melville describes what happens to the bird, it seems the bird becomes part of “the flag of Ahab” as if he is a living crest.

But as the last whelmings intermixingly poured themselves over the

sunken head of the Indian at the mainmast, leaving a few inches of the

erect spar yet visible, together with long streaming yards of the flag,

which calmly undulated, with ironical coincidings, over the destroying

billows they almost touched;—at that instant, a red arm and a hammer

hovered backwardly uplifted in the open air, in the act of nailing

the flag faster and yet faster to the subsiding spar. A sky-hawk that

tauntingly had followed the main-truck downwards from its natural home

among the stars, pecking at the flag, and incommoding Tashtego there;

this bird now chanced to intercept its broad fluttering wing between the

hammer and the wood; and simultaneously feeling that etherial thrill,

the submerged savage beneath, in his death-gasp, kept his hammer frozen

there; and so the bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks, and his

imperial beak thrust upwards, and his whole captive form folded in the

flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink

to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and

helmeted herself with it.

An interpretation of not at all mounting and chaining and evenly surpassing, all the bidding comes to tea could point to the activities of catching a whale which when done well come to a T, perfection. Or at least the bidding or order/commands of Captain Ahab from his perspective would be rated that way.

A separation is not tightly in worsted and sauce, it is so kept well and sectionally.

Stanza 5 could be referencing Chapter 83: Jonah Historically Regarded. This chapter deals with the story of Jonah and the whale. The following paragraph from that chapter uses the word worsted (meaning gotten the advantage over, to defeat or beat) and discusses a real life possibility that Jonah’s whale was a ship called The Whale.

One old Sag-Harbor whaleman's chief reason for questioning the Hebrew story was this:—He had one of those quaint old-fashioned Bibles, embellished with curious, unscientific plates; one of which represented Jonah's whale with two spouts in his head—a peculiarity only true with respect to a species of the Leviathan (the Right Whale, and the varieties of that order), concerning which the fishermen have this saying, "A penny roll would choke him"; his swallow is so very small. But, to this, Bishop Jebb's anticipative answer is ready. It is not necessary, hints the Bishop, that we consider Jonah as tombed in the whale's belly, but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth. And this seems reasonable enough in the good Bishop. For truly, the Right Whale's mouth would accommodate a couple of whist-tables, and comfortably seat all the players. Possibly, too, Jonah might have ensconced himself in a hollow tooth; but, on second thoughts, the Right Whale is toothless.

Another reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his want of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely in reference to his incarcerated body and the whale's gastric juices. But this objection likewise falls to the ground, because a German exegetist supposes that Jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a DEAD whale--even as the French soldiers in the Russian campaign turned their dead horses into tents, and crawled into them. Besides, it has been divined by other continental commentators, that when Jonah was thrown overboard from the Joppa ship, he straightway effected his escape to another vessel near by, some vessel with a whale for a figure-head; and, I would add, possibly called "The Whale," as some craft are nowadays christened the "Shark," the "Gull," the "Eagle." Nor have there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of Jonah merely meant a life-preserver—an inflated bag of wind—which the endangered prophet swam to, and so was saved from a watery doom. Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all round. But he had still another reason for his want of faith. It was this, if I remember right: Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the Mediterranean Sea, and after three days he was vomited up somewhere within three days' journey of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris, very much more than three days' journey across from the nearest point of the Mediterranean coast. How is that?

Put it in the stew, put it to shame. A little slight shadow and a solid fine furnace.

The teasing is tender and trying and thoughtful.

Stanzas 6 and 7 seem to point to the first whale killed by the crew of the Pequod. The whaling team was Tashtego and Stubb. Once the whale is moored with chains to the Pequod, Stubb orders a midnight dinner of whale steak from the Black cook Fleece, but he tells the old man the steak is overcooked and that cook has beaten it too much so the steak is also too tender. Then he teases Fleece, who has been summoned from sleep, to tell the sharks to quit feasting on the dead whale.

"Cook," said Stubb, rapidly lifting a rather reddish morsel to his mouth, "don't you think this steak is rather overdone? You've been beating this steak too much, cook; it's too tender. Don't I always say that to be good, a whale-steak must be tough? There are those sharks now over the side, don't you see they prefer it tough and rare? What a shindy they are kicking up! Cook, go and talk to 'em; tell 'em they are welcome to help themselves civilly, and in moderation, but they must keep quiet. Blast me, if I can hear my own voice. Away, cook, and deliver my message. Here, take this lantern," snatching one from his sideboard; "now then, go and preach to 'em!" [Chapter 64: Stubb’s Supper]

The line which sets sprinkling to be a remedy is beside the best cold.

The rope line which attaches to a harpoon gets burning hot after the harpoon is thrown. In Chapter 61: Stubb Kills a Whale, Stubb accidentally drops his hand-cloths and then calls out for the line to be wet (sprinkled with sea water) in order to cool it down.

"Ka-la! Koo-loo!" howled Queequeg, as if smacking his lips over a mouthful of Grenadier's steak. And thus with oars and yells the keels cut the sea. Meanwhile, Stubb retaining his place in the van, still encouraged his men to the onset, all the while puffing the smoke from his mouth. Like desperadoes they tugged and they strained, till the welcome cry was heard—"Stand up, Tashtego!—give it to him!" The harpoon was hurled. "Stern all!" The oarsmen backed water; the same moment something went hot and hissing along every one of their wrists. It was the magical line. An instant before, Stubb had swiftly caught two additional turns with it round the loggerhead, whence, by reason of its increased rapid circlings, a hempen blue smoke now jetted up and mingled with the steady fumes from his pipe. As the line passed round and round the loggerhead; so also, just before reaching that point, it blisteringly passed through and through both of Stubb's hands, from which the hand-cloths, or squares of quilted canvas sometimes worn at these times, had accidentally dropped. It was like holding an enemy's sharp two-edged sword by the blade, and that enemy all the time striving to wrest it out of your clutch.

"Wet the line! wet the line!" cried Stubb to the tub oarsman (him seated by the tub) who, snatching off his hat, dashed sea-water into it.* More turns were taken, so that the line began holding its place. The boat now flew through the boiling water like a shark all fins. Stubb and Tashtego here changed places—stem for stern—a staggering business truly in that rocking commotion.

*Partly to show the indispensableness of this act, it may here be stated, that, in the old Dutch fishery, a mop was used to dash the running line with water; in many other ships, a wooden piggin, or bailer, is set apart for that purpose. Your hat, however, is the most convenient.

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

Melville uses the word monster frequently to refer to Moby Dick and Ahab is heard muttering about the puzzle the monster has created relative to the loss of Ahab’s special mate Fedullah in Chapter 134: The Chase—Second Day and what Fedullah’s death means. Ahab says it is a puzzle that like a hawk’s beak that pecks at his brain. This passage also seems to be operative for Stein’s stanza 9 (the scene is mentioned in the discussion of stanza 4 of “Sugar.”). However, the word Tuesday, and a neglected Tuesday at that, remains a mystery until Steiny investigated the etymology of Tuesday.

Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Breakfast. Stanzas 1-22 thru Moby Dick

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

“Melville/White whale/Walls” Gertrude Stein

[in one of the unpublished, handwritten notebooks for The Making of Americans]

The Steiny Road Poet is saying that Gertrude Stein used Moby Dick as a model for Tender Buttons. If Steiny can convince you this is possible, then many things about Tender Buttons will be less mysterious, particularly a subpoem like “Breakfast.” which seems to be all over the place in a less informed context.

SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING ABOUT

If you are wondering why Gertrude Stein would use Moby Dick as a model for Tender Buttons, consider these things:

—Moby Dick addresses people on the outside of societal norms which is what Gertrude Stein had to deal with as a Jew and a secret lesbian.

—Herman Melville’s writing is grammatically and syntactically colorful, inventive, and exciting. He breaks rules and explores new territory in how to present a story, scientific data, and philosophic discourse. These were elements of extreme interest to Stein.

—Melville used Shakespeare and the Bible as models for his work and Stein followed suit.

If you are wondering why Gertrude Stein never revealed that she used Moby Dick as a model for Tender Buttons, consider that when she wrote Tender Buttons, Melville’s work was generally not known since his novel had received bad reviews and Melville had given up writing. She also never revealed that she used Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It” to inspire Tender Buttons. As a woman, Stein could not afford to announce that her work was based on male writings.

Steiny predicted in the first discussion of “Breakfast.” that there is more to be seen in its opening stanzas. Now Steiny understands this text shows more crosstalk between Tender Buttons and Moby Dick than she imagined. Both works have early subdivisions entitled “Breakfast,” but this is a false lead.

MEET CAPTAIN AHAB IN “BREAKFAST.”

Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck begins: “It was not a great while after the affair of the pipe, that one morning shortly after breakfast, Ahab, as was his won't, ascended the cabin-gangway to the deck.” The captain, who has thrown his pipe overboard in Chapter 30 because smoking was not calming him, comes on strong in this chapter. You might say in terms of stanza 5 that Ahab creates a clamor due to his lack of calm.  He asks for a hammer to nail a hefty gold doubloon to the mast, saying whoever sees the white whale first can claim this reward.

Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck [Captain Ahab’s first mate], he advanced towards the main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: "Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke—look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!" [Moby Dick Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck]

A change, a final change includes potatoes. This is no authority for the abuse of cheese. What language can instruct any fellow. [Stanza 1 of “Breakfast.”]

With poetic repetition, Captain Ahab, the big cheese of the Pequod, instructs his crew about their mission, but it is his mission, to destroy the white whale that took off his leg. It’s a change from the meat-and-potatoes mission of just coming back to Nantucket with a cargo of whale oil gleaned from any whale. Therefore, there is no authority for Ahab’s abuse of power.

Now let’s look at Stanzas 2-5 of “Breakfast.”:

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.

Stein’s shining breakfast is embodied in Ahab’s gold coin which no one disputes except Starbuck, but in the end the first mate gives in and allows that the entire crew is on board with Ahab’s plan to kill Moby Dick. For Starbuck, there is no value (nothing) in making “vengeance on a dumb brute.” Ahab’s reply to Starbuck kicks Ahab’s reason for going after the whale into another plane of thinking that deals with illusion and reality as well as evil versus good.

BREAKING THROUGH WALLS

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other; since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play. Who's over me? Truth hath no confines. Take off thine eye! more intolerable than fiends' glarings is a doltish stare! So, so; thou reddenest and palest; my heat has melted thee to anger-glow. But look ye, Starbuck, what is said in heat, that thing unsays itself. There are men from whom warm words are small indignity. I meant not to incense thee. Let it go. Look! see yonder Turkish cheeks of spotted tawn—living, breathing pictures painted by the sun. The Pagan leopards—the unrecking and unworshipping things, that live; and seek, and give no reasons for the torrid life they feel! The crew, man, the crew! Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this matter of the whale? [Moby Dick Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck]

Steiny sees a sudden slice piercing Ahab’s unreasoning mask which ultimately is the prisoner’s wall and for Stein is the whole plate. Stein is concerned about breaking through custom. Custom keeps a person prisoner to habits, habits which feed limitless imitation and stifles genius. Given that Gertrude Stein hand wrote ‘Melville/White whale/Walls’ on the inside back cover of one of her unpublished notebooks for The Making of Americans, Steiny thinks it is safe to say that this passage about breaking through the wall that is that white whale meant a great deal to this early Modernist.

Also, it is worth noting that Melville is taking liberties with the English language that surely gave Stein ideas about how to renew English. Notable are words pertaining to color as reddenest and tawn and negation words as unsays, unrecking, and unworshipping. Stein’s question—or exclamatory statement— What language can instruct any fellow then has additional punch and weight.

TEARING INTO THE TONGUE OF MOBY DICK

In stanza 6, Stein takes some liberties with language by using old forms that possibly signal the language of Moby Dick, a novel that mixes old language usage with new. Stein uses pleasanter instead of the more accepted more pleasant, cocoanut instead of coconut, and especial instead of special.

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. [Stanza 6 of “Breakfast.”]

Stanza 6, as already stated in the first discussion of “Breakfast.”, establishes the Moby Dick/Tender Buttons crosstalk and the presence of the monstrous whale. What tipped Steiny off was the antiquated spelling of coconut (cocoanut is famous) which led to finding out that whale tongue was a French gourmet’s delicacy and then seeing the metaphoric connection in Melville’s novel that used salmon to describe the whale’s jumping abilities. However, there is more and the emphasis on drink brings The Quarter-Deck chapter back into play as Captain Ahab orders grog (watered down rum) served up to the crew.

"Drink and pass!" he cried, handing the heavy charged flagon to the nearest seaman. "The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round! Short draughts—long swallows, men; 'tis hot as Satan's hoof. So, so; it goes round excellently. It spiralizes in ye; forks out at the serpent-snapping eye. Well done; almost drained. That way it went, this way it comes. Hand it me—here's a hollow! Men, ye seem the years; so brimming life is gulped and gone. Steward, refill! [Moby Dick Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck]

Ahab commands the three mates to present their lances together so that he can take hold and validate where the poles cross. Then he says to them:

And now, ye mates, I do appoint ye three cupbearers to my three pagan kinsmen there—yon three most honourable gentlemen and noblemen, my valiant harpooneers. Disdain the task? What, when the great Pope washes the feet of beggars, using his tiara for ewer? Oh, my sweet cardinals! your own condescension, THAT shall bend ye to it. I do not order ye; ye will it. [Moby Dick Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck]

Next Ahab orders the harpoonists to cut the ties that hold the heads of the harpoons with its blades to the poles. He asks the mates, his appointed cupbearers, to take the steel end of the harpoons and turn them over so he can pour grog into the socket side of the harpoon hardware. Finally, Ahab has the harpoonists drink from these “murderous chalices.”

Needless to say the abundance of cups and the emphasis on drink in stanza 6 of Stein’s “Breakfast.” seems to point to Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck and the spectacular moment when Ahab gets his crew to agree that they will kill Moby Dick and then Ahab seals the deal with cups of grog.

What especially interests Steiny in Stein’s text is the word melon as it pertains to toothed whales like the spermaceti whale. (Moby Dick was a spermaceti whale.) The melon is a mass of adipose (fatty) tissue located in the forehead of all toothed whales. The melon, which assists with communication and echolocation, is not synonymous with the spermaceti organ from which the whalemen extracted a particularly find grade of whale oil. As far as Steiny knows Melville never mentions the melon but Stein most likely encountered the term when she was studying at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory near Nantucket in the summer of 1897. What made Steiny see melon as something special was that Stein separated the word watermelon into two words— Drink is likely to stir a certain respect for an egg cup and more water melon than was ever eaten yesterday.

Just as Steiny is not going to try at this time to correlate specifically the white, wet, strong, or single cups to Moby Dick, she is also not going to attempt to find pointed meaning in the egg cup. Though Steiny will say the egg cup seems to indicate Captain Ahab.

FRICTION BETWEEN STARBUCK AND AHAB

Generally speaking, “Breakfast.” stanzas 7 through 9 could be lined up with the heated exchange between Ahab and his first mate Starbuck.

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.

Starbuck establishes with Ahab that Moby Dick is the same whale that “took off thy [Ahab’s] leg.” A bit reluctantly Ahab admits this is so and then swears that he will kill the “accursed white whale.” The crew backs up the captain for his plan but Starbuck says:

"I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too, Captain Ahab, if it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow; but I came here to hunt whales, not my commander's vengeance. How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."

Ahab answers that he will see to it that Starbuck gets more pay for the work of this voyage: