Gertrude stein's silly — and stilted — 'to do'
Gertrude stein's silly — and stilted — 'to do'"
- Select a language for the TTS:
- UK English Female
- UK English Male
- US English Female
- US English Male
- Australian Female
- Australian Male
- Language selected: (auto detect) - EN
Play all audios:
Literary wags love to point out the blunders of short-sighted editors of yore who, failing to recognize genius, took a pass on such later-acknowledged masterpieces as James Joyce's
_Ulysses, _Dr. Seuss' _And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street _and John Kennedy Toole's _A Confederacy of Dunces_. What we hear less about are the initially — and perhaps
deservedly — rejected manuscripts that later ride into print on the coattails of their author's renown. Gertrude Stein's _To Do: A Book of Alphabets and Birthdays_ falls squarely
into this group. Stein wrote _To Do_ in 1940 after the success of her first children's book, _The World is Round _(1938). Following a year of rejections, it found a willing publisher in
1942, but the project was tabled during the war. In 1957, Yale University Press published a text-only version in its seventh volume of Stein's unpublished writings. Now, more than 70
years after Stein wrote it, it has taken _To Do_ off its to-do list by producing the first illustrated edition. Thanks in large part to Giselle Potter's whimsical and wondrous
illustrations, but also to Yale's exquisite book design,_ To Do _is a beautiful volume to behold. But even with the boost of Porter's fabulous zebra-striped landscape for the
letter Z and typewriters strolling along an _allee _of cauliflowers on the H page, _To Do_ is more intriguing literary artifact than delightful read. As Timothy Young, curator of modern
books and manuscripts at Yale's Beinecke Library, notes in his illuminating introduction, "children are not the core audience for this book." He cites as hurdles the
text's "challenging linguistic exercises" and "recurrent sense of menace" — though in fact the stories are no grimmer than Grimm and no gorier than Gorey. Young
acknowledges that adult readers, too, may find the abstract text demanding. He suggests reading the book aloud, and, "If you have any trouble, read faster and faster until you
don't." To complain that Stein — the woman best known for her pronouncement that "a rose is a rose is a rose" — is repetitive is akin to griping that the pope is
Catholic. That said, one quickly understands why the long-winded _To Do_ had difficulty finding a publisher. Although there is wit and whimsy and an absurdist sensibility that's a
precursor to Maira Kalman's work, it's buried in dense pages of run-on prose. For each letter of the alphabet, Stein calls up four names — often based on real-life friends — for
which she spins circular tales filled with internal rhymes about mutable birthdays and fortunes: "This is the sad story of Leslie-Lily./Lily who always found everything
hilly./Leslie's little Lily's last birthday." There are riches: passages about war, about writer's block, about multiple births and about a self-immolating giant rabbit.
There's even a passage that expresses our impatience: "And Mr. House said nothing more, because he was not a bore and he would have been of course he would have been if he had said
anything more./More More More./Shut oh shut the door." My advice: Sample a few pages at a time — no more — or read it from cover to cover and snore. Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more,
visit https://www.npr.org.
Trending News
Why AkzoNobel is a strategic requirement for JSW’s expansion dreamsJSW Paints is reportedly close to acquiring a 74.76% stake in AkzoNobel India from its Dutch parent, potentially marking...
Stadiums to staycations: How IPL 2025 is powering a silent travel movementSummer cricket fever aside, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 has led a silent movement–reshaping India’s travel and ...
Hollywood, Bollywood, YouTube-wood? Talking to Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan charts a new path for cinemaKamath, reflecting on his own media journey growing up in India, recalled, how he grew up in the city of Bangalore (now ...
All changes to Income Tax Returns you need to know for FY 2024-25The revised Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the AY26 are in place as a prerequisite. As anticipated, there are major chang...
EVs to account for 12-15% of India's total car sales by 2030: Moody’sElectric vehicles will account for 12%-15% of total car sales in India by the end of the decade, falling short of the go...
Latests News
Gertrude stein's silly — and stilted — 'to do'Literary wags love to point out the blunders of short-sighted editors of yore who, failing to recognize genius, took a p...
Steven o'hara putts himself clearOvernight leader O’Hara moved to 11 under par overall with a 68, one stroke ahead of two-time US Open champion Retief Go...
Avoid costly appliance repair and replacementsMemorial Day Sale! Join AARP for just $11 per year with a 5-year membership Join now and get a FREE gift. Expires 6/4 G...
Page Not Found很抱歉,你所访问的页面已不存在了。 如有疑问,请电邮[email protected] 你仍然可选择浏览首页或以下栏目内容 : 新闻 生活 娱乐 财经 体育 视频 播客 新报业媒体有限公司版权所有(公司登记号:202120748H)...
Unhappy liverpool stars hold dressing room talks after thrashing tottenhamLiverpool winger Mohamed Salah has called for an improvement defensively from his team-mates despite the Reds hammering ...