Read and Erase Research Notes
I really enjoyed the research process
for this project, so I thought it might be interesting to write about
it. I spent about two months, alongside other projects, reading the
books referenced on the back cover of Read and Erase as well
as other books not mentioned there because they aren’t directly
quoted in the final work. I was very happy with the way I sequenced,
transformed, and subverted Stein’s own words in For Lives,
and I wanted to continue that trend in Read and Erase. This
meant taking copious notes on quotes that I might or might not end up
using, as seen above. In fact, the photographs that are included in the second
half of the comic were originally taken just for reference; it’s
only on a whim that I thought to include them in the final comic.
My original concept for Read and Erase was
to focus on the relationship between Gertrude Stein and Picasso –
implicitly a part of For Lives, but not explored in depth
especially because the relationship evolved so much over the years
after Stein’s portrait was painted. So I began by reading their
collected correspondence. It’s interesting, because these letters
do chart the course of their relationship in some ways, but several
primary sources say that the in-depth, charged conversations you
might imagine between these two artistic giants always occurred in
person, and never by mail. While the title Read and Erase has
many meanings for me, it is in part a reference to a specific letter
from Picasso to Stein. Read the letters yourself to find it!
As interesting as the letters were, I
found myself drawn over the course of my research away from Picasso
and towards Alice Toklas. She is both ever-present and always
invisible throughout the course of Stein’s writing and life. To
summarize for those unaware: In 1907, Stein and Toklas met in Paris.
They began living together shortly afterwards and remained a couple
until Stein’s death. (I struggled over the course of For Lives
and Read regarding the amount of historical background to
include. I’m not sure whether I found the right balance.) So I read things like Toklas’ collected letters after Stein’s death (beautiful, and they comprise the vast majority of the Toklas text in Read), love notes between Stein and Toklas (also beautiful), and Toklas’ autobiography (I really didn’t like it! And for Toklas to be a weak literary writer, at least when self-consciously attempting that task, adds even more complexity to the Stein-Toklas dynamic!).
I found it useful and stimulating to have research/source material to pivot around in working on this comic, and I’m now thinking carefully about how to apply that same approach for future work in ways beyond (semi-)historical biography and direct quotation of text.