As mentioned in an earlier post, I too find myself lost within Stein's stream of words. I don't know if it's her writing style or her detailed, artistic life that is making me enjoy this book so much. I do believe that the daily activities of Gertrude and Alice would be so intriguing as to attain my interest. I love the artists she meets and who she becomes friends with. Alice is so lucky to have a friend like Gertrude. She has been acquainted with Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Henri Matisse. One thing I am questioning is the type of relationship Alice and Gertrude had. While Alice does go everywhere with Gertrude and sees all that she sees, I am curious to see a more intimate relationship between the two. All literature I've read about the couple make them seem like the quintessential couple, though they were gay. I find it difficult how "Alice" can recall all these moments with fame and Paris, yet there is rarely an intimate moment between the two. Let's get our minds out of the gutter, because that is not the intimacy I am referring to. I just want "Alice" to describe a time when just the two of them, Gertrude and her enjoy a moment that relates to how they truly enjoy each other's company. I see pictures of them together and they look so perfect and happy together. That is the dream relationship; they cooperate, and are in love. Or are they? I wish to see a caring couple do something alone so I can really get a sense of just how their relationship was. How can we know that’s really what they were; a couple, unless we read something circling around the idea that they were together. Odds are that at this time, being a gay woman was not a common thing, so of course publicizing their relationship may not have been her desired effect. But what made them feel as if they should be together as life partners?
Maybe it's just a romantic's desire to see more romance and mush and love, but I just feel strongly that Gertrude, or Alice, at some point needed to have said something about how she felt. Maybe what I need to read is Alice's diary, not her "autobiography".
** I am sorry I don't have much textual evidence in this, but I feel frustrated with this point. How do we know that they cared for each other? and I am sorry for being pessimistic about their relationship. I shouldn't judge or expect something fantastic about them, but I am just curious. Is there harm in that?
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Haha! I think it is funny that you bring this topic up because it definitely frustrated me too! I felt as though their relationship was brushed over in the text and that it didn't show any signs of a partnership whatsoever. When you pointed out that they were in fact a couple on Monday, that was actually the first time I realized it. It makes me wonder whether Gertrude felt the same way as Alice did. I mean, Alice was always by her side, editing her work, and traveling all over the place. Though Gertrude did write a book about Alice, the book tends to be ALL about Gertrude and the friends that she makes throughout HER life.
ReplyDelete-I agree with alot of other posts too that Gertrude's writing is all over the place. In some ways it works because it flows pretty well. But alot of the times I find myself confused as to who is saying what because she never uses quotation marks!
Like Lauren, I don't think I would have ever known that Gertrude and Alice were a couple. And I do agree with Alexis that there isn't any obvious intimate moments between Gertrude and Alice in the text. But as I read it, I keep picking up on a playful and fun tone. I think Gertrude writing Alice's autobiography is almost like a way that she's showing how well she knows Alice. Or even just opening up in how she interprets who Alice is and how Alice thinks about things. This work is definitely strange, and like so many people have commented the writing style is all over the place with so much stream of conscience and randomness. But sometimes I feel like it's a playful work that is really about the relationship between Gertrude and ALice.
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