A Carafe, That Is A Blind Glass [gertrude stein]
A Carafe, That Is A Blind Glass
A kind in glass and a cousin, a spectacle and nothing strange a single hurt color and an arrangement in a system to pointing. All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling. The difference is spreading.
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If one listens intently to Yale's Lecture on Modern Poetry, Gertrude Stein is excluded from the syllabus except for quite a few mention along Ezra Pound. That lecture is extensive, about 15 poets, starting from William Butler Yeats and ending with Elizabeth Bishop, all whom Modern Poetry and contemporary Art pay homage. Last Sunday, this prose poem by Stein was included in my workshop's Modernism lecture, and fellows were permitted to give interpolations concerning the piece, in isolation, and comparison with Stevens' Anecdote In A Jar and Shelleys' Ozymandias. (though I'm unsure why the latter was chosen considering the vast primeval of Modern Poetry) Time demands that I only concentrate my discussion toward Stein's piece, though that Stevens' poem is quite tempting, as always. Unfortunately, the lecture lasted only for three hours (compared to Yale's monthlong lecture), definitely too short for Modernism alone.
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Mirrors, glasses and even mere surfaces, mean the duplication of identities (Borges), therefore in the continuum of layered observation and reflection, is the quiet conduct of multiplicity. Stein suggests that the glass, the carafe, is blind. To immediate my perception of this simple and yet genius metaphor(though over-utilized), I shall mean the carafe as Metaphor, Poetry, or Art in itself, and because our readings are in any way based upon the sensation of language.
A poem, that is a blind glass = the poem is not blind, it is the attribute that surrounds Poetry which is blind, the glass maintains pivot for the duplication of identities, a noun phrase for the possibility of possibilities, but the glass is blind, that is to show us this blindness (an attribute to glass), for us to see how strong and weak attributes are compared/gauged to/against the basic concept of the carafe -- the carafe without attribute, the zero, pointblank of Poetry.
A kind in glass and a cousin, = the word "kind" abstracts the carafe into glass(reflection, awareness) and a cousin (a suggestion of kinship, relationship), of course, these attributes still revolve around the carafe.
a spectacle and nothing strange = an achievement of contrast, then a single hurt color = color hyperbolizes blindness, the color hurts because it is not seen by the glass, the identities are clogged inside that blind glass and color/vision/observation become nil. Thus, "spectacle and nothing strange" is substantiated: a spectacle because the carafe experiences a kind of self-abolition by being unattended and unobserved, nothing strange because Poetry in itself is not strange at all but perfect. Art only becomes strange when it is already observed or perceived.
and an arrangement in a system to pointing. = this phrase gives us the concept of focus that in order to observe or focus our attention toward Art, a certain design is required for us to be invited gratuitously by Art, and this design or arrangement is Art itself. Only Art can understand or define Art. And our obligation to mystify ourselves comes in peacefully...
All this and not ordinary, = this is now Poetry from our perspective because of the conclusive tone, and this also is the other, last sentence. Poetry then is extra-ordinary as we perceive it and seems to justify itself to our witness.
A kind in glass and a cousin, = the word "kind" abstracts the carafe into glass(reflection, awareness) and a cousin (a suggestion of kinship, relationship), of course, these attributes still revolve around the carafe.
a spectacle and nothing strange = an achievement of contrast, then a single hurt color = color hyperbolizes blindness, the color hurts because it is not seen by the glass, the identities are clogged inside that blind glass and color/vision/observation become nil. Thus, "spectacle and nothing strange" is substantiated: a spectacle because the carafe experiences a kind of self-abolition by being unattended and unobserved, nothing strange because Poetry in itself is not strange at all but perfect. Art only becomes strange when it is already observed or perceived.
and an arrangement in a system to pointing. = this phrase gives us the concept of focus that in order to observe or focus our attention toward Art, a certain design is required for us to be invited gratuitously by Art, and this design or arrangement is Art itself. Only Art can understand or define Art. And our obligation to mystify ourselves comes in peacefully...
All this and not ordinary, = this is now Poetry from our perspective because of the conclusive tone, and this also is the other, last sentence. Poetry then is extra-ordinary as we perceive it and seems to justify itself to our witness.
not unordered in not resembling = to fix the double negation, it translates like this: there is order in not Metaphorizing, there is order without being Artistic, which compliments the concept that there is a sort of uncertainty, a chaotic derivation of Art.
the difference is spreading = when we experience Art or Metaphor, there is a plethora of differences as we compare one to another because attributes differ between things, craftsmen and observers in immeasurable ways and dimensions, the possibilities are spreading (infinite and eternal), and the mysteries of Art itself is a concept of being nothing and many, infinite and eternal all at the same moment.
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