In _Lifting Belly_, as elsewhere in Stein, the key words can be inflected
in multiple and intersecting ways. I'd certainly agree with Renate
Stendahl's explanation (and with the others on this list who've responded
to this topic so far) that _Lifting Belly_ is a celebration of Stein's
relationship with Toklas and a poem that is very orgasmic in both its
referents and its exhuberant form--an extension of the "This Is This
Dress, Aider" poem that ends the "Objects" section of _Tender Buttons_:
"Aider, why aider why whow, whow stop touch, aider whow, aider stop the
muncher, muncher munchers."
But what do we do with the other, rather obvious, ways that a lot of the
language in _Lifting Belly_, and in the other passages cited by Stendahl,
points to pregnancy? The title, of course: a pregnant belly "lifts," and
it "grows and it [the belly] grows where it [what's inside it] grows," it
fills it "full of filling." "Cow" also has this connotation of child
bearing--though this is trickier, since sometimes the referent of "cow"
seems to slip sometimes into meaning the offspring: the thing a "wife" has
when she "has a cow" (in the Bart Simpson sense). "Caesar" in this
reading, of course, calls up "caesarian section": "And where does it come
out of. It comes out of the way of the Caesars...And the cow comes out
of the door."
Now I don't think we'd want to put any of this down to some kind of
celebration of compulsory heterosexuality for the sake of species
propogation, unless terribly ironic. Or, unless this level of reference
is designed to register in some other-than-literal way: for example, to
displace the gendered expectations placed on women to be generative onto
the field of language itself where generation (of words, sentences,
paragraphs) is not so inflexibly linked to gender (on even to a
necessary self-identical subject--the grammar itself supplies the
generative force).
This is definitely out of my usual critical territory, but I seem to
recall Kristeva having written something on the issue of pregnancy and
women's writing that may be useful here. Does anyone have any
suggestions?
Ryan Jerving
Department of American Culture and Literature
Bilkent University
Ankara, Turkey
On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, jessicalee wrote:
> This is an excerpt from Renate Stendhal's introduction to
> _Gertrude Stein In Words and Pictures_. I'm not sure how
> much it will help, but the explanation of terms follows
> what was said about "Caesar.":
>
> "There certainly is ample evidence in Stein's writing that
> she pleased herself in the sexual role of the 'husband."
> But this is a husband whose 'wife has a cow.'...The term
> 'cow' covers a whole range of taboo topics ('sacred cows')
> of traditional writing: female sexual organs, desire, and
> above all orgasm. For example: 'Cows are very nice. They
> are between legs' ('All Sunday'); 'Yes tenderness grows and
> it grows where it grows. And do you like it. Yes you do.
> And does it fill a cow full of filling. Yes. And where
> does it come out of. It comes out of the way of the
> Caesars...And the cow comes out of the door. Do you adore
> me. When this you see remember me' ('A Sonatina Followed by
> Another'). The romance clearly is of a bodily, orgasmic
> nature. Pleasing Alice seems to have been a prime concern
> of 'husband' Stein: 'Have Caesars a duty. Yes their duty is
> to a cow. Will they do their duty by the cow. Yes now and
> with pleasure.' ('A Sonatina'). A line in 'Lifting Belly'
> ironically demands, 'Husband obey your wife.' Role-play and
> role reversal should not be confused with fixed gender
> stereotypes. If patriarchal patterns are played out, they
> are played out with gusto, ad absurdum."
>
>
>
>
> --- "lou L." <ladylouba@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Although, I am a die hard Gertrude Stein fan. This poem
> > is one I can not
> > quite grasp. I can honestly say, I do not know what is
> > going on-
> > What about Caesars? What does the cow signify? I have
> > read it about five
> > times in the last month. I found it's tone to be one of
> > playful domestic
> > bliss, but I can not figure out the underlining meanings
> >
> > Looking for feedback ideas and explanations
> >
> > thanks!
> > Ladylouba@hotmail.com
> >
> >
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