Thursday, June 24, 2010

“Gertrude Stein”


Hi, folks! Having spent the morning booting & re-booting the computer in various attemots to solve performance issues (nothing too major, but all annoying at least), I am finally here with our Final Thursday featured poem.

We’re bringing our two-month look at Mina Loy to a close today with a short poem that Loy wrote in the early 1920s as a tribute to Gertrude Stein. Mina Loy was an active member of Stein’s salon, & was close friends with many of the artists & writers who congregated chez Stein. Gertrude Stein paid Loy a high compliment in her Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, when she wrote, "Mina Loy . . . was able to understand without the commas. She has always been able to understand." There was a great deal of mutual respect between Stein & Loy—interesting, because they are unquestionably two of the most important yet misunderstood writers from the “Modernist” period.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Loy & Stein, please do yourself a favor & check them out. Loy’s poems are fortunately in print, as The Lost Lunar Baedecker, while Stein’s works are readily available. A good introduction to Stein (I think) would be either Three Lives or The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas.

Featured poet for July & August? Robert Creeley. But for now, enjoy these lines about Gertrude Stein—& consider in what ways they are about Loy as well!

Gertrude Stein

Curie
of the laboratory
of vocabulary
        she crushed
the tonnage
of consciousness
congealed to phrases
        to extract
a radium of the word

Mina Loy

12 comments:

  1. That poem clicks nicely on the geiger counter!

    Since you mention that next month's featured poet will be Robert Creeley, you may enjoy this link to a reading by him at the Lannan Foundation (which has a great series of videos of poetry readings.

    The above link should work, but, if it doesn't, the url address is: http://podcast.lannan.org/2010/05/26/robert-creeley-reading-16-april-1990-video/

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  2. What a great poem! Lorenzo, you're so right about the geiger counter. I love the parallel pictures, too! Thanks for shining the spotlight on Mina Loy, John.

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  3. "...able to understand without the commas"

    I love that.

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  4. Still haven't bought Mina Loy, but will definitely put that right quite soon. Interesting post, John.

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  5. Hi Lorenzo, Audrey, Willow & Martin

    Lorenzo: Love the geiger counter comment, & thanks for the Creeley links--will check them out.

    Audrey: I particularly thought of you & Eberle when posting this one--was going to talk about Mina Loy's connection to Djuna Barnes, too--you probably know Loy appeared as "Patience Scalpel" in "Ladies Almanack"--but decided it was off-topic. Thanks!

    Willow: Yes, that is a great phrase!

    Martin: Thanks! You won't be disappointed in Loy's work--it is difficult, as is Stein's, but we routinely read other modernists like Eliot, Pound & Joyce whose works aren't intrinsically more transparent. The male modernists have just been explicated for a longer period of time.

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  6. I'm curious about Stein , must try the autobiography of Alice B Toklas

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  7. Hi TFE: Yes, do--that's a good intro, or Three Lives, as I said. She was a great writer; as I said in the comment to Martin, Stein & Loy are no more "difficult" than Eliot, Pound, Joyce, et al, but don't have the years of academic explication behind them.

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  8. A wonderful poem which has instantly become on of my favourites (and, of course, has been transcribed into my pocket book). A poem which - in a sense - does exactly what it says on the tin.

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  9. "Understanding without the commas' ... now that is wonderful! It's how I feel about the lovely people I've met through my blog. Thanks, too, for introducing me to Mina Loy.

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  10. the laboratory
    of vocabulary


    What a wonderful place - mad wordsmiths with wild hair and lab coats.

    I enjoyed the poem; thanks for posting it.

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  11. Hi Alan, Nana Jo, Karen & HKatz

    Alan: I love that--"does exactly what it says on the tin"; it does at that!

    Nana Jo: So glad you've enjoyed this, & such a nice take on the "comma" comment!

    Karen: Thanks--glad you liked it!

    HKatz: Love the "wordsmiths with wild hair and lab coats"--thanks!

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