Oh my my little Stein
Gertrude
Stein, famous quote from Geographical History of America, “I am I because my
little dog knows me.” To me, I feel that the dog reference is important, and
can even answer what she is doing in the piece. There are many things to say
about this so for now I will only stick to one idea and come back and fill in
much more. So I will go toward mixing Gertrude Stein with the dog whisper. This
little dog knows me can be consider a friend, but this friend is not human. I believe
that this dog deals with discipline, loyalty, listening, nervousness/excitement,
dominant/submission, domestication/colonization, and all this somehow deal with
human or are related to humans or are the image of people that do not use the
human mind, but human nature
Let’s start out with the history of dogs,
shall we. Dogs were probably the first tame animals. They have accompanied
humans for some 10,000 years. Some scientists assert that all dogs, domestic
and wild, share a common ancestor in the small South Asian wolf.(nationgeographic
web) But why where they domesticated? To
hunt for human? To protect things? How did a dog become a man best friend and
why? All these questions have to deal with Stein. She explain about number, “they
have something to do with money and with tears and flat land, not much with mountains
or lakes, yes with blades of grass, not much a little but not much flowers,
some with birds, not much with dogs, quite a bit with oxen and with cows and
sheep a little with sheep and so have numbers anything to with the mind. They have
nothing to do with dogs and human nature.” (p.406) things like oxen, cows,
chicken and sheep have all been domesticated for food or money. Dog have not. They
have very little worth to human existence. But anybody that is anybody, everyone
that has a dog thinks they are so important. There is an emotional worth. It is
just human nature. Maybe its loyalty, maybe it the quietness of a friend or it is
just love.
“Any dog can get excited he can know
that he can get excited and he can know that he intends to get excited and he
can gradually get forced to get excited although he does not care about it.”(382)
Stein gives clue that excitement is just nervousness, and she states, “When a dog
is nervous.”(392) I am a very dedicated
dog whisper fan and as such I have learned that nervousness and excitement are
of the same high energy and can influence when a dog attacks. This is animal instinct.
A dog was once a wild animal until the domestication. (as were human, I think) “Dogs
do behave as they please that is as they naturally please until they are told
not to.”(374) We can help or hinder dogs with discipline. One must act like an
alpha but not hurt, just be assertive. Which bring me to the dominant and submission
part, which is:
“I am I because my
little dog knows me, even if the little dog is a big one, and yet a little dog knowing me does not really make me be I no
not really because after all being I I am I has really nothing to do with the
little dog knowing me, he is my audience, but an audience never does prove to
you that you are you. “(404-05)
A class order for do/ wolf, alpha is more dominant and is
more like a bigger dog, is more important, superior. The little dog is submissive
and will stay in its place and follow orders, and listen. A perfect audience, if
it challenges the alpha, it will be harmed.
“I am I because
my little dog knows me, but perhaps he does not and if he did I would not be I.
oh no oh no.”(402)
Oh this is great, nice work here... keep thinking about it all, especially this last quote (second to last quote?) is so intriguing in terms of how we come to understand out own identities in relation to others (but the audience cannot ultimately determine you/I/identity... good, keep going!
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