The Puzzle of Stein

The puzzle of Stein: why did she write the way she did? Well-read – she shared Woolf's love of Shakespeare and the Elizabethans – and yet her writing suggested to publishers and newspapers – and still suggests to some readers today – that she had no knowledge of the English language, was perhaps not an English speaker, and was imperfectly educated; or if none of those applied was perhaps not in possession of a sound mind. Well, none of those did apply, so why? Why write as she did? Was it deliberately experimental, deliberately original? She was – as she seemed to think, and to often imply – a genius! Was it not deliberate but authentic? She was writing in English as she thought, and so disregarded other people's plead for commas. Why should she instruct her readers when to take a breath, they can decide for themselves. Her writing may have been appalling, but the newspapers she said always quoted it and what is more quoted it correctly; they don't quote those they admire. So, she was different; judged unreadable, but different. A new literary movement with very few followers; and yet she believed totally in her ability to write. You have to admire that if nothing else. She amused herself, and that really is the whole point of creativity. Although it's hard not to say when reading her, particularly The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, “What an ego!” and “Where is Alice?”

Picture credit: Gertrude Stein sitting on a sofa in her Paris studio (source: Library of Congress, Wikipedia).

From journal, April 2022.