Critique of Weldon’s “Thirteen of These Thirteen of These Thirteen of These”

As the title suggests, Weldon’s piece consists of thirteen titled sections with varying lengths, written in the style of Gertrude Stein.  While there is no obvious plot or human characters (besides the first person I in “A Few Different Ones”), experimentation with language and syntax is very apparent.  Articles and prepositions are sometimes included where the reader would expect them, but are often omitted to play with such expectations.  Likewise, phrases are repeated in three’s in the middle of sentences before the syntactical units veer off in different directions.  Often a sentence will read as though it was originally three, and the writer simply cut out punctuation and select words.  The bizarre use of diction, though confusing, is quite entertaining to read and the piece presents itself as a collection of prose poems.  The reoccurrence of “Sandwich” is a playful break (I accidentally wrote bread first) in the attempt to undermine the conventions of language.