Susie Asado by Gertrude Stein is, in short, a bit of a mystery. After reading it multiple times, the reader is left feeling like they read something written by a loon. This is not so. Stein was sane, just unconventionally experimental with her work. She seems to go with every instinct she has by writing down her immediate thoughts, whether logical or entirely nonsensical. This piece in particular is very difficult to read out loud. This is because of the conflicting sounds that are difficult to pronounce together such as “drink pups drink pups lease a sash hold” or “this means slips slips hers.” In fact, most of the verbal stumbling comes from the constant use of the letter ‘s.’ There is also hardly any punctuation and even if there was supposed to be, it would be difficult to know just where it should go because the words do not make real sentences. Everything is incomplete; the thoughts are all fragments. Stein seems to have gathered inspiration from artists such as Pablo Picasso and was able to use her words the way that those artists were able to use their paintbrushes.
This painting is in fact a portrait of Gertrude Stein created by Pablo Picasso himself. This could insinuate that they had a mutual artistic respect for one another. They were, of course, two artists with different mediums, but the same desire to modernize, experiment, and discover. They are also very similar in the very elementary or childish sense one gets when reading Stein’s works or viewing Picasso’s art. They are so simple that it can be difficult to comprehend or even appreciate… a few of their creations just seem like a complete mess. Because of this, Stein’s literature was not exactly praised by many because to most people, it makes no sense. In contrast, Picasso became famous with paintings, some of which are strangely unimpressive. This just goes to show that people who experiment with art forms are often thought to be either geniuses or untalented, without an in between. It is hard to say what exactly separates Picasso’s success from Stein’s practical failure in the eyes of artistic critics, but it could be because art is something you can see and begin to feel, whereas literature is something you can only feel if you can understand it. Regardless, we still look at Stein’s pieces today and wonder what she was trying to convey, so this is proof that even though she did not succeed immediately, she has left a lasting impression on the artistic world.
“Gertrude Stein.” Poetry Foundation. n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/gertrude-stein
~J.W.
