WEBVTT

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I hope I get this right

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"If I told him would he like it.

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Would he like it if I told him."

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You have the text at
the end of your handout.

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"Would he like it?

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Would Napoleon?

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Would-- would he like it?

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If Napoleon-- if I told him--

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if I told him-- if Napoleon.

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Would he like it if I told
him, if I told him if Napoleon?

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Would he like it if Napoleon--
if Napoleon, if I told him?

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If I told him-- if Napoleon--

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if Napoleon-- if I told him?

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If I told him--
would he like it?

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Would he like it if I told him?

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Now.

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Not now.

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And now.

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Now.

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Exactly and asking.

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Feeling full--
feeling full for it.

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Exactitude as kings.

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So to beseech you
as full as for it.

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Exactly or as kings.

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Shutters shut and open.

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So do queens.

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Shutter shut shutters.

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And so shutters shut.

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And shutters and so, and so
shutters, and so shutters shut.

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And so shutters shut
and shutters and so.

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And so shutters shut
and so and also.

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And also and so and so and also.

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Exact resemblance.

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To exact resemblance.

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The exact resemblance as
exact as a resemblance.

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Exactly as resembling,
exactly resembling.

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Exactly in resemblance,
exactly as resemblance,

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exactly in resemblance.

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For this is so.

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Because.

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Now actively repeat it all.

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Now actively repeat it all.

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Now actively repeat it all.

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Have, hold and hear.

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Actively repeat it all.

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I judge judge.

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As a resemblance to him.

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Who comes first?

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Napoleon the first.

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Who comes too?

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Coming, coming too.

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Who goes there?

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As they go they share.

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Who shares all?

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All is as all as
as yet or as yet.

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Now to date now to date.

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Now and now and
date and the date.

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Who came first?

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Napoleon at first.

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Who came first?

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Napoleon the first.

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Who came first?

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Napoleon first.

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Presently.

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Exactly do they do.

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First exactly.

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Exactly do they do too.

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First exactly.

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And first exactly.

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Exactly do they do.

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And first exactly and exactly.

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And do they do at first
exactly, and first exactly,

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and do they do the
first exact thing.

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And do they do the first
exactly at first exactly.

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First as exactly.

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As first as exactly.

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Presently as presently
and as presently.

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He he he he and he and he
and and he and he and he

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and and as and as
he and as he and.

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He is and as he is,
and as he is and he

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is, he is and as he and he and
as he is and he and he and--

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and he and he.

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Can curls rob can
curls quote, quotable.

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As presently.

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As exactitude.

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As trains.

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Has trains.

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Has trains.

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As trains.

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As trains.

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Presently.

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Proportions.

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Presently.

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As proportions as presently.

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Father and farther.

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Was the king or room.

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Father and whether.

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Was there-- was there--
was there-- what was there?

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What was there?

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Was there?

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There was there.

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Whether and in there.

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As even say so.

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One island.

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Two island.

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Three.

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The land.

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Three the land.

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Three I land.

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Two I land.

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Two I land.

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One I land.

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Two I land.

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As a so.

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They cannot.

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A note.

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They cannot a float.

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They cannot.

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They don't They cannot.

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They as denote.

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Miracles play.

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Play fairly.

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Play fairly well.

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As well is well.

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As or as presently.

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Let me recite what history
teaches history teaches."

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It's a hell of a
portrait, right?

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[LAUGHTER]

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Who is he?

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"He he he he," recites
the poet as if you were

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laughing at the very question.

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Here the phoneme
"he" only blooms

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into a grammatical and
psychological subject

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once it's followed by "is."

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"He is and as he is."

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Pronounced as a
series of stressed

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syllables, "he he he he"
sounds like sardonic laughter.

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But the unstressed he of "He
is and as he is" invokes a man.

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Like the "a" that opens
Bernard Fay, parts of speech

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assume new ontologies,
new forms of being,

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when they're voiced
differently in this poem.

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For examples, we
need look no further

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than the lexicon of resemblance
that Stein mobilizes

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throughout her portrait--

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like, as, and so.

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"So" can act as an
adverb or a conjunction,

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depending on when
and how you say it.

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"As" functions variously as
an adverb, a conjunction,

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or a preposition.

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"Like" works the hardest
of all, moonlighting

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as an adverb, a conjunction,
a preposition, an adjective,

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a verb, or a noun.

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I can't think of another word in
our language that's like "like"

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in this respect.

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The poem's opening question,
"If I told him would he like it"

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exploits this diversity of
meaning to subtly stress

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the connection between
pleasure, "Would he like it,"

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and resemblance.

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Will he like his likeness?

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It all depends on who he is.

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Napoleon would be
a reasonable guess.

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But that's too
exact a resemblance

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for Stein's curious art.

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Napoleon surfaces
in this portrait

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because he's not unlike the
diminutive yet commanding

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subject of the poem, "If I
Told Him: A Completed Portrait

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of Picasso."

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Stein, like Picasso,
makes portraits

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that show how likeness
itself is not what it seems.

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To some readers, "If I Told
Him" may resemble nonsense,

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a form of linguistic chaos.

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But I think it's more like
one of Rorschach's inkblots

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when you look a
little more closely.

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Unlike chaos,
Stein's repetitions

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are never self-identical.

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When the phrase, "exactly
as as kings" becomes,

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"exactly or as kings," the
almost imperceptible difference

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of phrasing casts any exact
resemblance whatsoever

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in doubt.

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It's worth keeping in mind
that "exactitude as kings"

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is a pluralized, not
absolute sovereign.

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By the end of the poem, it's
hard to say whether "a note"--

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this is the last few
lines of the poem--

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whether "a note" is
like or unlike "a float"

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with any exactitude.

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Are we talking about a musical
note or a doctor's note?

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A parade float or
a root beer float?

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The words sound
alike, nonetheless.

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Stein's rhyme makes us
hear how "a note" resembles

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"a float" as a sound,
though they may be

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quite different in other ways.

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Sound implants an
invisible network

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of resemblance throughout
Stein's portrait of Picasso

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because "a note" "a float"
sounds like "they dote,"

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we sense the
invisible relationship

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between musical
movement and desire.

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Two lines later,
"they as denote"

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introduces meaning
into the wavy equation.

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Somehow it makes perfect sense
that this series of rhymes

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concludes with the
line, "Miracles play."

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Stein is a poet in the
ecstatic tradition,

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if you take her at her word.

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Her verbal portraits
awaken us to unseen

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orders of resemblance.

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In the end, I can't
really say whether Stein

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fills her literary canvas
with internal differences

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or internal resemblances.

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Are shutters like queens?

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What's the difference between
asking, "If I told him would

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he like it," and, "Would
he like it if I told him"?

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Is "now" the same thing
when it appears three lines

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after another "now"?

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Maybe we can think of
these things as not unlike.

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Of course, the double negative
is just a more roundabout way

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of saying that one
thing is like another.

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But it's different, too.

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Stein's portraits produce
a field of the not

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unlike in literary art.

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Is it just me, or are there
political ramifications

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to this way of
seeing resemblances?

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On any given day, I'm not
sure if I'm like a Freemason

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or different from a Freemason.

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But after gazing on Stein's
inkblot of Bernard Fay.

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I'd probably say, I'm
not unlike a Freemason.

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For the record, I'm
totally not a Freemason.

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[LAUGHTER]

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What would our
imagined communities

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look like if this were our
measure of affiliation?

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They might resemble
utopias or utter chaos.

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I think Stein wants us to
consider the possibilities.

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By the end of "If I Told
Him," we find ourselves

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in a history lesson, "Let me
recite what history teaches."

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The poet concludes,
"History teaches."

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How is a portrait
like a history lesson?

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We've just come in from recess
where our teacher reminded

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us to "play fairly."

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Or maybe it was
music class where we

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managed to "play fairly well."

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Is the music room
like a playground?

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Is a poem like a painting?

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Stein's experiments
in resemblance

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show us how different
things are not unlike.

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She makes portraits of
objects, landscapes of plays,

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geographies of identity.

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Everything in her words is
like a very strange likeness

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and pink.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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