Tender Buttons – Objects, Food, Rooms

pick

Totally nonsensical, this book is impossible to rate, or even to understand in any coherent way. However, dipping in and out of the nonsense evokes a strange joy.

I‘ll leave you with the book‘s final thought, and if you figure out what this means you are a genius:

ā€The care with which there is an incredible justice and likeness, all this makes a magnificent asparagus, and also a fountain.ā€¯

Thanks, @SerialReader !

#MagnificentAsparagus

Lindy It combines three things I loveā€”asparagus, fountains and justiceā€”so it sounds joyous... whatever the sentence means. 3y

Libby1 @Lindy - how wonderful! Your comment brings joy to me. ā¯¤ļø¸ 3y

Creadnorthey Read out load the sense of it is in the beauty of the sounds the words make- and it is beautiful. Sense not so important. 3y

Libby1 I think you‘re right, @Creadnorthey . I did enjoy that aspect of it as well. Quite often it made me laugh in sheer disbelief, but that is not a bad thing. 3y

Creadnorthey @Libby1 I know what you mean- it‘s incredible how her book stays with you- I can‘t remember any one line, but have this feeling of joy when I think about the words I read many, many years ago. Like you said it‘s a great book to dip into. 3y

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Libby1

Tender Buttons | Gertrude Stein

A New Yorker article from 1934 describing Gertrude Stein‘s driving ability, (or lack of it!) and comparing it with her writing style.

This gave me a chuckle as these poems are a HOT MESS.

rwmg š¤£ 3y

31 likes1 comment

Libby1

Tender Buttons | Gertrude Stein

This book is STRANGE.

I think I should wander about and randomly spout off lines like,

ā€The sudden spoon is the wound in the decision.ā€¯

š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„š�„

GondorGirl š¤£š¤£š¤£ 3y

PurpleyPumpkin š‚ā€¼ļø¸ 3y

Lcsmcat I had the same reaction! 3y

Libby1 @GondorGirl , @PurpleyPumpkin , @Lcsmcat - I‘m not even trying to figure it out. I‘m just going to let it wash over me. š 3y

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Lcsmcat

Tender Buttons | Gertrude Stein

You can quote a title, right? š¤·š¸»ā€¨ā™€ļø¸ #buttons #quotsynov18 @TK-421

TK-421 Sure, why not? š„ 6y

38 likes1 comment

Lindy

Tender Buttons – Objects, Food, Rooms: Collection of Poems in Verse and Prose | Gertrude Stein

ā€Rhubarb is susan not susan not seat in bunch toys not wild and laughable not in little places not in neglect and vegetable not in fold coal age not please.ā€¯ -Gertrude Stein

A quote for @AnneCecilie plus a photo collage to show the hail stones that came down on my rhubarb on Friday.

saresmoore Holy cow! 6y

Lindy @saresmoore Fortunately, the hail came only over a short period. Unfortunately, it was followed by a torrential downpour. 6y

saresmoore I hope your rhubarb fares well. 6y

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DivineDiana Oh my! š³ 6y

Lindy @saresmoore @DivineDiana The rhubarb is fine; the leaves just look like they‘ve been used for target practice. šˇÆ (But that‘s not the edible part anyway.) 6y

saresmoore I was wondering if the leaves were edible. They certainly look delicious! 6y

Lindy @saresmoore The leaves are actually poisonous. That‘s an important thing to know if you are preparing rhubarb. 6y

AnneCecilie There definitely is a rhyme and musicality to her sentences, but I'm not sure about how much sense they make. On a side note, I wish for rain, it has been unusually dry this summer and the farmers are struggling 6y

Lindy @AnneCecilie I don‘t understand her sentences either! Still, I enjoy them. Hope some rain comes your way soon. We‘ve had 3 years or more of drought in Edmonton, so I‘m happy about the rain. 6y

AnneCecilie @Lindy We haven't gone years with no rain, just a couple of months with 5% of the usual rain. 6y

Lindy @AnneCecilie It‘s the same here: drought conditions in my area means far less moisture (snow and rain combined) than we usually receive, not no rain at all. The trees are showing stress. 6y

36 likes11 comments

AnneCecilie

Tender Buttons – Objects, Food, Rooms: Collection of Poems in Verse and Prose | Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was a prominent figure in Paris during ā€La Belle Époqueā€¯. She knew Picasso, Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Matisse. She called them the ā€Lost Generationā€¯.

So when I saw this green penguin classic, I wanted to find out what her writing was like. I‘ve now read some 50 pages of the above example, and don‘t know what to make of it. It‘s just rambling, or has someone read her and can tell me what I‘m missing?

#24in48

DivineDiana I have not read her writing, but I am currently reading about her in a book about Picasso. She also has a prominent role in the Genius- Picasso series on TV. I was born in Baltimore and a few weeks ago stood in front of her childhood home there. I am fascinated by her, but have not yet read her writing. However, there is a fabulous shop in NYC called ā€Tender Buttonsā€¯ that I have visited! š€ 6y

Lindy Adam Gopnik wrote about her style, calling it Steinese, and how it influenced Hemingway and subsequent American writers: www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/understanding-steinese/amp 6y

Lindy Try thinking of Stein‘s poetry as cubist art. Carly Sitrin wrote about Tender Buttons: ā€The words themselves are not challenging, just as a piece of cubist art is nothing more than a simple color or shape; the art comes from the organization as a whole. Stein‘s work is not meant to be analyzed word by word.ā€¯ 6y

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Lindy Sitrin continues: ā€Rather, she intends her poetry to be digested all at once, in the ā€continuous presentā€¯ with every word carrying the same weight because every word contains within it the essence of the whole.ā€¯ 6y

Lindy As it happens, I just finished a contemporary novel that takes its name from a quote by Stein: ā€There is no there there.ā€¯ (She was lamenting that ā€her‘ Oakland, the place she knew in her youth, had become something different.)

There There: A novel

AnneCecilie @Lindy thanks for the article, that was really an interesting read. Talking about her punctuation use or lack there of and especially commas. That didn't really bother me, since I'm not good at using commas. And her writing has a certain flow to it. My issue was that when there is a heading I expect her musing to be about that. In that regard my screen shot was probably not the best example. 6y

AnneCecilie @Lindy for example there is a heading with the title "Eating" and it sound like this " Eel us eel us with no no pea no pea cool, no pea cool cooler, no pea cooler with a land cost in, with a land cost in stretches." Guess I was expecting something more straight forward about eating. 6y

AnneCecilie @Lindy I've seen that book around Litsy a lot lately, is it any good? 6y

AnneCecilie @DivaDiane I've not seen that series. I missed the first episode, and I tend to not jump in afterwards. Would you recommend it? What a cool name for a store 6y

Lindy @AnneCecilie There There is fantastic. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. š‘¨ 6y

Lindy @AnneCecilie Stein plays with words and the sounds within words. I like the excerpt you quoted with eels and peas! 6y

AnneCecilie @Lindy guess I just wasn't prepared for her writing style, and her play with words and sounds. But it does have a certain flow, that makes it easy to read. If I was to read her again, I least I know what I'm getting myself info. 6y

Lindy @AnneCecilie šš‘¨ 6y

Weaponxgirl I haven't read this one but I found her autobiography of Gertrude b stein very hard going. I haven't read anymore by her for that reason even though I think she herself seems fascinating 6y

DivaDiane @AnneCecilie , I think you meant @DivineDiana ! 6y

DivineDiana @DivaDiane Thank you! This hasn‘t happened in a while! š‰ (edited) 6y

DivineDiana Yes, the series is well done! I am watching the series On Demand. 6y

DivaDiane @DivineDiana I think you‘re right! 6y

AnneCecilie @DivineDiana @DivaDiane I'm really sorry about the tagging mistake. 6y

AnneCecilie @Weaponxgirl yes, she doesn't have the easiest writing style to follow, but she does have a certain rhyme and musicality. She sounds like an interesting woman 6y

DivineDiana @AnneCecilie It is an easy mistake. No apology needed! š 6y

DivaDiane @AnneCecilie Yes, it‘s really no problem! We‘ve discovered it‘s a very easy mistake to make and we can usually tell if the other was meant. š 6y

42 likes22 comments

AnneCecilie

Tender Buttons – Objects, Food, Rooms: Collection of Poems in Verse and Prose | Gertrude Stein

Ready to start book 6 for #24in48

Book not in the database, but it's excerpt from the tagged book.

24in48

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AnneCecilie

Tender Buttons – Objects, Food, Rooms: Collection of Poems in Verse and Prose | Gertrude Stein

Book not in the database, but here‘s number 3

22 likes

Lindy

Tender Buttons | Gertrude Stein

We have an 11 hour layover in Toronto on our way to Ireland, so we went to the Dior exhibit at the museum. You may be wondering what these buttons that we saw have to do with books, but I find literary connections everywhere I go. The buttons were made in Paris in 1950 by François-Victor Hugo, a descendant of Victor Hugo.

Miss_Kim That‘s so cool! š’•š“–š’• 7y

AmyG Beautiful 7y

saresmoore Great connection! 7y

LeahBergen That‘s so cool! 7y

batsy Very cool! They're so pretty. 7y

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WanderingBookaneer

Tender Buttons | Gertrude Stein

My first Stein

Valeka That‘s on my TBR for March! 7y

Shortstack Let me know what you think of this one when you're done. 7y

Velvetfur Ooohhh I've always been curious about her work! Looking forward to your review and thoughts along the way š‘¨ 7y

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monalyisha

Tender Buttons | Gertrude Stein

Just read these words by happenstance. New life motto. š’š¸¼

mcipher Is that you? Those shoes with that dress!! ā¯¤ļø¸ā¯¤ļø¸ā¯¤ļø¸ 7y

monalyisha @mcipher It is! They were my reception shoes. I bedazzled the toes myself. š‰š¤“ Sneakers for the dancing portion = one of the best choices I‘ve ever made. š™š¸» Plus, are Converse *ever* the wrong fashion choice? (edited) 7y

Jess_Read_This Omigosh. I love this quote. So much #Truth. And I love your dancing pic!!! 7y

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Morr_Books Lovely! 7y

ElleSkel I love this pic so much!! 7y

mcipher Converse are always the right choice for sure!! 7y

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