Those that approach Tender Buttons expecting a sensical, linear narrative are sorely mistaken. As a hallmark work of the Modernist Avant-Garde, Stein eschews traditional linguistic usage, grammar, and syntax. The result is a disorienting, bizarre, un-categorizable and wholly unique piece of art. The very genre of the work remains in question. It is poetic just as much as it is prose, as it is visual art. This rejection of genre is as central to understanding the piece as the content within. When it first appeared in 1914 it confounded critics and readers alike, much as it still does today.
At the heart of Tender Buttons is an examination nature of objective representation. Broken into three sections, entitled "Objects," "Food and "Rooms," Tender Buttons is further broken into smaller segments. The titles of these segments often feature nonsensical combinations of words. By juxtaposing otherwise incompatible words, Stein intends to shake up and redefine the ways in which the everyday world is interpreted. For example, "a piece of coffee" and "a method of a cloak," are seemingly illogical framings of these objects. This bizarreness becomes even more pronounced when contrasted against the presence straightforward titles, such as "a red stamp" and "a plate." In doing so, Stein gestures towards the way in which meaning is constructed. "A red stamp" is an accepted object, whereas "a piece of coffee" is not. This is a linguistic analysis with philosophical implications. Language creates the ways in which something like coffee is construed, more so than the actual existence of the object itself. By distorting the usage of language, Stein distorts the way in which objects are conceived.
As with all of Stein's work, one must look through the lens of queer theory in analysis. Stein was an outspoken lesbian, along with her partner Alice B. Toklas, in an era where such a sexual identity was far from accepted. Themes of gender and sexuality took a prominent role in much of her work. Yet in a piece as abstruse as Tender Buttons, such themes are increasingly hard to detect. The most obvious approach is in Stein's rendering of domestic space. Much of Tender Buttons centers around objects that occupy the space of the home, which is coded as distinctly feminine. Take for example, "a cloth" or "a new cup and saucer." This is also seen throughout the second section, "food," the preparing of meals being a socially feminized task. Stein extends this treatment to objects which are directly feminized themselves, such as "a long dress," "a red hat," and "a purse." She interrogates these objects through her use of language, asking plainly "what is it." She, of course, does not answer such questions but rather invites the reader to ponder the question. By warping the representation of these objects beyond any meaning, Stein effectively dismantles the gender associations of the domestic space. In her view, assigning a gender to a place like the parlor or the kitchen, or a purse to a woman, is a construct just like the idea of a cup of coffee, instead of a "piece of coffee." By dismantling the space and the object, Stein dismantles these associations.
There is also an eroticized reading of the work, which seeks to uncover the veiled references to sexuality within the work. They are, in keeping with the rest of the work, not explicit or obvious. For example, the title has been parsed as a nod to the phrase "tend her buttons." Furthermore, the segment, "Peeled Pencil, Choke," contains only the words "rub her coke," which could be interpreted as innuendo, or in "This is the Dress, Aider" in which is written, "Aider, why aider why wow, whow stop touch." These are, of course, only hypothesized and cannot be assigned any level of certainty.
There is no correct way to approach Tender Buttons just as there is no singular meaning to be parsed. It is as much about what does not make sense as what does. In a surrealist or modernist fashion, one must place themselves in the position of a mind running and writing freely. When this mindset is donned, Tender Buttons is a fascinating and groundbreaking work without rival.
