"... she would carve on the tree Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose until it went all the way around." (The World is Round)
I understand Gertrude Stein used this phrase or variants of it through her work. I don't pretend to know as much about her writing as I should, but enjoyed the evolution of meaning which she and others gave to 'rose is a rose is a rose', and the room it gives us to play with language and sense. It's circularity, of illuminating difference, departs from traditional lineal (patrilineal) structure. I like this because I am a bit of a feminist.
There is a connection between this reading of 'a rose is a rose is a rose' and my recent process of naming a necklace. I acknowledge that one has weight to it, and one is mere frippery. Sorry. However, I do now want to find out more, which has got to be good, right...?
Part of my creative challenge, right at the end of making a piece of jewellery (and right before the practical challenges of pricing, photographing and listing) is finding a name for it, in one word. Usually this is as easy as looking into the face of a new born infant and realising that s/he was a 'Stevie'. Sometimes I struggle. Although my struggles should be with more important matters, like money and mind and food shopping these are the places my brain skipped through:
Demin (colour of pearls) > Cowgirl (bit of sparkle and denim) > Southern Belle (necklace is too perdy for a hardworking cowgirl) > Debutante (a southern belle is a debutante is a southern belle, and for the white rose) > Georgia (the white rose is a symbol of the state) > Trueblue (like a virgin and Madonna's demin and lace era (I think)) >> the white rose is used as symbol for Virgin Mary >>> Virolai is a hymn sang to the Virgin of Montserrat and begins 'April rose...'
So, there you have it: white rose and Mary blue = Virolai. Does anyone else go through this kind of process every once in a while, or should I go see Dr (boo, hiss) Freud?
From Wikipedia:
- "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." (Sacred Emily, Geography and Plays)
- "Do we suppose that all she knows is that a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." (Operas and Plays)
- "A rose tree may be a rose tree may be a rosy rose tree if watered." (Alphabets and Birthdays)
- "When I said.
- A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
- And then later made that into a ring I made poetry and what did I do I caressed completely caressed and addressed a noun." (Lectures in America)
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