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"Reflections on the Atom Bomb" |
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During the time before her death, Gertrude Stein lived in a society that was seeing war all around them. Someone asked her what she thought of the atom bomb and this was her reply: |
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They asked me what I thought of the atomic bomb. I said I had not been able to take any interest in it. |
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I like to read detective and mystery stories. I never get enough of them but whenever one of them is or was about death rays and atomic bombs I never could read them. What is the use, if they are really as destructive aas all that there is nothing left and if there is nothing there nobody to be interested and nothing to be interested about. If they are not as destructive as all that then they are just a little more or less destructive than other things and that means that in spite of all destruction there are always lots left on this earth to be interested of to be willing and the thing that destroys is just one of the things that concerns the people inventing it or the people starting it off, but really nobody else can do anything about it so you have to just live along like always, so you see the atomic bomb is not at all interesting, not any more interesting than any other machine, and machines are only interesting in being inventedor in what they do, so why be interested. I never could take any interest in the atomic bomb, I just couldn't any more than in everybody's secret weapon. That it has to be secret makes it dull and meaningless. Sure it will destroy a lot and kill a lot, but it's the living that are interesting not the way of killing them, because if there were not a lot left living how could there be any interest in destruction. Alright, that is the way I feel about it. They think they aare interested about the atomic bomb but they are really not not any more than I am. Really not. They may be a little scared, I am not so scared, there is so much to be scared of so what is the use of bothering to be scared, and if you are not scared the atomic bomb is interesting. Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. They listen so much that they forget to be natural. This is a nice story. |
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Gertrude Stein, 1946 |
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A Personal Look to "Reflections on the Atom Bomb" |
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As one reads into what Stein wrote they will see that she is has a very logical point of view. It is striking how she beautifully told the world why bombs were bad. What seems to make Stein so different is that she says something that most people wouldn't even think of. By telling the world what interests her, Stein shows that bombs are not interesting even in there destructiveness. To the reader this is an amazingly smart and easy way of telling you why bombs are bad. It seems that if all of society had read this short reflection on nuclear power may be altered by reading a few lines written by a woman born in Pennsylvania.
It also seems amazing to the reader that Stein was able to start out writing about something that has nothing to do with atomic power and connect it. Stein states," I like to read detective and mystery stories. I never get enough of them but whenever one of them is or was about death rays and atomic bombs I never could read them." It is that idea that made me the reader try and figure out where Stein was going. but later on she ties this idea in with destructiveness and then ultimately atomic bombs. Now to many that is an idea that most would not think of. |
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