How *ever* will you be able to appreciate Gertrude Stein?
And so today we begin week 4. If you have never encountered the (supposedly) difficult and (apparently) opaque poetry of Stein, you are in for a treat. A challenge, surely, but also a treat! Be as patient with it all as you can be!
Use our discussion forums to ask questions about how you might approach Stein, or to seek encouragement from others. And, especially this week, the TAs’ office hours—a perfect venue for talking your way into this unusual writing. And as usual you receive guidance—almost instantly—by posting to the week’s “Hopelessly Lost” thread.
I do believe, too, that my 17-minute audio intro to the week will be helpful. You can LISTEN here.
This week you also have the opportunity to write and post our second essay. Essay assignment #2 asks you to write a 500-word close reading of a poem by H.D. I will have more to say about this second essay later, but meantime you can certainly get started any time!
But back to Gertrude Stein for a moment. Over the years we have accumulated a collection of very short videos in which we variously recommend ways of reading and appreciating Stein. These are all available in week 4 of the ModPoPLUS syllabus, but for your convenience I list and link them below. I urge you to pick a few of these videos and watch. One or several of them might prove to be very helpful to you as you read the poems in the main syllabus this week.
Remember that this week our live webcast (coming to you from Montreal) will be on Thursday, at 6:30 PM Montreal time (which is the same as Philadelphia time).
Believing idealistically that the difference is spreading,
—Al
A SAMPLING OF SHORT VIDEOS ON HOW TO READ STEIN
watch discussion on how we assess and value Stein’s writing: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch Rachel Blau DuPlessis describe how Stein resists normative reading: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion on whether close reading works for Stein: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch Bob Perelman discuss what the mind must do to read Stein: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch Bob Perelman on Stein’s version of the idea that a poem is a word machine: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion on how Stein’s readers participate in discovery: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion on how Stein disrupts reading: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion on Stein & jazz, movement & improvisation: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion of Stein’s phrase “All this an not ordinary”: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion of Stein’s phrase “An arrangement in a system to pointing”: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch discussion of Stein’s phrase “The difference is spreading”: LINK TO VIDEO [OFFSITE COPY]
watch further discussion of Stein’s views of beginning-to-end narrative: LINK TO VIDEO (8 mins.)
watch discussion of Stein as pedagogy: LINK TO VIDEO (7.5 mins.)
