I was much amused by Turner's introduction, since much has been written to
the effect that "having a cow" was an orgasm. "A Wife Has a Cow: A Love
Story" thus was read with the idea that a wife was finally able to achieve
orgasm. What a shock this book has yet to cause, since it suggests a very
different reading of cow. It does certainly show the danger of trying to
"decode" Stein. Her writing seems to be about the multiplicity of meaning,
so that trying to fix anything with one specific meaning can be disastrous.
But, I thought Turner was a little off when she suggested that Stein was
interested in scat. Actually reading the letters, they seem to be about
separation. People in love who spend a lot of time together sometimes make
jokes about "don't leave me"--even for short periods like using the
bathroom. I felt that with these letters Stein was occupying her time during
Toklas's absence.
Time in the bathroom, after all, is one time that many couples spend apart.
A couple that is very intimate still does have awkward moments of privacy,
such as when using the bathroom. Urging Toklas to have a cow might well be
the urging of Stein to hurry up and get back to her, not necessarily an
eagerness for feces. I wonder at why Turner suggested that Stein enjoyed
scat. It seems that if they were actually engaged in scat, Stein would not
have been writing notes.
Stein also wrote letters Toklas late at night, when Toklas was sleeping and
Stein was working. These seemed to me to be very doting. I would like to
read the cow letters as doting as well.
As for "lifting belly," I always thought that in a sense a woman would have
to lift her belly while masturbating.
-----Original Message-----
From: Brueckl100@aol.com <mailto:Brueckl100@aol.com>
[mailto:Brueckl100@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 10:40 PM
To: stein-l@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Cow=bowel movement
A 1999 book called Baby Precious Always Shines: the Selected Love Notes
between Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, edited by Kay Turner, makes it
clear that having a "cow" refers to Toklas having a bowel movement.
Evidently viewing this up close was a sexually exciting turn-on for
Gertrude. To each his own: I would expect nothing less from a genius.
"More than a third of the notes demonstrate unequivocally that "cows" are
Toklas's feces or stools...p. 25
"In the 1970's, writers on Stein and Toklas such as Richard Bridgman and
Linda Simon veered toward this understanding, yet they pulled back--out of a
sense of propriety, disbelief, or repulsion--from claiming that the loving
command for a "cow" from Alice is the command for a bowel movement...pp.
25-6
"Orgasms are not "smelly," nor do they go "splash" or "plop." They are not
shaped like a "banana." It is the anus that yields the "cow." p. 27
"Stein's attention to Toklas's bowel movements exemplifies, in a profound
sense, the hallmark of married intimacy: one body entrusted to another,
singularly known, cared for, loved, and desired in all its intricacies, all
its successes--and all its failings. p. 29
"Alice's "movements" seem to fulfill a deeply primal and erotic need in
Gertrude. p. 30
"Still, psychology and pleasure do not fully unlock the importance of the
"cows." At the deepest level, Stein's scatological interests were
artistically and ontologically motivated. The notes ask us to take further
account--to take what might best be called a phenomenological account--of
the fact that Stein's delight in the prospect and evidence of Alice's "cows"
was excessive, even obsessive. pp. 31-32
Quotes from Kay Turner's 37 page introductory essay to Baby Precious Always
Shines, published by St. Martin's Press, New York.
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