Gertrude Stein

"A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears."

"To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write".

"I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences."

"Poetry is I say essentially a vocabulary just as prose is essentially not. And what is the vocabulary of which poetry absolutely is. It is a vocabulary based on the noun as prose is essentially and determinately and vigorously not based on the noun. Poetry is concerned with using with abusing, with losing with wanting with denying with avoiding with adoring with replacing the noun. It is doing that always doing that, doing that doing nothing but that. Poetry is doing nothing but using losing refusing and pleasing and betraying and caressing nouns. That is what poetry does, that is what poetry has to do no matter what kind of poetry it is. And there are a great many kinds of poetry. So that is poetry really loving the name of anything and that is not prose."

"The great thing about language is that we should forget it and begin it over again."

-Gertude Stein (b.1874)




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Ever since Chris lent me a copy of Tender Buttons I've developed a mild obsession with Gertude Stein. There's a lot to say about her. Many people say many different things. Some post-modern / avant-garde / whatever-you-want-to-call-it literary movements such as "L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E" of the 1970's have claimed her. She lived from 1874 to 1946, so obviously she wouldn't have described herself then in those terms. In fact, I'd be curious what she would think of it. Some feminists have claim her. Some get annoyed with her use repeatition. Some disregard her work as nonsense. Some say her writing is akin to cubist's painting. It's important to note that she did roll with some cubists such as Picasso. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania but resided mostly in Paris, France. Quoted to say, "America is my country, but Paris is my hometown."

Wikipedia says: "These stream-of-consciousness experiments, rhythmical word-paintings or 'portraits,' were designed to evoke 'the excitingness of pure being' and can be seen as an answer to Cubism in literature. Many of the experimental works such as Tender Buttons have since been interpreted by critics as a feminist reworking of patriarchal language. These works were loved by the avant-garde, but mainstream success initially remained elusive."

I will say only: it's clear that Stein was experimental, subversive, and innovative as a writer and bold as a personality; she certainly thought outside the timeframe in which she lived. So naturally she wasn't initially taken well by critics because her writings "did not represent a familiar world and could not be read in familiar ways" (to quote Ulla E. Dydo).

Cute tidbit!!! The famous sentance she wrote in Sacred Emily (1913): "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" was heavily promoted by her life partner Alice B. Toklas; for example, she sold plates with the sentence going all the way around.

The sentence is often interpreted as "things are what they are."
Stein: "When I said. 'A rose is a rose is a rose.' And then later made that into a ring I made poetry and what did I do? I caressed completely caressed and addressed a noun." (Lectures in America, 1935)

Many critics of the time disregarded her work as "nonsense." Her response? "Listen to me."

And my response? I'll use you Stein's words: "A master-piece ... may be unwelcome but it is never dull."

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Here are some audio links (thank you once again UBU) that you can listen to:

The Making of Americans: A family history and history of whole humanity. Written 1903 - 1911. Only very early notes were written in 1903 in New York; basically the novel was rewritten and rewritten in Europe. recorded in New York, Winter 1934-35.

Matisse: Written in Paris, early 1911; Recorded in New York, Winter 1934-35.

If I Told Him: A Complete Portrait of Picasso: Written late Aug. 1923 in Nice / Antibes, where Stein & Toklas went to see Picasso. Picasso returned to Paris early September, but Stein, working steadily, stayed on for 3 full months, far longer than her usual, short visits.

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If you are really interested in Gertude Stein, then you sould know that Ulla E. Dydo is one of the world's foremost Stein scholars.


Hahaha of course! someone has created a myspace profile of her with audio recordings.


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Internet thumbnail version of the portrait Picasso did of Stein (1906):