Performing Stein's Making of Americans

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Reading near the end of the Making of Americans at the marathon in NY on Sunday. The Gertrude Stein reading was produced by Walt John Pearce and Sam Frank and full videos are on YouTube. I first wrote about this work in 1971 and went to many of the marathon readings at Paul Cooper gallery in the 1970s and 80s (good to see Gwen Deeley at this one), as well to one ten years ago at Double Canopy. Heartening to see a young audience listening and reading and on the Lower East Side, Orchard Street no less, on the eve of Pesach.

In my 1971-72 essays on The Making of Americans in the context of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (free digital edition here), I was particularly focussed on the emergence of what I called "wordness" in the end sections of the book and inparticular on Stein and skepticism, as here: “This is then complete disillusionment in living, the complete realisation that no one can believe as you do about anything,”

This is the late passage I read (a 20 minute segment), startng 0n p. 845:

Certainly he was not certain not always certain then that he was one being one feeling something. He was quite often quite certain that some being existing are ones being existing in feeling something. He was quite often certain that very many who are being existing are then feeling something. He was one quite clearly feeling what he was feeling. He was one sometimes quite certain he was not one ever feeling and he was one who was quite certain that he was one who was one feeling enough to be a sad one and not feeling enough to have feeling being a thing that was being in him. He was one certainly quite clearly feeling feeling being existing. Certainly he was one quite clearly feeling something about some things and he was one almost being certain that feeling is existing in some who are existing, and then he came to be one going on being living and he came sometime to be quite certain he was very clearly feeling what he was feeling.

He was one beginning living and then he was one feeling something and he was then one not feeling anything and he was then a quite sad one and he was then not at all a sad one, a quite not sad one. He was then a troubled one and he was then troubled with this thing with being a troubled one and he was wondering then about any one being a troubled one and he was then not always certain about anything about this thing about being a trouble one. He was a troubled enough one, he was not then completely interested in this thing in being a troubled one, he was quite certain that he would be sometime interested in this thing in any one being a troubled one. He was in a way a troubled one and in a way he was one deciding then quite clearly deciding about any one whom he knew was a troubled one. He was one quite clearly deciding about each one who was a troubled one. He was a troubled one and in a way he was quite clearly deciding about himself then, about himself being a troubled one, and he was not then completely interested in this thing in any one being a troubled one, in he himself being a troubled one but he was certain that sometime he would be completely interested in this thing completely interested in being a troubled one, completely interested in every one being a troubled one. He was not ever completely interested in this thing, in any one being a troubled one, in himself being a troubled one, he was sometime and for quite sometime troubled by this thing, he was then not troubled by this thing for certainly then he was clearly certain that any one is a troubled one, that every one is a troubled one, that he himself was a troubled one and he was clearly feeling about this thing and he was clearly thinking about this thing and he was then not completely interested in this thing, not troubled by this thing, and he was certainly then being filled then with being certain that in some way he was one being existing and that sometime he would be one being a dead one and certainly every one would certainly sometime be a dead one and certainly every one would be one having been existing.      

When he was a boy a young one if he had been a little different then he might have been troubled by being troubled by anybody being troubled, by everybody being troubled. He was one who was troubled then, he felt clearly about such a thing then about being troubled then, he was certain then that sometime he would be completely interested in this thing. He was sometime and for quite sometime troubled by this thing, he was not completely interested in this thing in any one being a troubled one.      

He was then one beginning being living and he was one then being one who was one. He was being one then. He was in the beginning of being living. He had been living some time then. He was a boy then, certainly he was a boy then. He was one having been sometime being living, he was being one then being one being living. He was being one then.      

He was one who had some feeling. He felt something when he was a young one. He always felt something. When he was a young one he was certain that he would not be one having feeling. When he was a young one he was certain that he would be one having some feeling. He was not then completely interested in this thing. Sometimes then he was almost completely interested in this thing. When he was one being a young one he could have been one writing it down every day that he was one not having feeling, that he was one not having any feeling. When he was a young one he could have been writing it down every day that he was wanting not going to be having feeling, not going to be having any feeling. When he was a young one he could have been writing it down every day that he was a troubled one. He could have been writing down every day, when he was a young one, that he was one doing everything, having complete living in doing everything. When he was a young one he could every day have been writing down that he was feeling clearly feeling something about everything, that he was feeling, clearly feeling something about “every one.      

He was quite clear in feeling what he was feeling and he was quite clear in deciding about being being existing. He was certainly then not completely interested in any one, in he himself then being a troubled one.      When he was a little older he was clearly feeling certainly clearly feeling something, he was clearly thinking then, he was almost then needing to be certain that sometime he would be clearly thinking about everything. He was not completely then needing to be clearly thinking about everything, he was clearly then clearly feeling something, he was then not clearly feeling something, he was not needing to be clearly feeling the thing he was not clearly feeling. He was clearly feeling something, he was almost completely living in clearly feeling that thing, the things he was clearly feeling. He was not completely living in the things he was clearly feeling. He was completely needing to be clearly thinking about the things about which he was clearly thinking. He was almost completely living in clearly thinking about the things he was clearly thinking, completely clearly thinking.      

When he was a young one when he was beginning in being living he was a very little one, that is a natural thing, he was then quite completely a little one, he was then a very little one, that is a natural thing. When he was beginning being living he was a very little one. He was living then and then he was a little a bigger one and he was living then and he was still a little bigger then.      

When he was beginning being living he was one who was one, who was of a kind of a one. He was living then. He was very well taken care of then as was a natural thing. He was not ever really interested in this thing, interested in having been a very little one, a completely little one. He was quite not interested in this thing in having been a quite little one. He was interested in having been one being a bigger one, he was not ever interested in having been a completely little one.      

He was then in the beginning a completely little one and this interested some then, this did not ever interest him, this did not very much interest any one knowing him. He had been a very little one, certainly he had been, this was not a thing having meaning in the being in him and this is a thing not really needing mentioning that he had been a completely little one. He had been then in beginning being living a completely little one. He certainly was not ever remembering any such thing. He certainly was not really ever finding this thing interesting. He was then a little a bigger one and he a little remembered that thing and he did not interest himself ever very much in this thing in having been a very little bigger one. He was one quite remembering this thing having been a little bit a bigger one, he was not at all minding remembering this thing, he remembered quite clearly something of this thing, he was not ever interested in this thing, he certainly quite clearly remembered this thing remembered having been a little a bigger one and he certainly was not ever really interested in this thing in having been a little a bigger one. He was then a little more a bigger one and he remembered something of this thing, he even remembered feeling some little thing and it was a pleasant enough thing to him to remember something then but it did “not ever interest him. He quite clearly remembered having been living then, he was not interested in remembering having been living then, he remembered having been clearly feeling something then, he was not ever really interested in remembering having been clearly feeling something then.

He was then a little a bigger one then and he remembered somethings from then and he was not ever really very much interested in any of them, in remembering any of them. In a way he was not completely uninterested in having been living then but really he was not completely interested in having been living then, he went on being living then. He was interested in having been going on being living then. He always was interested in having been going on being living then. He want on living then. He remembered something of that thing. He was a little interested in remembering a little something of that thing.

He did sometimes write down something about having been just being living when he was a young one, when he was in the middle of his beginning living. He did then write down that he was a troubled one and really he was not then a troubled one in the sense of being interested in that thing, in the sense of remembering anything of such a thing. It was to him later a little later when he was reading what he had been writing surprising to be learning that he had been every day then, all day then completely a troubled one. Certainly he was not remembering any such a thing. Certainly he had not been living in any such thing. Certainly he had been being a troubled one, certainly he had not been completely interested in any such thing, certainly he had been writing down such a thing. This certainly did astonish him then. Anyway he was being living and he was then deciding somethings quite often and some asked him quite often then to decide something and certainly he was quite clearly thinking then and he was feeling something and feeling it clearly enough then and he was doing things with others who were doing something and it was a thing he did quite well, some things he did with them he did very well, some things he did with them he did very well.

Certainly he did some things he did with some then very well, very very well. Some of the others did some of these things very well, some did some of them very very well, some did not do them so very well. He did a good many things then and he did them with those, he knew then, who knew him then who were doing them then. Certainly he did some of them very well, he did some of them quite well. He was clearly thinking then and clearly enough feeling then and he was with those he knew then and he did things together with them then and he did some of them very well and some of them extremely well and some of them quite well. He was living Hersland family living then. He was knowing then those who were living near the Hersland family then. He knew quite a number of ones being living then, a good many knew him then.

Certainly some when they are young ones are deciding some things. Certainly some when they are being living are deciding some things. Certainly some when they are not young ones are deciding some things. Some are deciding some things. Some are certain that any decision they are giving is a good one. Some are certain that not any decision is a good one. Some are certain that it is a good thing that there is not being any deciding. Some are deciding some things. Some when they are young ones are deciding some things. Certainly some are feeling when some one has decided some thing that some one should have decided something, that deciding should have been done. Certainly it is puzzling, certainly some are wondering if it is not puzzling that some are certain that some are deciding some things. Some are wondering if deciding some things is a thing that makes one one some one should be contradicting. Certainly some are deciding some things. Some are wondering if deciding some things is a thing that makes one one some one should be considering. Certainly some when they are young ones are deciding some things. Certainly some when they are young ones are deciding some things. Certainly some when they are not young ones are deciding some thing. Some are deciding something. Some are wondering if being certain that some thing is some thing some one will sometime be deciding is something that is a thing to be doing. Some are wondering if deciding something is something that makes one be some one who really is doing something. Some certainly are wondering if some things are being decided by those deciding some things. Some are certainly uncertain whether they should have a feeling of submission when some one has decided something. Some certainly are wondering if deciding anything is giving any meaning in being one being living. Some are certainly wondering if hoping something about something being decided sometime is a thing that is a feeling in them. Some are wondering if any one is not hoping that some time some things will be decided. Some are certain that sometime they will not be wondering about whether deciding anything has any meaning. Certainly some are deciding some things. Certainly some when they are young ones are deciding some things. Certainly some when they are not young ones ones are deciding some things. Certainly some are quite ready to have not anything be decided by any one. Some are quite ready to have it that every thing is not decided, that not any one is deciding anything. Some are certainly quite ready that no one should decide anything. Certainly some are quite ready for such a thing. Certainly some are quite ready that not any one should decide anything. Certainly some are deciding something. Certainly some when they are young ones are deciding something. David Hersland when he was a young one was deciding somethings. That certainly was a natural thing. David Hersland when he was not a young one was in a way deciding some things.