I have been slowly reading Ulla Dydo's massive study, Gertrude Stein: The Language That Rises, 1923-1934, a work that delves deeply into how Stein wrote, how her daily life wove into her work, and examines how and where Stein's writing changed as it went from journal entry into finished work, typed by Alice's loving little hands. I find it slow going because of the minutiae--today I was reading about how often Stein used the word "basket" in her writings before she and Alice got the white poodle Basket, and how Basket the poodle thereafter figured into the work.
But then I come to Stein quotes like, "Think in stitches. Think in sentences. Think in settlements. Think in willows."
And I want to spend many hours thinking in willows and thinking in stitches and I wish to live in Steinlandia for all my days.
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