A Random Walk Through Stein

of and by: Maxwell Owen Clark

I open to a random page in the American Library edition of Stein: Writings 1932-1946:

"372                        GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA

Chapter III

How can you tell if a country is young old or young young or old.

Is it because all the animals that have lived in it are dead in it.

Chapter IV

As long as nothing or very little that you write is published it is all sacred but after it is a great deal of it published is it everything that you write is sacred. That has to do with whether the animals dead in it make a country as old as if no animals were dead in it.

Has this to do with human nature or the human mind.

And does any one need to wonder why.

So in chapter three we consider these things the age of the world, the sacredness of writing and human nature and the human mind.

Chapter III

What is the relation of human nature to the age of any country.

One cannot say it too often and it need not bring tears to your eyes what is the use of being a little boy if you are going to grow up to be a man what is the use.

An age of a country is not the same thing because after all it may be it even might be that human nature has nothing to do with it. But the human mind must have something to do with it although when to the human mind that country is old and when to the human mind that country is young that country need not necessarily be either young or old. Has the human mind really has the human mind anything to do with age or is that only human nature, human nature has undoubtedly to do with age but has the human mind, neither more nor less but has the human mind. Let me now in chapter IV tell any story of Geography and what it looks like and the human mind."

Critical Commentary.

"372…"

Page 372. It is one out of 844 total pages in this above said book title. 'The Geographical History of America or The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind'; of which our randomly selected page 372 is a part, begins on page 365 herein, and ends at page 488—whereafter, proceeding directly, on to page 489, comes: 'What Does She See When She Shuts Her Eyes: A Novel'. Preceding directly before page 365, there comes the end of 'What Are Master-pieces and Why Are There So Few of Them'—which was written in 1935, and first published in 1940. 'The Geographical History…' was also written in 1935, but published in 1936. The proceding 'What Does She See…' (page 489) was written in 1936, and first published in 1952. There were then five years between the writing and publication of Stein's work on masterpieces, 16 years between the writing and publication for 'What Does She See…' (page 489), but only one year between the writing and publication of the "geographical psychology" work I randomly came to above. Within this rough chronotope, it can be said: what? That her editors and publishers of the years 1935-6 preferred her geographical meditations, over her cultural criticism, and somewhat seemingly empiricist or phenomenological study. It was geography over art and subjectivity, in the judgment of her printers. The analysis of masterpieces was first published in America by the Conference Press of California—and her geography at hand hereat was published by Random House, with numerous errors in the printing (which Stein was too overwhelmed by to correct herself). Her study of perception was first published by Yale. Random House, let's say it was the most well-established press of this chronotope, rushed (see: errors in the printing—Stein wanted it just so, and it wasn't for her) her geographical theory of human nature and human mind to the reading public—one year after its being written. Her piece on masterpieces was taken up by a, by now, barely recognizable or much at all recallable corporate individual (Conference Press), five years after its manuscript was complete. Her piece on closed-eye seeing was published by Yale University, an esteemed and highly honorable name, then,16 years after Stein finished writing it. 

Conference Press - 5 years - small "boutique" press

Random House - 1 year - highly competitive private market shareholder

Yale University - 16 years - academic behemoth, canonical

The Stein of 1935-6 was published by a wide variety of sub-sectors in the printing market: boutique, commercial, and high-canonical academic. She thus seems to have had "broad appeal" as set before the management of literary production at the time. Random House, assumedly the most speculative and profit-driven of her publishers (in this chronotope), bit the quickest. And bit the quickest on this piece I randomly opened to. The work page 372 was part of was also the most alluring in terms of marginal returns, for Random House. If I cannot, or just won't, seek to provide you'll an comparative exegesis of these three works' literary characteristics, values, ranking and so on—I can say that I've stumbled upon the big money ticket of this chronotope. It stood out to Random House, and quickly so.