A few minutes  ago I  read the first few pages of Charles Bernstein's college thesis on Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans as viewed through his understanding of Wittgenstein.  Bernstein studied with Stanley Cavell at Harvard.  Cavell is one of the greatest explicators and students of Wittgenstein.  You can order the thesis for your kindle or as a pdf.  Google it, it's pretty easy.

Reading these pages, I relived my early love of Stein, Wittgenstein and Bernstein.

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I was steeped in Stein and Wittgenstein before I ever encountered Charles' work.

I was fixated during a early period of my life as a writer with the idea of writing a book comparing the work of Stein and Marcel Duchamp.  A book which I gave a lot of thought to but which I was utterly incapable of writing.

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The first time I met Charles in person was at his apartment on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC.  I was working on The Difficulties issue devoted to his work at the time.  I got lost on the subway.  We had lunch together at a little place around the corner from his place.  At his place he showed me some of Susan's paintings and a beautiful art work by Arakawa that had been given to Charles in gratitude for a review he had written.  I was impressed and clearly out of my league.

That was the same visit during which I read in NYC for the first time at the Ear Inn on Spring Street with Clark Coolidge.  No pressure there.

Best of all, my correspondent Fielding Dawson came to the reading.  Wow.  And I got my first glimpses of Bernadette Mayer, Lewis Warsh, Bruce Andrews, Jackson MacLow, Diane Ward and many others.

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