Matisse, Picasso and Getrude Stein by Gertrude Stein - HTML preview

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A LONG GAY BOOK

When they are very little just only a baby you can never tell which

one is to be a lady.

There are some when they feel it inside them that it has been with them

that there was once so very little of them, that they were a baby,

helpless and no conscious feeling in them, that they knew nothing then

when they were kissed and dandled and fixed by others who knew them when

they could know nothing inside them or around them, some get from all

this that once surely happened to them to that which was then every bit

that was then them, there are some when they feel it later inside them

that they were such once and that was all that there was then of them,

there are some who have from such a knowing an uncertain curious kind of

feeling in them that their having been so little once and knowing

nothing makes it all a broken world for them that they have inside them,

kills for them the everlasting feeling; and they spend their life in

many ways, and always they are trying to make for themselves a new

everlasting feeling.

One way perhaps of winning is to make a little one to come through them,

little like the baby that once was all them and lost them their

everlasting feeling. Some can win from just the feeling, the little one

need not come, to give it to them.

And so always there is beginning and to some then a losing of the

everlasting feeling. Then they make a baby to make for themselves a new

beginning and so win for themselves a new everlasting feeling.

It is never very much to be a baby, to be such a very little thing and

knowing nothing. It certainly is a very little thing and almost nothing

to be a baby and without a conscious feeling. It is nothing, to be,

without anything to know inside them or around them, just a baby and

that was all there was once of them and so it is a broken world around

them when they think of this beginning and then they lose their

everlasting feeling.

Then they make a baby or they have the feeling and so they win what once

a baby lost them.

It is not very much to be a baby. It certainly is nothing just to be

one, to be without a conscious feeling. It is something to have a baby

come into the world by way of them but it certainly is not very much to

have been the little thing that was once all them.

It is something to have a baby come into the world through them. It is

nothing just to be one.

First then they make a baby. No it is never very much just to be a baby.

Later in life when one is proud as a man or as a lady it is not right

that they ever could have dandled and kissed and fixed them, helpless,

just a baby. Such ones never can want to feel themselves ever to have

been a baby.

No it is not very much to be a baby. It is not right to one to begin

them until a little they can resist to them who would hold them

helpless, kiss and dandle and fix them as they were then, such a very

little thing, just nothing inside to them. I say it is not right to many

of them then to begin them, but it is not all of them who would resist

them. There are some who do not feel it to be bad inside them to have

been a baby without any conscious feeling of themselves inside them, to

have been a little thing and that was all there was then of them, they

are some who have not any proud kind of feeling in them.

They are some who like it in their later living that they were then such

a very little thing and that was then all there was of them and then

others kissed and dandled and fixed them. They are those who are within

them weak or tender as the strongest thing inside them and to them it is

very much to have been a baby and to have had others to feel gently

toward them, who kissed and dandled and fixed the helpless bundle they

were then. With them being proud is not strong inside them.

Some, and we can know them, have a curious uncertain kind of feeling

when they think of themselves as they were then and some so lose the

feeling of continuous life inside them.

It is a very different feeling each kind of man and woman has inside in

them about the baby the very little thing that was once all them, and

the little thing that comes into the world by them, and the very little

things that all about fill the world every moment with beginning.

There are many kinds of men and many kinds of women and each kind of

them have a different feeling in them about the baby that was once all

them. There are many kinds of men and many kinds of women and there are

many millions made of each kind of them. Each one of the many millions

of each kind of them have it in them a little to be different from all

the other millions of their kind of them, but all of each kind of them

have it in them to have the same kind of feeling about the little thing

that was once all them, about the little things that come to a beginning

through them, about the little things beginning all around them. There

are many kinds of men and many kinds of women and this will be a history

of all the kinds of them and of pairs of them.

As I was saying every man and every woman was a little baby once and

knowing nothing. I am saying there are many ways of feeling it inside

them in the many kinds of men and women that they were little things

once then and that was then all there was of them and they were dandled

and fixed and kissed then, little things then and knowing nothing.

I am saying that there are many kinds of men and women and many millions

made of each kind of them. Each one of the many millions of them has it

in him to be different from all the millions of his kind of them. I am

saying that all the millions of one kind of men or one kind of women

have it in them to have the same kind of feeling inside them about the

little thing that was all them, the baby that once was all there was of

them then. One kind then of men and women have it in them when they know

this was once all of them a little baby then and knowing nothing, one

kind of men and one kind of women have it in them then to lose inside

them their everlasting feeling, the world is then a broken world inside

them, more broken for them then than death breaks it for them, ending is

less of a breaking to such kind of them than beginning, they have then

when they think it inside them that they were a baby then and knowing

nothing they have then inside a loss of the everlasting feeling, to such

a one such a beginning, being a baby and knowing nothing, breaks the

everlasting feeling breaks it as dying as ending never can break it for

them.

There are many ways for men and women to have it in them that they were

little babies once and knowing nothing, that they were little babies

once and full of life and kicking, that they were little babies once and

others kissed them and dandled them and fixed them, that they were

little babies once and they had loving all around and in them, that they

had earthy love inside them.

Some people in their later living have pride in them, some never have

anything of such a thing in them. There are many kinds of men and women

and many millions of each kind of them and there is this history of all

the kinds of them.

Every one has in them a fundamental nature to them with a kind of way

of thinking that goes with this nature in them in all the many millions

made of that kind of them. Every one then has it in them to be one of

the many kinds of men or many kinds of women. There are many kinds of

men and many kinds of women and of each kind of them there are always

many millions in the world and any one can know by watching the many

kinds there are of them and this is to be a history of all the kinds of

them.

Every one of the kinds of them has a fundamental nature common to each

one of the many millions of that kind of them a fundamental nature that

has with it a certain way of thinking, a way of loving, a way of having

or not having pride inside them, a way of suffering, a way of eating, a

way of drinking, a way of learning, a way of working, a way of

beginning, a way of ending. There are many kinds of them but everywhere

in all living any one who keeps on looking can find all the kinds of

them.

There are many kinds of them then many kinds of fundamental nature in

men and in women. Sometimes it takes long to know it in them which kind

of fundamental nature is inside them. Sometimes it takes long to know it

in them, always there is mixed up with them other kinds of nature with

the kind of fundamental nature of them, giving a flavor to them,

sometimes giving many flavors to them, sometimes giving many

contradictions to them, sometimes keeping a confusion in them and some

of them never make it come right inside them. Mostly all of them in

their later living come to the repeating that old age gives almost

always to every one and then the fundamental nature of them comes out

more and more in them and more and more we get to know it in them the

fundamental nature in each one of them.

Always all the men and women all around have in them some one of the

many kinds of men and women that have each one of them many millions

made like them, always all the men and women all around have it in them

to have one fundamental nature in them and other kinds of nature are

mixed up in them with this kind of nature in them so it takes all the

knowing one can learn with all the living to ever know it about any one

around them the fundamental nature of them and how everything is mixed

up in them.

As I was saying the mixture in them of other kinds of nature to them

gives a flavor to some kinds of them to some kinds of men and some kinds

of women, makes a group of them that have to them flavor as more

important in them than the fundamental nature in them and the kind of

thinking and feeling that goes with the fundamental nature in them. The

flavor in them is real inside them more real to them than the

fundamental nature in them, the flavor the other kinds of nature mixed

up in them give to them. To many of such a kind of them the flavor is to

them the reallest thing in them, the reallest thing about them, and this

is a history of many of such of them.

In this book there will be discussion of pairs of people and their

relation, short sketches of innumerable ones, Ollie, Paul; Paul,

Fernande; Larr and me, Jane and me, Hattie and Ollie, Margaret and

Phillip, Claudel and Mrs. Claudel, Claudel and Martin, Maurice and Jane,

Helen and John, everybody I know, Murdock and Elise, Larr and Elise,

Larr and Marie, Jenny Fox and me, Sadie and Julia, everybody I can think

of ever, narrative after narrative of pairs of people, Martin and Mrs.

Herford, Bremer and Hattie, Jane and Nellie, Henrietta and Jane and some

one and another one, everybody Michael and us and Victor Herbert,

Farmert and us, Bessie Hessel and me.

Some one if they dreamed that their mother was dead when they woke up

would not put on mourning. Some if they believed in dreams as much as

the one who dreamed that their mother was dead and did not put on

mourning would if they had dreamed that their mother was dead would put

on mourning. Hattie if she dreamed that her mother was dead would not

put on mourning. Mrs. Claudel if she believed in dreams as much as

Hattie and had dreamed that her mother was dead would put on mourning.

Some would be surprised that some could dream that their mother was dead

and then not put on mourning. Some would be surprised that any one

having dreamed that their mother was dead could think about then putting

on mourning.

Some people know other ones. This is being a history of kinds of men and

women, when they were babies and then children and then grown men and

women and then old ones and the one and the ones they were in relation

with at any time, at some time.

This is a general leading up to a description of Olive who is an

exception in being one being living. Then there can be a description of

the Pauline group and of the Pauline quality in Ollie and then there can

be a complete description of the Pauline group and there can be a

description of ones who could be ones who are not at all married ones a

whole group of them of hundreds of them, and they grade from Eugenia to

Mabel Arbor who is not like them in being one who could have been one

not being a married one. Then once more one can begin with the Pauline

group and Sophie among them, and then one can go through whole groups of

women to Jane Sands and her relation to men and so to a group of men

and ending up with Paul. Then one can take a fresh start and begin with

Fanny and Helen and run through servants and adolescents to Lucy and so

again to women and to men and how they love, how women love and how they

do not love, how men do not love, how men do love, how women and men do

and do not love and so on to men and women in detail and so on to Simon

as a type of man.

Then going completely in to the flavor question how persons have the

flavor they do there can be given short sketches of Farmert, Alden, of

Henderson and any other man one can get having very much flavor and

describing the complications in them one can branch off into women,

Myrtle, Constance, Nina Beckworth and others to Ollie and then say of

them that it is hard to combine their flavor with other feelings in them

but it has been done and is being done and then describe Pauline and

from Pauline go on to all kinds of women that come out of her, and then

go on to Jane, and her group and then come back to describe Mabel Arbor

and her group, then Eugenia's group always coming back to flavor idea

and Pauline type, then go on to adolescents, mixing and mingling and

contrasting. Then start afresh with Grace's group, practical, pseudo

masculine. Then start afresh with Fanny and Helen and business women,

earthy type, and kind of intellect. Enlarge on this and then go back to

flavor, to pseudo flavor, Mildred's group, and then to the concentrated

groups.

From then on complicate and complete giving all kinds of pictures and

start in again with the men. Here begin with Victor Herbert group and

ramify from that. Simon is bottom of Alden and Bremer and the rest. Go

on then to how one would love and be loved as a man or as a woman by

each kind that could or would love any one.

Any one being started in doing something is going on completely doing

that thing, a little doing that thing, doing something that is that

thing. Any one not knowing anything of any one being one starting that

one in doing that thing is one doing that thing completing doing that

thing and being then one living in some such thing.

Some are ones being certain that any one doing a thing and having been

started in doing that thing are ones not having been taught to do that

thing, are ones who have come to do that thing. Some are certain that

not any one has been taught to do a thing if that one is doing a thing

and not any one is remembering that that thing is something that has

just been done.

Doing something is interesting to some, if not any one is remembering

that that thing has just been done. Doing something is interesting to

some if not any one is remembering that any one was one beginning doing

some such thing. Doing something is interesting to some when those are

remembering that every one has been doing that thing in having been

shown that thing. Doing something is interesting to some when they are

certain that all having been doing that thing have been completely dead

and have not been forgotten. Doing something is interesting to some when

they are certain that very many being dead were ones completely doing

that thing. Doing things are interesting to some when some one is

beginning to be finishing having done that thing. Doing something is

interesting to some when they are remembering that every one could be

doing that thing. Doing something is interesting to some when they are

certain that every one should do that thing.

When some are very little ones they very completely do some thing. Some

are certain that every one when they are very little ones are ones who

could very completely do some thing. Some when they are very little ones

very completely then do something. Some then find in this thing that

beginning and ending is not at all something being existing. Some find

in this thing that beginning and ending is not at all interesting. Some

are finding in this thing that nothing is satisfying.

Some are finding

in this thing that some other thing is interesting. Some are finding in

this thing that any one is being one being living. Some are finding in

this thing that every one is one being existing. Some are finding in

this thing that very many are being existing and are not completing then

anything.

Some are certain that when any one is a very little one they are not

then beginning anything. Some are finding in this thing that beginning

and ending is being existing. Some are finding in this thing that

beginning and ending are not being existing. Some are not finding

anything in this thing. Some are finding in this thing that any one is

being existing. Some are finding in this thing that some are being

existing. Some are finding in this thing that not any one is being

existing.

Any one being one being a little one is being then one having some,

having some one knowing something of that thing. Some being a little one

are asking then how some other one could have been one being a little

one. Some being a little one are then not needing anything of asking

anything. Some being a little one are forgetting then having been asking

anything. Some being a very little one are not then needing being one

being existing.

Some are not needing that any one being a little one is then being

existing. Some are not needing any one being a little one. Some are not

needing any one having been a little one. Some are not needing that any

one has been one being existing. Some are needing that every one is

being one being existing.

Being a little one is what any one being existing is being one knowing

is existing. Being a little one is then existing enough for every one to

be knowing something of some such thing.

Any one loving any one is being one in some way loving some one. There

can be complete lists of ones loving. There can be complete lists of

ones loving again and again.

If there is a thin thing and some one is seeing through that thing if

there is a thin thing, very many are telling about seeing through that

thing. If there is a thin thing some are saying that it is like some

other thing. If there is a thin thing some are denying that it is a thin

thing. If there is a thin thing some are not hearing what some one has

been saying who has been saying that the thin thing is a thin thing.

There are thin things and some of them are hanging in front of

something. There are thin things and they are nicely thin things, things

nicely being thin enough and letting then all the light in. If there are

thin things they are thin enough to hang and let light in. If there are

thin things it is certain that they are like some other things. There

are thin things and any one not having seen them is not completely

certain that they are thin things. They are thin things the things that

are thin things and some have seen them and have said then that those

things are thin things.

A man in his living has many things inside him. He has in him his being

certain that he is being one seeing what he is looking at just then, he

has in him the kind of certain feeling of seeing what he is looking at

just then that makes a kind of them of which a list will be made in

making out a list of every one. This feeling of being certain of seeing

what he is looking at just then comes from the being in him that is

being then in him, comes from the mixing in him of being then one being

living and being one then being certain of that thing.

In all of the men being living some are more certain than other ones who

are very much like them are more certain of seeing the thing at which

they are looking.

In all men in their daily living, in every moment they are living, in

all of them, in all the time they are being living, in the times they

are doing, in the times they are not doing something, in all of them

there is always something in them of being certain of seeing the thing

at which they are looking. In all of them in all the millions of men

being living there is some feeling of being certain of seeing the thing

at which they are looking. Some of the many millions of men being living

have stronger the feeling of being certain of seeing the thing at which

they are looking than others of them.

There are many millions of men being living and many millions are very

certain that they are seeing the thing at which they are looking. In

many men there is a mixture in them of being strongly certain of seeing

the thing at which they are looking and just being certain that they are

seeing the thing at which they are looking. In some men there is a

mixture in them of being certain of being strongly certain, of not being

strongly certain, of being quite certain, of being uncertain that they

are seeing the thing at which they are all looking. In all the men who

are being living there is something of being certain of seeing the thing

at which they are looking. In all the men who are being living there is

a kind of feeling about being certain of seeing that at which they are

looking.

Loving is loving and being a baby is something. Loving is loving. Being

a baby is something. Having been a baby is something.

Not having been a

baby is something that comes not to be anything and that is a thing that

is beginning. Having been a baby is something having been going on being

existing. Not having been a baby is something not being existing. Loving

is loving. Not having been a baby could be everything.

Having been a

baby is something. Being a baby is something. Loving is something.

Loving is loving. Not being a baby is something.

Any one has been a baby and has then been something. Any one is not a

baby and is then something. Not coming to be a baby is not anything. Not

coming to be loving is something. Coming to be loving is something.

Loving is something. Babies have been existing. Babies are existing.

Babies are something being existing. Not being babies is something being

existing.

Loving is something. Anything is something. Babies are something. Being

a baby is something. Not being a baby is something.

Coming to be anything is something. Not coming to be anything is

something. Loving is something. Not loving is something.

Loving is

loving. Something is something. Anything is something.