THE
BOOK ............ ......-
TENDER BUTTONS
THE
SUBBOOK ..................-
OBJECTS
THE
SUBPOEM ..................-
A PLATE: NUMBER 12
STANZAS............. .....-
7
WORD
COUNT............. .....-
257
THE
LEADER.......... . .....-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS..............-
MODPO STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
GENRE.............
....-
VIRTUAL OPERA
LOCATION............ .....-
USA, England, Australia, Philippines, South Africa..
TIME...............
...-
ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK
TONE..............
....- ARDENT
THE OPENING ARIA
If Tender Buttons is a box of objects,
food, and rooms,
if Tender Buttons is a catalogue—a list, a
register, a count, accounting of objects, food, rooms,
if Tender Buttons is carafe that is a blind
glass brimming with an elixir blended from objects, food, rooms,
then
the entirety of Gertrude Stein’s long poem Tender
Buttons— objects, food, rooms—must also be served up on a plate. But what
kind?
The Steiny Road Poet will
now cut to the chase—printing and photographic plates.
From several days of the
Button Collective seeing—
hints of picnics,
household moving, wedding activities, judicial action against stolen art, Stein
and Toklas visiting the comfortably cool churches in the hot town of Avila
Spain, home plates of baseball, constipation, femme body fluid—what flow-ers!—
Tracy Sonafelt’s “Big
Idea” of printing and photographic plates rose above the others as the plate of
Stein’s deep interest. She wanted to see publication of Tender Buttons, and so the printing and photographic plate stands
out for its snug fit against these stanzas.
Here are the highlights of
the discussion going stanza by stanza, but please know, Dear Reader, that the
discussion was not an orderly affair. Steiny points to what Mary Armour related about Jewish mothers-in-law-to-be
ceremoniously breaking ceramic plates at their children’s engagement party. This was
serious sign of commitment between the two families. In this explication, it means the discussion did not begin with stanza 1. Like the actions of the
mothers of the engaged children, which look like hand-to-hand combat but replays
the Jewish creation myth of the Shattering of the Vessels (shevirat ha-kelim)
and its implications for raising up primordial sparks once
contained in these vessels in an effort for repairing the world (tikkun olam),
the chaotic, anything-goes approaches to Tender
Buttons by the Button Collective invariably gathers enough divine flame for a roaring bonfire. And let it be known, especially to Al Filreis, our intrepid founder and leader of the
Coursera MOOC Modern Poetry, that The Button Collective is, in the words of
Jackson Mac Low’s unnamed friend, merely creating a “sensation of meaning.”
A PLATE.
[1] An occasion for a plate, an
occasional resource is in buying and how soon does washing enable a selection
of the same thing neater. If the party is small a clever song is in order.
Eleanor
Smagarinsky led the discussion on stanza 1 seeing two possible interpretations:
reference to the stolen artwork from the Louvre that Pablo Picasso purchased
from Guilliame Apollinaire’s secretary and a wedding photo of Gertrude and Alice
taken during their private celebration party.
In the
scenario of the stolen art, Eleanor saw the words A PLATE transmogrifying by
letters doubling to APPELLATE (relating in the world of law as in having
jurisdiction to review cases or reverse decisions of inferior courts). The
story goes that Picasso loved Iberian art and so a secretary of Picasso’s
friend Apollinaire stole some Iberian sculptures from the Louvre and sold them
to Picasso. Later the secretary went to the Paris
Journal with another Iberian statuette to expose how easy it was to steal
from the Louvre. Picasso and Apollinaire fearing that they would be implicated
in an art theft ring thought at first that they would ditch what Picasso had in
the Seine River. They packed the art in a suitcase and tried to execute the
plan but feared even in the dead of night too many eyes were watching, so
Apollinaire went to same newspaper, turned over the stolen artworks and got arrested.
Eleanor saw "party"
as a reference to the legal "party for the defense." The theft
happened in 1911; in 1912 while on vacation in Spain, Stein began writing what
would become Tender Buttons.
On the
subject of the wedding photo, Eleanor said,
“A
photograph taken on a special occasion. It is bought,
and made - it is made by washing it in different solutions in
a darkroom, and this does "enable a selection of the same thing
neater" - i.e. a photograph. And if it's a party of two (G&A)
then it's special, and therefore deserving of a celebratory poem/song, written
by G especially for the occasion, but in riddle form so as to be clever in
keeping their feelings private.
“I saw this
as a celebratory moment - G & A are having a portrait taken, it's just the
two of them, and this is cause for G to write a fabulous poem (the one we are
reading right now, right now!!!), but it's "clever" – i.e. dense,
difficult, locked - because their relationship is precious and private.”
[2] Plates and a dinner set of colored
china. Pack together a string and enough with it to protect the centre, cause a
considerable haste and gather more as it is cooling, collect more trembling and
not any even trembling, cause a whole thing to be a church.
In stanza 2,
Mary Armour, drawing details from Lindsay Wagner-Martin’s Favored Strangers, led with Xciting historical background about
where Stein was when she began writing Tender
Buttons.
“Stein begins writing Tender Buttons while she is in Spain on
honeymoon with Alice. It is hot and they go to cities,
bullfights, nightclubs to see gipsy dancers, to cool off in
churches.
“They go together to Avila,
the hometown of Spain's greatest Catholic saint, Teresa of Avila who was from a
Marrano family (Jews forced to convert to Catholicism). In her corduroy
robes, Gertrude is taken for a monk. She reads up everything she can find
on Teresa of Avila. The honeymooners walk the hills around Avila together
and eat roast partridge.”
Steiny offered, “I have been thinking picnic. I bet Alice packed a wicker
box that was tied with string to safeguard those heavy plates, that dinner
set.”
However, Mary
already had these thoughts, “What ever comes back to protecting the centre,
that trembling melting tender core, is deeply sexual. A string of saliva.
Wetting. A mark on the sheet. Kindness-redness-rudeness-rapid. A rosy stain. Stringing syllables
together.”
Mary said
Stein, like Djuna Barnes, was writing a Book of Repulsive Women. “In her comments on The Book of Repulsive Women, Quebec writer
Nicole Brossard recognizes the productive contradictions of Barnes's strategy
of subversive repetition: Are the women repulsive in their resignation to their
role as "still-lives," she asks along with Barnes, or are they
repulsive because they carry on their lips truths that confront the patriarchal
lie at work in their faces and in their flesh?”
Steiny offers that this
stanza intimates the processing of photographic plates which is a delicate set
of steps, requiring timing, chemical bath, darkness (like the soft light in a
church). Maybe the plates arrive in the darkroom packed together with string.
[3] A sad size a size that is not sad
is blue as every bit of blue is precocious. 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.
Allan Keeton
leading the way on stanza 3 associated a “game in green” with baseball and in
baseball comes the home plate. What’s more Gertrude and Alice loved baseball.
Allan
pointed out that the line from stanza 2: Pack
together a string and enough with it to protect the centre describes how a
baseball is made. Another line from stanza 2: cause a considerable haste and gather more as it is cooling, collect
more trembling and not any even trembling describes running to catch a ball
while cause a whole thing to be a church
is the communal stadium experience.
A lamp is not the only sign of glass from stanza 6 respectively note stadium
lights and binoculars. In stanza 4 A
splendid address refers to what the announcer says.
Allan,
stepping far outside the baseball box, offered what The Buttons know as
elephant sandwich and when Steiny, waking up one morning having missed a night
of reveling by The Buttons, said huh? Allan drew a cosmic diagram.
After
consulting with her resident Subject Matter Expert on photographic printing and
color theory, Steiny believes this stanza with it reference to color, hints at
the contradictions of how light is perceived and the problems in achieving
color photographs which was being worked on during the time Stein was
writing Tender Buttons.
[4] A splendid address a really splendid
address is not shown by giving a flower freely, it is not shown by a mark or by
wetting.
Barbara
Crary, a new contributor to the TB MOOSG, led the way on stanza 4 seeing
that the word flower could be flow-er related to the line not shown by a mark or by wetting, as
in something that flows. She also
offered this interpretation:
“I keep hearing an association between
"address"/"dress" and
"wetting"/"wedding." I've also been thinking about the
possible reference in Stanza 2 to packing the plates for a move to another
location. Could this stanza be a reference to the household that Alice
and Gertrude set up when they first moved in together? These was
no bouquet, no marriage license (mark) and no wedding, but to them it was still
a splendid address.”
Adding to
the splendid address being 27 rue de Fleurus, Steiny and based on the
definition of splendid (Brilliant
with light or color), Steiny said Stein is referring to the color of her
paintings hanging on the walls there.
Finally,
Barbara concluded that “I'm now seeing the references to "mark" and
"wetting" as flaws in the process of printing, or perhaps
photography, that might mar the splendor of what's being reproduced.”
[5] Cut cut in white, cut in white so
lately. Cut more than any other and show it. Show it in the stem and in
starting and in evening coming complication.
Tracy led
the discussion on stanza 5 beginning with notes on the repetitive triadic
structure using the word cut.
“The first sentence: [1] Cut [2] cut
in white, [3] cut in white so lately.
“The entire
stanza: [1] Cut cut in white, cut in white so lately. [2] Cut more
than any other and show it. [3] Show it in the stem and in starting and
in evening coming complication.”
Other
possible associations Tracy noted included: human surgery, plant pruning,
fertility and human procreation. Then she presented the BIG IDEA.
“And now for
the BIG IDEA. Etching printing/photographic plates. This is my favorite
because of the personal connection. Between college and graduate school, I worked
in a print ship that used both Linotype and offset methods. I was hired as
proofreader, but since I was really fast—most proofreaders are not English
degree-holders—my boss told me to “wander back to Camera and see what Buddy can
do with you” whenever I finished my work and there was some day left. Anyway,
what we did in Camera was called photoengraving and there
was a lot of glass and metal and etching and chemicals, and the process of
creating the printing master, the surface to which the ink will adhere on the
press, was called both cutting (and burning) a plate.
“Offset printing or offset
lithography has been around since 1875. And there are implications for Stanza 6
as well. “The word ‘lithograph’ historically means ‘An image from stone’ or
‘Print from stone,’” and the giant camera used has a large lamp, and the
negatives are touched up on light tables, and the spots in the negatives that
are not to be cut into the plate are covered.
“Also this
from our friend Wikipedia about photographic glass plates:
“Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a target medium in
photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver [GS loves silver] salts was
applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from
the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient
and less fragile films were introduced. However, photographic plates were still
in use by some photography businesses until the 1970s.” Since we know from
Joshua Schuster’s Jacket 2
piece that Objects was actually the last section of TB written, I
have to believe that Stein is thinking about publication—and printing—at this
point in her composition.”
[6] A lamp is not the only sign of
glass. The lamp and the cake are not the only sign of stone. The lamp and the
cake and the cover are not the only necessity altogether.
Mark Snyder
led stanza 6 with wedding associations, “Lamp, glass, cake, stone- I'm thinking wedding again. I
have the mental image of a candle (lamp) used in wedding ceremonies
where the couple lights the candle together, symbolizing their union. Cake
is obvious as a potential wedding reference. Stone (diamond) only
slightly less so. Often wedding presents are made of crystal (glass).
For cover I get the mental image of tablecloths at a wedding
reception, or a cloth covering an altar? The Torah itself if covered, is
it not?”
Tracy
connected stanza 6 with “A Box.”
She outlined as follows:
“Cover.
A BOX.: “The one, one is the same
length as is shown by the cover being longer. The other is different
there is more cover that shows it.”
A PLATE.: “The lamp and the cake and
the cover are not the only necessity altogether.”
“Table.
A BOX.: “The one is on the table.
The two are on the table. The three are on the table.”
A PLATE.:
“The lamp and the cake and the cover” are all things on a table. Whether this
is the wedding table or the dining room table or the examining room table or
simply the metaphorical table where we sort our buttons and unpack our ideas
and gather as our Button Collective ... well, all of these perspectives are
worth examining.
“Syntax.
[Triadic, additive structure: 1. 1 +
2. 1 + 2 + 3.]
A BOX.: “[1] The one is on the table. [1 + 2] The two are on the
table. [1 + 2 + 3] The three are on the table.”
A PLATE. ‘[1] A lamp is not the
only sign of glass. [1 + 2] The lamp and the cake are not the only sign of
stone. [1 + 2 + 3] The lamp and the cake and the cover are not the only
necessity altogether.’”
Eleanor saw
the Jewish unveiling ceremony of a gravestone placed a year of death. “The
stone is the gravestone, but also the traditional stones which are
placed on the grave. The cover is the cloth that is then taken off,
for the unveiling ceremony. The lamp could be the yahrzeit candle. The cake
is odd, but might point to the gathering following the ceremony, where small
pieces of cake and tiny cups of wine are handed out to guests.”
Tamboura
Gaskins offered the following about the opening line.
A lamp
is not the only sign of glass. …
“A lamp = A for Alice
lamp = a source of
intellect; a source of light
only = sole; having no
sibling; superior
glass = Gertrude; device to
compensate for defective vision
“Firstly, the assonance here
works to connect intimately lamp and glass. Here, Stein wants us to know
that this line is very personal and hints at the intimate relationship between
herself and Alice Toklas. She is expressing a bit of frustration about
the confines of being in a relationship with Alice; she is lamenting, “I am not
only Alice’s mate; I am more than my connection to or association with Alice.” Stein’s
discontent is palpable, and it makes me think that perhaps there was chronic
tension in their relationship over Stein’s desire to explore intellect and
intimacy outside of her relationship with Toklas.
“Next, I believe that Stein
is saying, I am more than my intellectual prowess; I have feelings too. She
seems to be expressing that her intellect is not the best part of her.
She wants to shine a light, a lamp, on the other aspects of herself that define
who she is.
“Also, Stein is expressing a
sense of loneliness. She feels the sadness of being alone, or that her
present circumstances are not fulfilling.
Lastly, Stein is making a
socio-political statement about gay unions. The glass, as a device for
correcting defective vision, is she [and Alice] who stands as a symbol
representing the lamp, the rightness or "alright-ness" of
homosexuality.”
Steiny, based on Tracy’s Big
Idea, offered “corrosion gets caked
onto batteries. I'm thinking: A layer or deposit of compacted matter
as cake and doesn’t this apply to lithography?” Doing some research, she found
a definition of India ink, “a black pigment, as of specially prepared lampblack,
or carbon black, mixed with a gelatinous substance and dried into cakes
or sticks.”
[7] A plan a hearty plan, a compressed
disease and no coffee, not even a card or a change to incline each way, a plan
that has that excess and that break is the one that shows filling.
Mary jumped back in for
stanza 7 to say something was wrong, given all the negatives and that
compressed disease (possibly constipation, possibly corseted innards not
feeling so well). Steiny rejoined that the compressed disease could belong to
Stein’s brother Leo who was not happy at the time of Stein writing Tender Buttons. He was annoyed about the
household expenses increasing when Alice moved in and how he was bearing an
unfair financial burden. He was also annoyed about Picasso’s cubism and that
influence on his sister’s writing.
Steiny also thinks this
stanza has that sensation of meaning related to the storage of photographic
glass plates. Here’s an excerpt from Greta Bahnemann’s Internet paper The Preservation of Glass Plate Negatives (last updated 21 March 2012).
“Many archivists believe it is better to use a
larger quantity of smaller boxes than a fewer number of larger sized boxes in
order to prevent strain on the boxes and any staff involved in the handling of
the negatives. If a box cannot be filled,
corrugated cardboard filler pieces should be cut to size and placed in the
boxes to snug up plates and fill out any extra space in the container. These
filler pieces will keep plates upright
and prevent any front-to-back movement within the box.”
Bahnemann’s report is a fascinating history of the
photographic process and how it affected people of Stein’s time.
“In 1864 John Towler published The Silver
Sunbeam and, in it he outlined the new photographic process in just ten
easy steps… Towler's publication (and the many others like it) helped foster
the growing interest in glass plate photography. This interest eventually
spread to all reaches of the earth and to almost every walk of life.”
Of all the possible lens
offered by The Buttons, Steiny says the one that consistently works through the
seven stanzas is the printing/photographic plates. Certainly getting Tender Buttons published was a top
priority for Stein and would also do honor to her bride.
THE CURTAIN DESCENDS ON THIS OPERA
Definition: TB MOOSG:
Tender Buttons Massive Open Online Study Group
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