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[in one of the unpublished, handwritten notebooks for The Making of Americans]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

Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Breakfast. Stanzas 17-22. Discussion 3

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

The last stanzas of “Breakfast.” provoked extensive discussion among the Buttons Collective that went in different directions without unifying stanzas 17 through 22 or this third of the subpoem to the prior two segments. Recent discoveries made by the Steiny Road Poet pertaining to crosstalk between Tender Buttons “Breakfast.” and Moby Dick will be addressed in the next post.

Among other topics addressed in this post are: cereal versus tea; photography; martial marital minister; the language of mathematics; Steinian cocktails & cut and paste; gender dilemma; Steinian code; knife scissors cat—a new kind of game; and Passover rituals.

Burden the cracked wet soaking sack heavily, burden it so that it is an institution in fright and in climate and in the best plan that there can be.

An ordinary color, a color is that strange mixture which makes, which does make which does not make a ripe juice, which does not make a mat.

A work which is a winding a real winding of the cloaking of a relaxing rescue. This which is so cool is not dusting, it is not dirtying in smelling, it could use white water, it could use more extraordinarily and in no solitude altogether. This which is so not winsome and not widened and really not so dipped as dainty and really dainty, very dainty, ordinarily, dainty, a dainty, not in that dainty and dainty. If the time is determined, if it is determined and there is reunion there is reunion with that then outline, then there is in that a piercing shutter, all of a piercing shouter, all of a quite weather, all of a withered exterior, all of that in most violent likely.

An excuse is not dreariness, a single plate is not butter, a single weight is not excitement, a solitary crumbling is not only martial.

A mixed protection, very mixed with the same actual intentional unstrangeness and riding, a single action caused necessarily is not more a sign than a minister.

Seat a knife near a cage and very near a decision and more nearly a timely working cat and scissors. Do this temporarily and make no more mistake in standing. Spread it all and arrange the white place, does this show in the house, does it not show in the green that is not necessary for that color, does it not even show in the explanation and singularly not at all stationary.

“Perhaps this is the most violent passage so far in Tender Buttons and yet it could just be nothing more than soaking some grain to prepare it for cooking.” Karren Alenier

“Tender Buttons as collage—cut and paste.” Teri Rife

ON CEREAL AND TEA

Burden the cracked wet soaking sack heavily, burden it so that it is an institution in fright and in climate and in the best plan that there can be.

With words like burden, cracked, heavily, institution, fright, best plan, stanza 17 is literally overloaded with weights that seem threatening and for which a good strategy doesn’t exist. Karren Alenier opened this Tender Buttons discussion noting that Stein uses the word burden as a verb and that Stein insistently uses the preposition in and this repetition adds to a climate indicating something bad might happen. If the occasion is not dangerous, then perhaps it is boring like cracked wheat cereal soaking in its sack, such that the institution of breakfast has become habitual.

While Peter Treanor could see the cracked wheat cereal grains, he could also see “a tea bag, a wet sack with cracks or holes, burdened with water, burdened with the task of making a cup of tea.” In this case, the tea is heavily sugared which serves as a shock or fright to one’s system “on a cold or hot day supposed to be beneficial in any climate.” He referenced Wikipedia: The first tea bags were hand-sewn fabric bags; tea bag patents date as early as 1903.[2] First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world.

Then moving on to stanza 18, he suggested Stein might be pointing to coca tea:

An ordinary color, a color is that strange mixture which makes, which does make which does not make a ripe juice, which does not make a mat.

“On the theme of tea, an ordinary colour could be the brown/tan of the tea? Brown/tan being perhaps ‘ordinary.’ A colour is that strange mixture which makes, the mix of the tea with water or the mix of the tea with milk maybe. It isn’t a juice, well tea isn’t a juice and is more often from leaves not fruit, juice being more often from fruit. Which does not make a mat, well could that be playfully referring to, Spanish (Latin Am) for infusion/ tea. Mate de Coca being coca tea.”

ON PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEA ‘N T

Stanza 19 provoked sightings related to photography and more tea talk.

A work which is a winding a real winding of the cloaking of a relaxing rescue. This which is so cool is not dusting, it is not dirtying in smelling, it could use white water, it could use more extraordinarily and in no solitude altogether. This which is so not winsome and not widened and really not so dipped as dainty and really dainty, very dainty, ordinarily, dainty, a dainty, not in that dainty and dainty. If the time is determined, if it is determined and there is reunion there is reunion with that then outline, then there is in that a piercing shutter, all of a piercing shouter, all of a quite weather, all of a withered exterior, all of that in most violent likely.

Alenier on the subject of cameras offered:

“The timeline for the development of photography adds much to understanding this stanza, including use of celluloid film (1887), the 1888 Kodak box camera touted as first easy-to-use camera, the 1900 Kodak Brownie (very inexpensive user-reloadable point-an-shoot box camera).

“While I'm not sure what the cloaking of a relaxing rescue is, the winding could pertain to the box camera and its film. 

“Sentence 2 which talks about something cool and not dusting, not dirtying in smelling could be comparing the old method of photography which used gunpowder to create a flash of light. It smelled bad and created dust.”

Treanor able to put on Alenier’s glasses for photography responded:

“It does sound very photography—winding a real winding does sound like the reel winding the film, and then the outline, the shutter, shouter (say cheese).”

However, Treanor was still seeing and hearing an explosion tea ‘n T:

“But I’m still a little obsessed with tea and tea bags. work and winding real winding of the cloaking, sound like ringing out or squeezing the exterior of the bag to make the tea brew quicker, the cloaking being the bag the tea is in. The relaxing rescue could be the tea, a relaxing, revitalizing and rescuing drink. It has a certain aroma (smelling). White water sounds like it could be milk. Dipped and dainty sound like the tea bag dipping in the dainty porcelain tea cup, all those dainties feel like it dipping in and out and in and out to make it brew. 

“Then there seems to be a run of words with the letter T in them and lots of T sounds

If the time is determined, if it is determined and there is reunion there is reunion with that then outline, then there is in that a piercing shutter, all of a piercing shouter, all of a quite weather, all of a withered exterior, all of that in most violent likely.

“All those T’s, Leaves of Tea, tea leaves, rather than Leaves of Grass.”

Alenier thought Treanor’s obsession with the tea bag a good complement to the meal of breakfast but she added on more thought on shutter speed: “I had one other thought and this has to do with with shutter speed and how this has to break fast when one shoots. This is also time determined, particularly in low light conditions.”

Emily W picked up the discussion on photography and moved the discussion tangentially with the word plate into stanza 20:

“The repeated use of ‘dainty’ makes me wonder about if she is referring to the subject of the photo.  A captured moment on a plate. Cameras aren't exactly dainty but they are fragile and the lens is small, and one must be careful with the resulting image to not damage it.

“Also, the repetition makes me think about the way a person could use a camera to get many different perspectives on a subject, like a cubist painter might, but effect is different since the images are separate while a painting has more freedom to include everything in one.

“I just listened to the Poem Talk about Barbara Guest's poem ‘Roses’ (ModPo Plus chapter 8). As I understand, the poem is a reference to something GS said, that a painting has no air in it. A photo doesn't either, but the image created has a realism beyond what a painter can do, so I'm back to the daintiness of the people in the photo with the air sucked out, shrunk down from their original size.”

MARTIAL VERSUS MARITAL

Alenier picked up the conversation by looking at stanza 20 more comprehensively:

An excuse is not dreariness, a single plate is not butter, a single weight is not excitement, a solitary crumbling is not only martial. 

“With this stanza, could Stein be referring to her ‘failed’ career as a medical doctor An excuse is not dreariness, but simultaneously saying that her decision was not bleak. Then she goes to persuade the reader that a single woman (plate-weight) that is, herself, might disintegrate and that would be a violent thing (a solitary crumbling is not only martial). 

“The word martial led me to the mythological Mars, God of War and lover of Venus.”

Teri Rife joined the discussion, saying:

“That word martial is interesting. Depending upon where the ‘i’ is located, either before or after the ‘t’ (for Toklas?), it is seemingly very different—i before t = marital; i after t = martial. But maybe there are aspects of both in a relationship.

“I think that this line could also be talking about aspects of finishing a meal. The statement, ‘May I please be excused?’ is not as dreary as many other excuses made. A single plate is not—a butter plate? A single person left waiting (sounds like weighting) at the table is not exciting. A solitary crumb-catcher finally clears the field of battle on the dining table.”

Alenier thanked Rife for “spelling out the martial/marital double take! I kept stumbling over that word the first few reads but didn't consciously realize why.”

MINISTER: A MIXED PROTECTION

In picking up the forward movement through the last “Breakfast.” stanzas, Alenier observed:

A mixed protection, very mixed with the same actual intentional unstrangeness and riding, a single action caused necessarily is not more a sign than a minister.

“I think this one is particularly obscure. So I'm starting backwards and going for minister:”

min·is·ter

 (mĭn′ĭ-stər)

n.

1.

a. One who is authorized to perform religious functions in a Christian church, especially a Protestant church.

b. Roman Catholic Church The superior in certain orders.

2. A high officer of state appointed to head an executive or administrative department of government.

3. An authorized diplomatic representative of a government, usually ranking next below an ambassador.

4. A person serving as an agent for another by carrying out specified orders or functions.

“I'm putting my money on— #4: A person serving as an agent for another by carrying out specified orders or functions.

“Here is the root of minister:”

Middle English, from Old French ministre, from Latin minister, servant; see mei- in Indo-European roots.]

“I'm thinking the minister is Alice. She is the one cooking breakfast.

“And perhaps the word riding points to inroads?

•    road - First meant ’riding’ or ’hostile incursion on horseback’—a sense preserved in ’inroads.’”

Agreeing that the word minister has the most interest and possibility in this stanza, Rife suggested looking at the meaning as a verb.

verb: minister; 3rd person present: ministers; past tense: ministered; past participle: ministered; gerund or present participle: ministering

1.
attend to the needs of (someone).
’her doctor was busy ministering to the injured’


(archaic)
provide (something necessary or helpful).
’the story was able to minister true consolation’







2.
act as a minister of religion.

synonyms:

tend to, care for, take care of, look after, nurse, treat, attend to, see to, administer to, help, assist—doctors were ministering to the injured’

administer (a sacrament).






Origin

Middle English (sense 1 of the noun and sense 3 of the noun): from Old French minister (noun), ministrer (verb), from Latin minister ‘servant,’ from minus ‘less.’

Cooking with Tender Buttons Food: Breakfast. Stanzas 10-16. Discussion 2

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

THE LEADER........................-           THE STEINY ROAD POET

CO-LLABORATORS.............-            MODPO STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS

The middle stanzas of “Breakfast.” seem to indicate a problem between two opposing forces and strong advice about resolving whatever the issue might be. Poetically, Stein uses rhyme and other devices to catch the reader’s attention.

Among the topics addressed in this post are: losing sound in a bell jar—an argument between Gertrude and Leo Stein; poetic fantasia; romancing of the dinner—roast (beef?) and cake; the ups and downs of relationship; imperative statements and sacramental language.

A breeze in a jar and even then silence, a special anticipation in a rack, a gurgle a whole gurgle and more cheese than almost anything, is this an astonishment, does this incline more than the original division between a tray and a talking arrangement and even then a calling into another room gently with some chicken in any way.

A bent way that is a way to declare that the best is all together, a bent way shows no result, it shows a slight restraint, it shows a necessity for retraction.

Suspect a single buttered flower, suspect it certainly, suspect it and then glide, does that not alter a counting.

A hurt mended stick, a hurt mended cup, a hurt mended article of exceptional relaxation and annoyance, a hurt mended, hurt and mended is so necessary that no mistake is intended.

What is more likely than a roast, nothing really and yet it is never disappointed singularly.

A steady cake, any steady cake is perfect and not plain, any steady cake has a mounting reason and more than that it has singular crusts. A season of more is a season that is instead. A season of many is not more a season than most.

Take no remedy lightly, take no urging intently, take no separation leniently, beware of no lake and no larder.

“It’s interesting that roast is on its own wanting to rhyme so much with toast, and toast is there but its name being suggested with the rack and the crusts.” Peter Treanor

 “And the point, this time, is in the word ‘disappointing.’” Teri Rife

LOSING SOUND IN A BELL JAR

Karren Alenier opened the discussion experiencing a bell jar:

A breeze in a jar and even then silence, a special anticipation in a rack, a gurgle a whole gurgle and more cheese than almost anything, is this an astonishment, does this incline more than the original division between a tray and a talking arrangement and even then a calling into another room gently with some chicken in any way.

“I believe Stein is talking about a bell jar where it is possible create a vacuum. Stein would have been familiar with bell jars as a scientist. The vacuum inside a bell jar is partial and has to do with atmospheric pressure related to gas. This might be associated with a breeze. Here is an example:”

An example of a classroom science experiment involving a bell jar is to place a ringing alarm clock under the bell jar. As the air is pumped out of the sealed bell jar, the noise of the alarm clock fades, thus demonstrating that the propagation of sound is mediated by the air. In the absence of their medium, the sound waves cannot travel.[2]

“The example may account for ‘a talking arrangement and even then a calling into another room’ and given some chicken, Stein might be pointing to an argument she had with her brother during the period when she was writing Tender Buttons. In Roastbeef. stanza 9 and 30, Stein gives us room to comb chickens and a slender chicken, which by way of Plato’s featherless biped as human, may represent Leo Stein, the brother with whom she initially shared the apartment 27 rue de Fleurus. Here, the chicken (Leo) seems to be in the way. If this is an argument between the sister and brother, then cheese seems to pejorative.

“However, bell-shaped jars were used also as covers for cheese—a cheese dome.”

Emily W asked, “Was GS a scientist too?”

Claudia Schumann answered, “Yes, GS studying medicine in college.”

Alenier added:

“Emily, she was doing scientific research at Harvard. She also went to a summer program at the famous Woods Hole marine biology center in Massachusetts.”

Emily W replied:

“I studied Chemistry down the street from Harvard. When the vacuum is broken, air will rush in, equalizing the pressure. It's the same thing that happens in our lungs when we inhale. Which makes me think of the spongy, ‘cheesy’ if you will, texture of them. Maybe she had some sitting in specimen jars around the lab. Maybe the lungs or the exhale or gurgle has something to do with the talking and calling.”

peter treanor· 5 months ago 

A breeze in a jar and even then silence,

“I can see and hear the cheesy wheezy lungs inflating (in the rack of the rib cage, also ribs of lamb called a rack).

“There's a feel of some sort of experiment going on—tubes, jars, heat rising, steam, a breeze created, a test tube rack, all that gurgling as the liquids boil and bubbles bubble, like some kind of distillation. Anticipation and astonishment at the results and transformations in the process

“But I also thought of this when reading breeze in a jar then silence, this seemed to suggest the breeze made a noise and then all was quiet, maybe when the breeze stopped.”

Launching an extended analysis, Alenier replied:

“Emily and Pete, I'm thinking about the broken vacuum and the pressure being equalized. Maybe Gertrude felt she was living in a fishbowl as the metaphor goes and by breaking that jar, that bell jar, the social pressure on her diminished. And as a consequence she could breathe better.

STEIN’S POETIC FANTASIA

“With stanzas ten and eleven, Stein is creating a poetic fantasia.

“The last line of stanza one flows poetically into the first line of stanza two, keying on the word way:”

…even then a calling into another room gently with some chicken in any way.

A bent way that is a way to declare that the best is all together, a bent way shows no 

“Stanza 12 image-wise seems the most fantasia like to me with its single buttered flower and how Stein is advising the reader to regard it suspiciously as it glides. It makes me think of the animated film Fantasia.”

Suspect a single buttered flower, suspect it certainly, suspect it and then glide, does that not alter a counting.

“Stanza 13 repeats the word hurt but it seems to me more poetic than negative given the repetition of the word mended:

A hurt mended stick,

a hurt mended cup,

a hurt mended article of exceptional relaxation and annoyance,

a hurt mended,

hurt and mended is so necessary that no mistake is intended.

Emily W interjected:

“Mending—another job for women, an important one since new clothes weren't quite so cheap. A family member told me that when he was in school it was alright to go to school with clothes that had been mended, but not that were torn or had a hole.”

ROMANCING OF THE DINNER

Alenier continuing said,

“In stanzas 14 and 15, Stein moves to what I'm going to call a romancing of the dinner with the roast and cake:

What is more likely than a roast, nothing really and yet it is never disappointed singularly.

A steady cake, any steady cake is perfect and not plain, any steady cake has a mounting reason and more than that it has singular crusts. A season of more is a season that is instead. A season of many is not more a season than most.

“Also notice the alliteration steady steady steady singular season season inStead season season moSt.

“Stanza 16 also plays with alliteration but of L:”

Take no remedy lightly, take no urging intently, take no separation leniently, beware of no lake and no larder.

“lightly intently leniently lake larder.”

Picking up on stanza 15, Teri Rife said,

“I think that steady cake could be a cheesecake, which is a cake that may have crusts. Cheesecake is ancient, generally believed to have been first made by the Greeks. From pappaspost.com:”

‘Greek brides and grooms were also known to use cheesecake as a wedding cake. It also became a custom for a Greek bride to bake and serve cheesecakes to her new husband’s friends as a gesture of hospitality. Incidentally, this concept eventually paved the way for wedding cakes to become a tradition that continues today.’

“When the Romans conquered Greece, the recipe came to them. They modified it adding eggs, and sometimes put it into pastry.

LANGUAGE THAT SINGS

“We've seen the ‘s’ alliteration over and over. It's so singing. And, look, the word ‘sing’ is actually right there in the middle of the stanza, contained in the word ‘singular.’ And, look again, there are 4 ‘seasons!’ Another instance of the repetition of a word 4x, Emily, and this time with a noun—unless, of course, it's a verb (to season our breakfast).”

Emily W asked:

“I was thinking about what you said about ‘a Rose is rose...’ how Stein said she was doing something different with every repeat, but I have to wonder, how is the reader supposed to know what she is doing with the repeats? Is it even important?”

Rife answered:

“The way I look at it is that it's important to me to figure out everything I can about this remarkably spare, yet very rich text. It's become all about the journey, not the destination. Even though I will never know what Stein is doing, I do know that it enriches my life to try, especially in the company of others.

“‘...steady...steady...steady...’ is like what we say when we're trying to balance something that's precarious, and the tension in the situation seems to increase as time goes along—a ‘mounting reason’ for carefulness. The ‘steady-ness in the first line pops up in the second, too, in the form of ‘instead.’ more...more...many...most’ This is building.”

Alenier commented:

“Teri, I also think your discussion about steady—mounting reason—falls in line with ‘the difference is spreading’ (“A carafe, that is a blind glass.”).

RELATIONSHIP ROLLERCOASTER

Moving in a different direction, Treanor asked answered:

“Is there something being said about relationships?

“There's division and arrangement in stanza 10.

“The best is all together in stanza 11.

“Stanza 12, A single buttered flower (a buttercup? any yellow flower? Or butter and flour?) which we are told to suspect and does not alter in a counting, which seems to emphasize it always stays as one, on it's own no matter how often we count it.

“Stanza 13, we have the series of things (objects) that are hurt and mended. Hurt is a recurring theme in TBs, it’s a strange word to use for an object as hurt requires consciousness, it is a feeling, how can an object be hurt? Does she mean some kind of damage? But hurt and mending seems to suggest repair or healing. Repair or re-pairing or pairing suggests relationship. Healing as relationship?

“Stanza 14, never disappointed singularly. Singularly can be singular or exceptional.

“Stanza 15, singular again, singular crusts.

“Stanza 16, take no separation leniently.

“Woven in with whatever else is woven in there, there does seem to be some sort of suggestion about being single, hurt and mending (healing), disappointment and an urge to not accept separation.

“And a steady state (I want to say steady state not steady cake when I read this), a steady cake seems to be perfect and not plain. Is a cake a mixture of ingredients? A mixture of many, not a single ingredient but a relationship of ingredients. An elaborate (not plain) cake that has a reason for mounting does sound like a wedding cake, mounted in tiers.”

Circling back to her question on Stein’s use of repetition, Emily W commented:

“I don't mean to be stuck on the repeating, well at least not too stuck. I am really just curious about it, since there are so many things one might try to convey through repetition, and spoken repetition is much easier to make sense of than written! It's like little mental puzzles to sort out, but maybe it doesn't even matter what she was thinking when she wrote it, but as you suggest, Teri, maybe it's more about what we as readers make of it.

“Anyway, the hurt, could be anything, feelings, something torn or broken, but whatever it is, it's been fixed. hurt and mended is so necessary that no mistake is intended.

To me this sounds like advice, of sorts—make sure to fix things so it doesn't get worse.”

Answering Emily W, Rife said:

“I think Gertrude fully intends for us to be stuck on the repeating, maybe not just because the word or idea being repeated is somehow important but also because repeating is part of the natural human speech pattern. We just sort of go on and on, filling up any silence.