Memorization-Joan Shang

For my recitation, I memorized a piece from Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons” from the section, “Rooms.” Throughout this experiment and now reflecting on it, I've realized that I have learned more things about the poem than when I would've if I simply read the text. That is, the oral and auditory experience contributed to a deeper engagement to the piece. Furthermore, the process of memorizing  required methods such as recreating free-association to help me remember the sequence of seemingly haphazard phrases.

For example, Stein’s approach to poetry appears to be a random list of things that seem to have no connection to each other. For example, the following part of what I memorized illustrates this: “a single set of sisters, and outlines, and no blisters” (59). There is no explicit connection or transition between ‘a single set of sister,’ ‘outlines,’ and ‘blisters.’ The lack of thematic continuity and logical flow made it especially difficult to memorize this piece. Therefore I had to create my own associations to connect the words. In doing so, it not only helped me memorize the poem but also engage the piece in an entirely different level. That is, I recreated the free association process that Stein underwent in constructing the piece. For example, I connected “a creature,” “a question,” and “a syllable in answer” by thinking of the sphinx as the ‘creature,’ which is a mythical creature from Greek tradition that asks questions to travelers. I connected “a syllable in answer” by thinking the manner in which the travelers responded to the sphinx.

Similarly, I approached the memorization process through the reaction of free-association for the following phrase: “a single scientific statement,” “no darkness,” and “no question” (49). For these particular phrases, I connected the first and second parts with the idea of scientific knowledge lending insight, filling the ‘darkness’ or gap in the unknown truths. Furthermore, that the knowledge found is absolute therefore it would elicit “no questions” (49).  Although the leaps between phrases during the free-association are large, it also made me reflect on how Stein used free association to construct her poem. There is a certain spontaneity and chance element that serve as vehicles in driving the free-association that I didn’t realize until I participates in it myself.

Furthermore, the entire section that I memorized was one paragraph but one long sentence. This made it particularly different to find a pace. Often, I established a rhythm, memorizing became must easier. I did this by splicing up the paragraph in various places that seemed to have natural pauses. For example, I divided “A religion, almost a religion, any religion, a quintal in religion” in one part and then “A relying and a surface and a service in indecision” in another part.  Although there is no punctuation such as comma or period that indicates a pause, I felt that there was a natural tendency to take a breath here. Likewise, I partitioned “why is the surface outrageous, why is it beautiful” and “why is it not when there is no doubt” as separate lines.

In reflecting the process of my recitation, both the engagement in free-association and finding rhythm opened up a new realm of understanding in terms of this poem. I felt like I was able to scratch the service and gain a firmer grasp on the poem by giving it my own interpretation.