BUTTONS BOX AS PIÑATA
THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER
BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK ...................-
OBJECTS
THE SUBPOEM
...................- A
SOUND: NUMBER 47
WORD
COUNT......................-
18
STANZA(S)............................-
1
THE SUBPOEM
...................- A
TABLE: NUMBER 48
WORD COUNT......................-
63
STANZA(S)............................-
2
THE SUBPOEM
...................- SHOES:
NUMBER 49
WORD
COUNT......................-
42
STANZA(S)............................-
2
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.....................................-
OSCILLATING
“I
suppose the reason so many people dislike Stein's language is that she doesn't
use any of the ‘dampers’ to which we are socially accustomed.” Eleanor Smagarinsky
“I
think Stein is giving us a peephole through the wall.” Karren Alenier
A SOUND.
Elephant beaten with candy and little pops and chews
all bolts and reckless reckless rats, this is this.
A TABLE.
A table means does it not my dear it means a whole
steadiness. Is it likely that a change.
A table means more than a glass even a looking glass
is tall. A table means necessary places and a revision a revision of a little
thing it means it does mean that there has been a stand, a stand where it did
shake.
SHOES.
To be a wall with a damper a stream of pounding way
and nearly enough choice makes a steady midnight. It is pus.
A shallow hole rose on red, a shallow hole in and in
this makes ale less. It shows shine.
While Stepping on Tender Buttons: “A Sound.", “ATable.", “Shoes." Part 1 of 2 dealt more with items of the physical world (such as animals, human body image,
what sounds we imagine we hear from household objects, the physics of
oscillation), Stepping on Tender
Buttons: “A Sound.", “A Table.", “Shoes." Part 2 of 2 deals
heavily with things of the mind—philosophy, creative property (like The Red Shoes and Le Sacre du printemps) and writerly
techniques.
THE ESSENCE
OF TABLE-NESS
Eleanor Smagarinsky kicked the discussion into a higher
plane by discussing tables that vary in the number of legs they stand on and
their variety of uses but then moved into a metaphysical discussion that
employs tables and chairs to define reality and existence. She said
“Philosophers discuss existentialism by using tables and chairs as examples”
and then pointed to work by Sir Arthur Eddington who said two kinds of tables come to mind: the
common sense table and the scientific table. Eleanor proceeded with a survey of
tables in Section 1 “Objects” of Tender
Buttons. What follows are excerpts from several subpoems with commentary
from Steiny.
The change
of color is likely and a difference a very little difference is prepared. Sugar
is not a vegetable.
A cushion
has that cover. Supposing you do not like to change, supposing it is very clean
that there is no change in appearance, supposing that there is regularity and a
costume is that any the worse than an oyster and an exchange. Come to season
that is there any extreme use in feather and cotton. Is there not much more
joy in a table and more chairs and very likely roundness and a place to put
them............
[Could that
joy in a table and more chairs be about a renewed interest in living? That
Stein has found love (sugar that is not a vegetable) and now sees what exists
right in front of her in a domestic scene of furniture, which is re-emphasized
in “A Table.”.]
More of
double.
A place
in no new table...........
[In
discussing “A Piece of Coffee.”, Eleanor and Steiny saw the “Coffee” table as a
coming together place. Here in “A Table.”, Stein emphasizes stability and what
can be seen as if this is a makeup table where one sees one’s self (more of
double).]
Dirt and not
copper makes a color darker. It makes the shape so heavy and makes no melody harder.
It makes
mercy and relaxation and even a strength to spread a table fuller. There
are more places not empty. They see cover.
[Periodic
Table—a list of chemical elements—comes up in discussing “Dirt and Not
Copper.”. Over time, that table expanded
as more discoveries of chemical elements were made. In “A Table.”, Stein weaves in hints of union
with Alice Toklas (my dear, change, a revision of a little thing), such that one could stretch the
periodic table to the monthly flow of womanly blood (period) and childbirth (a little
thing).]
A large box
is handily made of what is necessary to replace any substance. Suppose an
example is necessary, the plainer it is made the more reason there is for some
outward recognition that there is a result.
A box is
made sometimes and them to see to see to it neatly and to have the holes
stopped up makes it necessary to use paper.
A custom
which is necessary when a box is used and taken is that a large part of the
time there are three which have different connections. The one is on the
table. The two are on the table. The three are on the table. 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. The other is different and that
makes the corners have the same shade the eight are in singular arrangement to
make four necessary..........
[Philosophic
argument seems to open the first three stanzas of subpoem 11 “A Box.” and its
table-ness with its count of three is ponderous. So ponderous is this subpoem
that Tracy Sonafelt saw this box as Tender
Buttons and the table as the three-parts of Tender Buttons. What seems to be happening in “A Table.” is that
Stein is announcing a writerly change, in fact, a more radical change coming
with a birth (revision of a little thing) of new strategy that shakes the
stability of the table the reader has become familiar with.]
A widow in a
wise veil and more garments shows that shadows are even. It addresses no more,
it shadows the stage and learning. A regular arrangement, the severest and the
most preserved is that which has the arrangement not more than always
authorised.
A suitable
establishment, well housed, practical, patient and staring, a suitable
bedding, very suitable and not more particularly than complaining,
anything suitable is so necessary........
[As Eleanor
has pointed out chairs are companions to tables. Of all the furniture Stein
chose to emphasize (and shall Steiny point out there is no subpoem for the bed,
chest of drawers, buffet, lamp, etc.), chairs were a big and suitable topic about which the Buttons found an extraordinary number of
things to discuss.
In Steinian
analysis the word suitable can be
broken into sui + table. The root of table
is board. The root of suit is to follow. Sui brings to
mind the Latin phrase sui generis,
which means one of a kind and sui means of its own. Therefore sui-table might be thought to indicate a board of its own, where Stein is
emphasizing that companionable chair that fits with a table that is not
mentioned because it is a given. In the same way, “A Table.” points to its
companion without naming it.]
OH THOSE
BLOODY SHOES
Eleanor took the
lead on “Shoes.” in her usual Joy-I-Dance (Jouissance) gusto. She said:
“Karren, the minute you mentioned dance,
I thought of ballet shoes. Bloody toes under the soft pink slippers, pounding
away. And the story of ‘The Red Shoes’—in all its horrifying glory!!
“The perfect
fit [for a pointe shoe is vital...especially if you're Cinderella after
midnight, hehe.”
Eleanor also
pointed out the association with the scandalous Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of
Spring), which also features a young woman who dances herself to death, though in Le Sacre, the woman is
a sacrifice during the spring ceremonies to ensure a successful planting
season. The Buttons saw association with this ballet in their discussion of “In Between.” In
“Modernism and Primitivism: Music,” a paper by M. Wollaeger, Eleanor highlights the following comment
about Stein as well as comments made by Stein in The Autobiography of Alice
B. Toklas:
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