Gertrude Stein Part 3: Devouring Her Sons!

Please enjoy this ringback tone while your podcast is reached. This is Raquel and Chelsea, and you're listening to Baroque Bitches. Welcome to Baroque Bitches, your art history gossip podcast. I'm Chelsea. I'm Raquel. And we're going to get into the down and dirty tea on this highbrow fancy art. I'm trying to lift one eyebrow, and I'm realizing that I can't do that anymore. I used to practice, like, Ace Ventura all the time, which, oh, my God, can we just talk about? So I was messaging my friends about something. Let me take a sip of my white cloth. Yeah, I know.

You're going to have a comment on this for sure. Jim Carrey. So here's the thing. Imagine that you go and get plastic surgery, and you think you're looking so good. And then you debut your new awesome look that you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on to the world. And then they don't think it's you. They think you're a clone. And they think that it's literally not you. Like, Jim Carrey must be feeling so bad about himself right now. Can you imagine? So, okay, we do. I love conspiracy theories. Yes, you do. Raquel knows that I've always been. I'm susceptible. I could admit that.

I'm very susceptible to conspiracy theories. I love when people get creative. I love anything Masonic, demonic. Like, give it to me. We also have, like, very vivid imaginations. Give me the draconians. Yes. Give me the Anunnaki. All day. I mean, watch Begonia. That's me. I'm not murderous. I'm not going to kill an alien. I don't want to kill any aliens. No. Even if they're being cruel, I don't want to kill them. But that Begonia, that's me. And then I was so justified. Anyway. Anyway. I just feel like, okay, so the Jim Carrey thing, I have obviously listened to the Jim Carrey thing.

Me and Jim Carrey share some thoughts. Not all of them. I don't agree with all of his conspiracy theories. But he's clearly, he's in Hollywood. He has talked openly about secret cults and demonic practices happening within these circles and these predatorial powers. Right. And everybody's kind of written him off as being, like, too woo-woo, too crazy. Crazy. He's so funny. Ha-ha. He's a funny guy. It's already crazy. Anyway, anyway, I just feel like it does, it does, maybe, sure, and maybe he got Plastic Dendrine. He's also talked about, openly talked about having doubles and sending doubles to award shows.

And, yeah, I don't, I don't know. I, it could be him. And it's like, well, you did the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. So maybe you are a fucking sellout that would be Plastic Surgery. Maybe that, maybe it did come to that, that you're just a fucking sellout now that got a change in eyeball color and, like, a new nose and new, total weird, freaky features. And he's also, I know that there's, like, history of depression and a lot of stuff, too. So I don't think we're dealing with, like, somebody that's fully stable, maybe. Yeah. It's what they want you to think. You don't know.

Yeah, Chelsea has gone down. Well, I'm down to believe, I'm down to believe that, like, you know. And, listen, I think before I talk about this, because Raquel has helped me out of, like, a little, a little sprinkle of psychosis, which was all planned. Wasn't the first time, won't be the last time. Yeah, you met me in a state of psychosis, actually. So that was, like, that's my baseline with her. Whenever I'm not there, then I'm doing really good. I can handle it. I can handle it. I know what to do.

But I want to, before I talk about some of this stuff, I want to take, this is my, we're coming into Aries season. This is my energy right now. I'm like, I'm all right, Pisces. Get away from me. I want Aries now. Let's go. I'm ready. But before we do that, let's all take, I want to take, like, a collective consciousness deep breath. So, breathe in light and love and friendship and good feelings. And breathe out anxiety and bullshit and shit that doesn't matter to you right now. You are hot, smart, and alive. You've got to say that in the mirror every morning, okay?

I am hot, smart, and alive. Affirmations do work. And remember that knowledge is power if you are emotionally stable enough. Because sometimes knowledge is really fucked up, clearly, of, like, whoa. So, yeah. So, obviously. No, it's a good reminder right now. Ooh. Specifically. Ho! So, yeah. I, so, like, okay, okay. I have been, now that I know that my dad is listening to the podcast now. Hi, Steve. Hi, Dad. We have been bonding over some, because he's, like, low-key a little bit of a prepper. And so, we have been bonding a little bit of, like, the infrastructure might be crumbling. And he's like, oh, yes.

That's my, do you have a go bag? I was like, what do you have a fucking go bag? Yeah, I need that. I know. What do I put in there? And he's like, ah, well. So, it's been good. And so, that's kind of funny. Of, like, need to go, get to go bag, gross potatoes. I do. If the infrastructure is fine and the economy is miraculously going to be okay, then you just have a cute little hobby. You garden. How cute. How fun. Of, like, hmm. I don't know. So, that's where I am. And my fucking, listen.

I also meditate with rocks and blow cinnamon into my house every full moon. And I listen to Tool. Okay. So, I'm pretty woo-woo in the woo-woo esoteric knowledge conspiracy community, too. So, like, I'm here, even though I don't agree with all of it. And, yeah, my algorithm is, like, in this weird, I was just telling Raquel, my algorithm is in this weird, like, Christian place right now. It's really freaking me out. Isn't that the ultimate indoctrination? Like, you guys. And since last we spoke, when we were talking about all of this, my algorithm has shifted into, like, conspiracy theories. And I was like, oh, no.

I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. We're not. They're 300-year-old vampires. Or the moon isn't real. Oh, my God. I've never been there. I've never been on the moon. I have no idea, really. Resting in not knowing reality is a dangerous line to walk. It is. It is weird. But some of it I do look at is, okay, you might just be very creative. Well, I wanted to say thanks for being patient. I recently contracted pneumonia. So I've been overcoming that. And it's caused quite a delay in our production. But we're not gone. There was, like, a me of me being, like, mentally sick.

And then there was, like, a me being, like, physically sick. So I'm on antibiotics. We're on the mend. I have so much to talk about. I've joined a water aerobics class. Oh, my God. Is there any tea? Oh, my God. So much. And you can hear all about my water aerobics class in our Patreon. So go check it out. Oh, hello there, you beautiful creature. Looks like you can't get enough of the Baroque Bitches Art History Gossip Podcast. Do you want more juicy tea? Join our Patreon for exclusive access to bonus episodes, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive voting power, digital downloads, fun merch, and more.

Become one of us, one of us, by going to patreon.com slash baroquebpodcast, or clicking the link on our website, baroquebpodcast.com, or clicking the link on our Instagram at baroque.b.podcast. Thank you for your support. We couldn't do any of this stuff without you. We love you. I also wanted to thank Kathy, because we recently got a pretty scathing, awful review, and this one offset it for me. So, Kathy Ryder, thank you for saying you love the podcast. You've restored my faith in myself to be able to do this. It was such a nice comment, and we love you so much. So, thank you.

Yeah, it's wild out there, you guys. I think just people are just angry at everything, so. It's okay. No, they hate us because they hate us. It's fine. We're used to it. We can handle it most of the time. Until we can't. Please don't be mean to us. Oh, there's so many, like, really boring podcasts that you can go listen to about art history and girl. Yeah, yeah. Go check out the other people. Check out all of them. And then we have, also on Patreon, a full episode coming for Inspiration Nations on Kent Mockman. Thank you, Sierra. We are so stoked. We love you.

This one's so cool. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. Okay. We got serious stuff. We've been working on this Gertrude Stein all year. Oh, my. Yeah, we have been, like, yeah. We've been dealing with Gertrude, and we're going to get into the last one. This is the last episode. Oh, I'm, like, sad that it's not going to keep going. I could do this for months. I feel like we could still, we could still totally talk about it because there's a lot of, like, unanswered things here. So, the last installment of Gertrude Stein series will give us all this needed hope that we need.

So, if you didn't get the last two, that's okay. Come to a stop. Okay? Okay. Don't be doing this while driving. Come to a stop, and you can go to our part one episode of Gertrude Stein. Yeah, and then the part two subsequently after that. Yes. So, let's see how she deals with it all. Because she's here, too. She is so here in the same exact timeline. So, let's visualize. We sit in silence while the world burns, patiently waiting for our gods to provide the justice that we so humbly requested. Did we do something wrong? Because death is among us now.

We ask for peace, but maybe we weren't specific enough? Because what is peace without humanity? Right? Right? We avoid eye contact as we sit at opposite sides of the table, still breathing, still eating, but slowly decaying under the pressure of fear and shame and bewilderment. The only thing we do know is that we are not immune to the fate of man. The gods don't see privilege. They don't recognize entitlement or one's place in society or the most shallow virtue, wealth. They don't see your faith or your color or your gender or your education or your nation. All they see is cruelty.

And man's cruelty is no match for the gods, for they have elaborate plans for us all. So, here we wait to learn, teach, help, and do our best to survive. All we can do is empower our friends while our leaders empower demons in black costumes and white masks. Which brings us to our gossip topic, Gertrude Stein devouring her sons, part three. Hell yeah. Pretty, pretty, pretty relevant. Like the same except for the robots. Oh, God. You could say industrial revolution anyway.

Our girls saw two awards, so we do need this wisdom right now and a lot of kind of what should we do, what should we not do kind of vibes. Mm-hmm. Help each other? I mean, that's all I got. My advice will always be, like, be freakishly nice to each other. Like, full eye contact to make it weird. Like, I love you. I love you. I love your shirt and jacket combo. Yes, do that. Do that. Because it really... And helping others literally does boost your own ass dopamine. Yeah, that's actually true. It's also self-care, by the way. Fake it till you make it, baby.

Yes. And that's Gertie's plan, too. She's not going to run. She's going to help. And don't worry. It's not all sad and freaky. There's some lighthearted tea in it, too. She's got, like, the perfect vibes to endure a wartime. Yeah, because she's, like, a hard-ass a little bit. My query is she doesn't give a fuck. Well, she can endure the first one. Uh-oh. So there's tea. There's tea, there's tea, there's tea. Okay, okay. So we might as well get into World War I. One. A-S-F. Fuck. Ugh. Ugh. Okay. I'm going to make this cute because, you know, war, war, war.

But I think with our current situation and being Americans and all, we are the last ones who should avoid talking about war. Yeah, that's fair. God, what a fucked up fucking situation. Ugh. But we're going to make this good because we should know what the fuck is going on. Ah. So, of course, if you are paying attention in world history class, we learned about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yeah. God, I hated that band, too. It was ugh. Okay. An unexpected heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. So the prince, who was the actual heir, I guess he schmilled himself. And daddy died.

So here comes this Archduke to rule, but he is still a Habsburg, like the incest-y ones. Franz's parents were cousins. Like, yeah, that's still going on. And Franz, he was very complicated. He was famously difficult to get along with, deeply religious and conservative. However, like, he wanted this kind of, like, phony reform. Sure. So this is where it's kind of confusing. So Franz wanted to give Slavic people more autonomy and, like, rights and shit inside the Austria-Hungary Empire. Okay.

However, this underground group of Slavic nationalists called the Black Hand wanted Slavic independence, not just a couple of little rights here and there, under their oppressive regime. Right. They were sick of imperial rule and knew that these little rights proposed by Franz were just distractions from the big picture. They wanted freedom. They wanted independence. They don't want to fuck with y'all at all, dude. We want our own state, and we're totally down to use violence to get it, baby. So on June 28th, 1914, the Black Hand, allegedly, assassinated Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia as a way to dismantle the regime and force a split from imperialism.

So you're like, bye. This is the bye. And, unfortunately, it's gone. So, yeah, it didn't work, mostly because Austria-Hungary's bestie, Germany, was like, oh, my God, let's go get revenge on Serbia together and, like, go crazy. We'll do whatever to help you. Sounds very annoying. So Austria-Hungary was like, oh, my God, thanks, Germany. We're going to do it. We're going to declare war on Serbia. It'll be totally fine. So it wasn't fine because Serbia. Well, yeah, it wasn't fine. It wasn't fine because Serbia is like, listen, I'm not this little thing. I'm besties with Russia, bitch. Yeah. And Russia was like, fuck Germany.

I got you, Serbia. Oh, God. Girls and women in STEM. And then Germany. And then Germany heard about this, crashed the fuck out, and declared war on fucking everyone because she's Germany, including Russia and France. And then you think, like, why the fuck is France in all this bullshit? Like, what did she do? So France was already besties with Russia because of the Franco-Russian alliance. Okay. This alliance was literally made because Germany is sus as fuck hanging out with Austria-Hungary.

And Italy, who didn't even like Austria-Hungary but had such a weak little military, and they were like, okay, you do have, like, a bunch of our territories, and we kind of want that back. So I guess we can form an alliance even though we don't like you. But then backed out because Austria-Hungary didn't want to give them their territories back, and then the allies were like, Italy, do you want that land back? Switch sides, and we'll get your stuff back. And then Italy switches back during World War II. She's a total, we love you, Italy, but they're not there.

So here comes Germany with the Schleifen plan. So basically, let's get France first while Russia is, like, getting ready. So Germany invades Belgium and then France in order to fight Russia. And that's where our girl comes in. Jesus Christ. Hi! So, like, yeah, Europe is, like, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh. Like, viewing all of this weird telephone, like a three-way call kind of a vibe. Sure. Like, you're listening the whole – You're the mole! Oh, my God! I thought I was safe with you. It's so annoying. This is literally – they're, like, 12-year-old girls.

While this bullshit is happening, our Gertie is living it up in Paris with Alice, fully established as the authority on everything avant-garde. Yeah, she fucking, ugh, rules the school. And fighting the war is going on in her own salon. So here's the pre-World War I tea. So before Europe gets all, like, oh, my God, are we going to cause a major problem? So Pablo, of course, Picasso, was pretty big on the dramatics and was super jealous of anyone taking Gertie's attention. He also hated Matisse, but also, like, copied him, like – He, like, he was just jealous. He was just jealous.

It's giving Italy – Damn, Italy catching straight. Listen, listen, Italy, we get it way more than you fucking know right now, baby, bambina. Okay. Yeah, like, Italy, you're fine. We're right there. You're okay. We're right there with you, babe. So Picasso said Matisse painted with the colors of a housemaid's dream. And Matisse said Pablo's cubism looks like a horde of broken furniture. Okay. So they're, like, giving the same vibes as Europe's dream. Damn. But Gertie, Gertie ate all of the shit up. You look like a horde of furniture. You look like a horde of broken furniture. Like a housemaid's dream.

Like, that sounds kind of hot. Yeah. You look like a horde of furniture. I think housemaids definitely – Matisse wins the burns for sure. Yeah. Totally. Oh, my God. Can you see how flustered Pablo would be? So Gertie ate – But Gertie ate all this shit up. And she loved when the men got all hot and bothered. Because it's silly. It just reinforces that we need a matriarchal society. Yeah. You boys ruined it. You had your chance. No more. We think you're talented, okay? You have some good ideas. Get out of your own way. You did such a good job.

Get out of your own way, guys. Oh, my God. Choose your battles, man. That's a virtue. I want these male podcasters to fucking talk about that. Choose your battles. That's all the male podcasts put together. That's the advice you need, fucking men. Step aside, boys. Pablo. Pablo was pissed about everybody. So Pablo was also pissed off at this guy, Juan Gris. Juan. Another genius Cubist painter that Gertie had a huge boner for. And Pablo copied him, too. And Juan actually called him out on this one, saying, Pablo was a genius, but he's not generous. Because he just take, take, take, take, take, take, take, take.

Yeah, that's all he knows. I love these artists. A lot of artists are just fucked up people. Well, that brings us to this fucking mess. Guilham Apollinaire. Okay. Guilham, he was the guy to really accept and use the term Cubism. Okay. Because just like Impressionism, Cubism was a term used by critics to insult the movement. Right. And it's like, it's just Cubes. And Guilham was really the first to use it as a descriptor for the style. So like, fun. That is the only normal thing about him. Everything else was tea. Okay. So, okay. So I kind of like this about him.

At first I was sus, but like, I get it now. It could have been predatory, but I think I get the vibe. But he kissed everybody a lot. Okay. And I mean, men, women, friends, enemies. He used kissing and over-the-top affection to diffuse the tension, especially when Pablo was around. Oh, my God. He's like fawning. Like, he's doing too much. And you're like, ah, get away. Actually, get away from me. And I can't, I just love to imagine Pablo in like full, in his full ego mode. And dude comes in and like kisses him like super hard and gets him all flustered.

Like, you can't fight it. You can't fight it, Pablo. He's just poking the bear. So I kind of like that of like, he just, he seemed to cut the tension with like this out of bounds romance that he had for everybody. Of like, because it did kind of just, oh, okay. It's like that episode of Friends when Chandler is like kisses everybody because. He's in his kissing phase. Well, no, because like they walk in on him and Monica making out. Oh, yeah. And then he's like hard makes out with like Phoebe and Rachel. That's what I do. It's just my thing. I'm very European now.

It's just my thing. I kiss, remember? That's so good. So, Gillum, yeah, he has, he has kind of Chandler energy. And not only that, he was, okay, he was wasted most of the time. But who isn't? He was also arrested. He was a hasn't Chandler energy. But who isn't? He was also arrested for art theft because like one of his friends stole a couple of small statues from the loo. Oh, my God. And Gertie was even like, I need to like maybe separate myself from you for a minute. Like, wow, Gillum, like you're okay. You are Wylan. No, I'd love that.

That reminds me of the time me and Marius stole a painting from Taco Bell. And then the manager came out and chased us down the beach and we had to give it back. The Taco Bell painting. The things that you do in your 20s. Marius used to steal things. That was like his thing. Is that like a French? I saw him steal like candles of poos before and just put it out in his pants. Yeah. I was like, oh, oh, he's okay. Those are really. Oh, I have seen him just walk out of Walmart. Allegedly. Allegedly. Who are we talking about? Never mind. Who?

You don't know. It's fine. It's not a crime if you give it back, right? So we give it back. We give it back. So Ghilam, Ghilam was chaotic, but I do like it and Gertie liked it too in small doses. So she loved his work and he made the salons really fun, but Alice didn't like him. So he is obviously totally not her vibe, especially when he would show up hella late and drunk. Like, yeah. And she's like, I don't drink. It's late. Like, I need my full eight hours. And she was like, God, what a mess.

She's trying to like fucking, she's trying to just like. Let's try to organize. And you're messing up her whole system by coming in late. And now, now we're off topic. Now you're wasted and you're going to make a seat and be kissing everybody. We have a schedule. We have a schedule. Oh my gosh. She's such a tourist. Oh my gosh. Okay. I have a little more Alice tea because she's my favorite. Obviously, she's my favorite in this whole thing. So Alice hated Matisse's wife, Amelie. Like, cut the tension with the knife type shit. So, I mean, Amelie knew the Steins like way before Alice.

So, she thought Alice was like being gatekeepy. Yeah. So, Amelie was really eleganza and proper and pragmatic and serious and not into like this fluffy avant-garde stuff. She didn't really vibe with Gertie's experimental writing. She's not like gossiping about Pablo and parting it up with the rest of the Bohemians. Sure. She, like, didn't really trust these guys. She only wanted to go to protect Matisse. Okay. Her man. Yeah. Interesting. And that was the reason she was there. It was just her man. So, she's just like being there as a contrarian. And maybe as a little bit of like, don't be looking at this guy.

Like, this is my little genius. And I know. And I, you better get away. So, she knew all these rivalries and tensions and drama affected her man because Matisse was a little feely. He was a little emotional. And she was his manager. So, she's taking on the whole admin of his career, like, as we do. And I don't know. I thought that Alice would have kind of liked Amelie because she was like a quiet observer. Just like Alice. Because they're in the same role, essentially. Yeah. Right? Totally.

Of like, you would think that you guys would be like the grounded ones that could kind of come together. No. Too similar. I feel like Alice, I feel like they have similar judgy vibes. But I don't think Alice really judged anyone or gave them the vibe that she was better than her guests. I think she was really, like, sincere in listening to all these artists' opinions. And took all these opinions and not just dismissed them. Even if they were out of this world. But Amelie, like, she was just like, ew. Yeah. I was like, ah. Like, Alice would still have a little joke or two.

And Amelie was just judgy. Like, take a fucking shot. Take a fucking shot. Alice is just, like, misunderstood because she's not getting party-hardy wasted. Yeah. Which, like, okay, I'm sorry for all the Alice's in the world. Because when I was getting party-hardy wasted, I didn't want you to bring the vibe down. Yeah. So, like, I get why it was, like, a tough fit. But you need the designated driver. Yeah. We need you guys. You need somebody who's going to, like. Or else we die. You need somebody who's going to wake you up in the morning and go to work. Like, you know.

Get the fuck up. Get your clothes. Who cares? Just leave it. Leave it. Go. But sometimes she does need to, like, take a fucking shot or something. Yeah. And all this drama is happening right before the great exodus of Paris. So, the tea was spilled on Germany invading Berlin and coming into France. And at first, the French were, like, okay, we're hella nationalists. Like, we'll protect our country, dude. And then soon after, Germany said that they would bomb the shit out of them. They didn't comply. Never mind. We'll do whatever you want.

I don't, we love this city too much for you to bomb the shit out of it. So, we're going to. I mean, yeah. We're going to have to comply the best we can. So, they were in a really weird spot. And once France knew that she was going to be under attack, civilians left almost overnight. Gertie said Paris was empty. Absolutely, absolutely empty. Almost 700,000 French citizens fled. And the ones who stayed were drafted into fighting or working in factories building weapons, including women. So, yeah.

France did have, like, a similar we can do it moment culturally with women working in the factories and helping with the war effort. So, it did kind of, I don't know, we could do all this shit. What the fuck? This is fucking easy. Compared to rearing children, this shit is easy. What, I got to fucking use a wrench? And Gertie could. Get the fuck out of here. And Gertie could have left along with the Matisses and the American artists who fled. But, no, she stayed with Alice and Pablo and Juan and even Gilliam stayed. And he even volunteered for the French army.

He wasn't even fucking French. He was just going to go make out with everybody. Dude. Can you imagine? In the army. Yeah, of this guy must have been wild in the army. And while in the trenches, he writes an iconic collection of poems called the Caligram. Or Caligram, I don't know. Caligram. And he does end up suffering, like, from a head injury. Oh, no. From getting hit in the head with shrapnel from a bomb. And it's never really the same. I feel sad. I liked him. This is a war time. No. That's stupid. That's stupid. That didn't need to happen. Ugh, no.

But Gertie was, like, she was weirdly happy during this time, dude. So, remember, this is World War I. So, she's not being persecuted for being a queer Jewish woman right now. She's more into finding her purpose in this. Like, how can I help kind of stuff. Like, I get this vibe of let's go. Sure. Okay. Infrastructure fails. We're in war. Let's go. So, she sees Paris as her hometown and is willing to do what she can to protect it. So, her and Alice joined the American Fund for French Wounded. And the government provided her with this pretty cool new-fangled machine.

A Ford Model T truck, baby. What? That's so sick. Watch out, Germany. Gertie's got wheels, bitch. Let's go. And she fucking loved this thing. So, she learned to drive while Alice learned how to fix it. So, of course, I could see Alice, like, reading the manual and be like, wait a second. Wait, hold on one minute. And, like, Gertie is, like, having fun driving. I could, like, so see that. You guys would be perfect. You're perfect.

So, with this truck, they were able to deliver medical supplies to hospitals and aid stations, transported wounded soldiers between facilities, and helped, like, just anyone needing a ride at this time. This truck became her fucking identity, dude. So, she found a purpose. People relied on her. I mean, anybody with a truck. My husband has a truck. So, it is. People rely on us for a truck. We move stuff around. That's why we have it, I guess. Oh, my God. So, they became known as the two American women with a Ford. Damn. That's fucking sick. So, not only was she stoked on this thing.

God, she's, like, the first fucking trail bro. So, so much so that her writing was affected by this truck. So, she gets more repetitive and technical and, like, rhythmic. And she starts writing a book called The Making of Americans. And this is a very experimental book that follows two families. And instead of a story about them, it really explores the machine of their human characters. So, it's not, like, really an – it's confusing. It's not really a narrative. It's, like, an observation using rhythmic structure. So, she writes, I am writing for myself and strangers.

This is a history of everyone who ever was or is or will be living. So, of course, she's inspired by a fucking truck engine. She's a nerd. Yeah. Nerd. And then, two years later, the Armstice was signed on November 11th, 1918, which ordered all fighting between Germany and everyone fucking else to end. But it really isn't the end. So, it's after 20 million deaths, 21 million wounded soldiers and civilians, famine, the collapse of infrastructure, and now the pandemic, what the Spanish flu, literally taking out whole-ass cities. And it also takes out our special Guilam. No!

Yeah, who died of the flu two days before the Armstice. Fuck. Shouldn't have been kissing that many people. No. It might not have been a kissing. It was pretty contagious. So, it's probably not been a kissing. So, shit is, after this Armstice where you're like, yay, peace, but in reality, shit is still totally fucked. And Gertie and Alice are still using the truck to help the sick and wounded. And then, about a year later, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, forcing Germany to take the whole-ass blame on this one. They had to dismantle their military and pay reparations, which did destroy their economy.

Germany and fueled extreme nationalism. Uh-oh. We can learn from this. We can learn from this. The Treaty tried to make sure Germany would never fuck up again. But we will see soon that that's not going to happen. That's a war. They are going to fuck up again. Super hard, but not yet. Because, bitch, the war is over, for so we thought. It is the Roaring Twenties now. So, this is the hurrah. Gertie and Alice are back in Paris, a city that's building itself up again. Artists returned, and a whole new shipment of American artists come to Paris and come right to her ass.

This is the school. Mommy! This is the school. And did, like, so I looked into this, of what was this whole, why? How could we be able to move? I guess Paris was not that expensive to live in. Like, it was an easy move if you were an artist or if you didn't really fit in, of go to Paris. So, it really is like, let's go to New York! I was like, let's go to Paris! Yes, and that was the same even for the Americans, too. So, she totally found herself. And she even coined herself the queen of the lost generation.

And their king, Ernest fucking Hemingway. This pretty ass bit. Oh, my God. But so hot, though. So, a mini ASL. This is why this shit is three parts, and I'm not even scratching the surface. So hot. So, Ernest was born to a wealthy family in the burbs of Chicago. He called it, it's funny, he called it a town of wide lawns and narrow mines. Oh, damn! So, that makes sense. He is a cancer Leo cusp. No. No. That's awful. Yeah. Sorry. Who made that decision? What? There are those out there? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Yeah. That's a lot. That's where we're at.

So, he volunteers for World War I at 18. And he actually did want to join the army, but his eyes sucked. So, he was disqualified. Yeah, Ernest Hemingway was not in the technical army. But he did join the American Red Cross and went to Italy to help. So, here's his big hero moment. While he was giving supplies to the Italian soldiers at the front, the trench was hit by a bomb, and hella shrapnel got up all up in his legs. And then, all fucked up and bloody, he tried to carry a wounded soldier to safety and got shot in the fucking knee.

So, in this style of Hemingway, he's brave. So, he ends up getting the Italian Silver Medal of Valor because of this heroic act. Right. And begins writing seriously as a journalist covering the war. But he did spend months in the hospital to treat his injuries and infections from all of this metal up all in his legs. And ended up carrying metal shards in his legs for the rest of his life. And I guess he was always kind of, like, in pain. So, that's sad. Sucks. Sucks. Doesn't mean you have to cause others a fucking pain all the time. This guy. This motherfucker.

So, he's injured, broke. And, newly married to Hadley Richardson, who encouraged him to write seriously after all this. Like an artist and not just like a journalist. And Hadley funded his entire ass move to Paris on her inherited dime. Yeah, she paid for everything because she believed in him. And, of course, she fucks in Olive Lane. This is dumb. Dumb. You had a cheerly, like, I just, oh. So, he meets Gertie soon after arriving in Paris. And immediately, they begin their student-teacher relationship. It was automatic. It was automatic vibes. Gertie loved to shape new talent. And Ernest was desperate for guidance.

She just, like, has a knack for picking these, like, shitty dudes. Of, oh, this kid is gonna ruin his life. Let me go ahead and bring him in. And Gertie is the one that made him stop using adjectives. Like, so, she is kind of the reason he sounds like that. Which we will get into later. That he disputes it a lot. Oh, my gosh. She is the reason he's like, he is courageous. He is, like, okay. No fluff. No fluff at all. That's why he sounds like that. And Alice, of course, hated Ernest. Ernest, obviously. He's not very likable. I mean.

We can see that coming. So, she sees him charming Gertie's pants off. Yeah. Not literally. But, like, he did that with everyone else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she sees what he's doing. Alice sees his giant ego. And at this point, she is so used to protecting Gertie from, like, all these males. It's just interesting. Because she, like, isn't bothered by the male ego. Which. She's not bothered by it. I feel like she probably sees through it. She sees through it. But I think, like, Alice is still protective of her. Yeah. And I think, too, she sees what he does to other women, too.

Of, like, I'm not going to have that. And that's not going to happen to my woman. But I do think Gertie is kind of charmed by him. I have a bunch of pics of this gorgeous toxic hoe on Patreon. So, like, get into Patreon. Like, we'll provide. Dude has. He does have swag. Like, he has aura. Yeah. For sure. And Alice hates anyone with this much swag, dude. It's dangerous. So, he's competing with Alice for Gertie's attention. Like, get in line. So, she literally calls him a big overgrown boy. Get him. Get him, Alice. Yes. So, Alice also hates how he treats his wife.

And Gertie hated that, too. Hadley is fucking paying for everything with her money. And he's for the streets. So, here's the tea. This bitch, Pauline Pfeiffer, moves to Paris from the U.S. to work for Vogue. So, she's, like, hot, glamorous, totally different from his stable, conservative, Midwestern wife. I mean, it's pretty obvious. They're fucking right away. And Hadley desperately hangs on to the marriage and tries to make it work, thinking maybe it's just a fling. I've invested so much. So, he literally, okay, this fucking bitch. He literally takes them all to Spain on vacation. Like, with other friends, kind of a thing.

Like, oh, we're cool. We're all friends. It's a friends trip. No. I am so sorry, Hadley, bitch. This must have been fucking torture. So, Pauline is determined to take this man. And Ernest is soaking it all in. So gross. Like, we're all friends. It's a friends trip. Like, don't do it. If your relationship is rocky and there's jealousy, give it a second before you go to Spain together. Okay? B-B-P-S-A. We need to learn from this. We're learning from Hadley. Like, if you feel a little bit, if you feel a little bit of, like, they might be fucking, don't go to fucking Spain. No.

So, in the end, Hadley did make him choose because she was like, I see you, like, you're with her. Yeah. And he ended up choosing Pauline. Sure. So, good for Hadley on this one. Hadley divorces him, wins custody of their kid, and she demanded royalties from his book, The Sun Also Rises. Yes. And Ernest, I think, given that he felt, like, a little bit bad for doing this on her dime, agreed to that. She was like, okay. And it actually ends up really good for Hadley. She remarries a nice guy and lives a long, happy life.

And Ernest ends up regretting marrying Pauline and wished he was still with Hadley. Like, oh. Well, of course. Tiny violin. Okay. So, sorry for you. Yeah. Too bad, so sad. Oh. And Ernest was not the only toxic character Gertie had to deal with. So, she's got these people. The Fitzgerald. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Okay. Oh, my God. What an insane chaos. Like, oh. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the guy who wrote Great Gatsby. Yeah. And Zelda Fitzgerald, writer, dancer, painter, and crazy-ass American from Alabama. I love her so much. Dude. Okay. So, these people, listen. They were already famous. Yeah. They would attend Gertie's salons.

Well, Scott would, because both Gertie and Alice could not handle Zelda's stuff. She was too wild. She would not be invited, because she was too jazzy and glamorous and chaotic and unapologetically American. She's giving Leo. I love a wily-ass Leo. I'm like, I need to know this. Unkempt. Fucking go for it. Love it. Get wild. Whatever. We're all feeling it. So, she would dance on tables, flirt with everyone, pick fights, and insult anyone acting too pretentious. Yes! I'm here for this energy. I'm obsessed with her. I love her so much. So, this bitch was not to be contained. No.

And Gertie was actually really ew about this bitch, and she told Scott to get away from her, because it would affect his writing. Mmm. Like, Gertie was just like, no. And I'm like, why don't you feel it? And she didn't like her writing, too. She thought it was, like, a little bit too garish, I think, of whatever. Like, you don't see her. You don't see her. Be untameable. And the Fitzgeralds, they don't last too long after this. So, Scott spirals into alcoholism. Um, Ernest even had to carry him out of bars. And Scott ends up dying. I was like, really? Okay.

With his fucking shrapnel and his weasel problem. And Scott dies from a heart attack in Hollywood. And Zelda. Okay. So, we just fall in love with her. Yeah. And now she's, she's gonna get the fucking worst of it. So, she ends up in and out of mental institutions for manic episodes. And, okay, I did not know this. While she was at a mental hospital in North Carolina, a fire broke out in the building. And she was waiting for her electroshock therapy session. And she was locked in a room with eight other women while the building burned. And they all died. Fucking wild.

So, we will all be reading Save Me the Waltz for this bitch. A book that Gertie didn't like, but we like it. Yes, absolutely. She wasn't ready. They weren't ready. They weren't ready for her. And yeah, the earth wasn't ready for her. She was way too iconic for that. Yeah. But I had to talk about the Fitzgeralds because you had to get into these people. So, we'll go back to Gertie. Her and Alice's salon shifted after the war. It became less about discovering avant-garde European painters and more about molding new American immigrants. They're not expats. They're immigrants. Yeah. Interesting. I hate that.

So, she related to them. They're disillusioned. They're in their existential crisis moment. We are getting it. We're young and dumb and violent. Young, dumb, and full of cum. Sorry. I gotta move. My back is gonna move. Okay. Okay. I'm here. And Gertie understands all of this. And out of all this disillusionment and all these questions and all this meaningless violence comes, of course, some great-ass art. I mean, if there's going to be a benefit, it has to be that. Listen, that's always the silver lining as like, oh my god, I'm more than anything so fired up to make shit. Yeah.

So, let's fucking put it on canvas, you guys, or put it in a book, put it in writing, do something, write something. The salon is like the finishing school for these American writers. Gertie is literally a voice of a generation. And Alice, she becomes the gatekeeper. Even Hemingway said, to get to Gertrude, you went through Alice. She holds the authority over who is eligible to even see Gertie. I mean, she has her very best interest at heart. And if that's not a Taurus, I don't know what is literally protecting the piece. Like, please leave your chaos outside.

And Gertie greatly appreciated this protection and this kind of love. So much so that she wrote a book called The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas that was published in 1933. And to me, I think this book is her masterpiece. Oh, that's so sweet. It's so good. And it is written in Alice's voice, describing her life with Gertrude. So it's more of like a self-portrait using Alice as kind of a mask. Cube is in. So it describes Alice's role in the salon and in Gertie's life. She's the organizer, the stabilizer, the gatekeeper in the salon and in their domestic life. Yeah.

And lucky for her, people got it. Finally. Finally, dude. Commercial success after a ton of crazy mixed reviews and sus-ass critics. Like we have. Like we have. Yes. You're sus. You don't get it? Then like, please don't be around me. You're dangerous. Bye. Bye. Bye. And I think being actually readable to non-artists did like help. And this is when Gertie became Gertrude Stein. She explodes in popularity. This is her big break. And it's all about a lesbian relationship in the fucking 30s. Like I'm, I'm obsessed. And everyone else was too. This was the time for this. Yeah. Critics ended up reassessing her previous avant-garde work.

Like she's like, oh no, no, we get it now. Actually, actually, I love it. I get it. Oh my God. You were just too stupid before. Just admit you were too stupid before. It happens. So she's coined a genius modernist. Universities are begging for her lectures. Even Hollywood is begging for a screenplay, even though she never respected cinematography and actively talked shit about the industry. Like she did not want, she did not want Hollywood. So Gertie and Alice are now famous, which is good and bad. So good for art and bad for the relationship.

Now she's a known Jew, American immigrant, queer, and now we're going into the 1940s. Yeah. Like, uh-oh. World War II. So ASL. You got to get out of there. We're not playing anymore. We're not playing anymore. So Adolf Schittler, not only is he a mentally ill, fascist, anti-Semite, racist, mass manipulator, he's also a really shitty artist. So that's fun. So mini BBPSA, any man that you come across that reads Mein Kampf is a red flag, especially if he's white. I learned that from experience. Not all knowledge is power. He doesn't care about you. Anyway. Anyway. It just says a lot. It says enough.

Get away from him. No. And I don't want to describe this shithead too much. You know, just look at America's current administration. It's like textbook. Aryan superiority, propaganda, censorship, violent repression, and persecution of specific groups. It's here. We're here. This is insanely relevant. And historians who study fascism and World War II already left because it's that textbook. And the maggots, I'm sorry, the Nazis, swoop in right when Germany's economy collapses and German morale is at its lowest manipulation station. Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. We don't care about you.

The Nazi regime spent years conditioning the public to see Jewish people as the enemy, from stereotypes to anti-Semitic messaging to the education system actively teaching students that Jewish people were racially inferior. It's so wild. Then in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws, basically stripping rights away from Jewish people. They literally lost citizenship, among other discriminatory laws against them. This literally ended up with Jewish people being banned from public spaces. Yeah. Fucking wild.

And these laws quickly turned into violence with Kristallnacht, a state-organized act of terror, where, sorry, the SS, I get confused, and Schittler Youth attacked synagogues, vandalized businesses, and arrests thousands of Jewish men for no reason, and ordered police not to intervene in the violence, and just to make sure that non-Jewish businesses remained safe during the purge. And not only that, they forced Jewish people to clean up the destruction and pay for the damages. The fucking audacity. They had to pay damages for the damage that the Nazis did. And the violence isn't even close to over. Jewish kids were expelled.

Jewish people were banned from public spaces. And Jewish businesses were shut down or transferred to non-Jewish ownership. Yeah. And, oh my god, nobody cared. Holy shit. Some nations were like, boo on the violence, but they weren't taking refugees or changing their immigration policies. A lot of these people had nowhere to go except concentration camps where they would be tortured and killed. But many didn't know this because Schittler had so many different plans. Not only does he want genocide for everyone who isn't white, this small dick energy man wants to conquer Europe too. And be like Alexander the Great or some dumb toxic male-ass shit.

He was gay, you guys. And hide his plans for genocide by distracting Europe with war. However, World War II, September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland because of a fake Polish attack. So write this down. A fake Polish attack. And two days later, Britain and France declared war. France was defeated by Germany in 1940 by using a fast and unexpected forces, unexpected blitzkrieg attack and got through forces or essentially went around the forces that France had all set up. So France was like, dude, mech, we got this. They can't get past us unless, of course, they went through Belgium and the spooky forest.

There's no way they'd go to the spooky forest. I'm dubbing it down, but that's like kind of the gist of how Germany got to Paris. France just, they weren't ready. They weren't ready. They were like, oh, she don't. Oh, no, there's no go. And that, unfortunately, brings us back to our girls who now live in Nazi-occupied France. Uh-oh. So here's the vibe. Nazis patrolling the streets, major censorship, 9 p.m. curfew, and rations. And, of course, Jewish people had it much harder than anyone else. Right. Trump flags. I mean, Nazi flags. We used to hate these guys.

Nazi flags were hung outside homes and businesses to avoid conflict. Jewish people were required to register and had to adhere to discriminatory laws. German propaganda was everywhere, including French newspapers and magazines. The propaganda art is crazy. And, of course, we'll have many examples of this on Patreon. You know what to do. Okay. Fun side note. Take a deep breath. Resistance groups, of course, were formed. So this isn't France's schticks, dude. This is not them. They were forced into this. Yes, there were many French fascists who had small wieners. But, you know, France does not vibe with fascism. No.

They guillotined thousands of aristocrats back in the day. They are all about revolution and fuck tyranny and all of that. I see you, France. You didn't want this. But you don't also want your beautiful city to be ruined and people to die. So resistance groups. Apparently, some groups met up in the fucking catacombs, dude. It's fucking wild. If that's not the most metal-ass shit you've ever heard. Okay. So a lot of my artwork is about catacombs in Paris and I would love to explore them. So that's like a bucket shit list for me. So Parisian listeners, broke bitches, explore catacombs with real French.

So I love As Above, So Below is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Don't watch it if you're claustrophobic. I didn't know. That the French are cool as fuck having secret meetings in the catacombs. And it sucks that they got like a really bad rap during World War II. But just like a lot of Americans don't want what's happening in our country right now, the French did not want it either. So we see you. We see you, Mick. Anyway, Gertie, she didn't stay in Paris when shit was getting hot. Her and Alice moved to their country house in the Rhone Alps region.

Far away from the schmatzies. And, you know, because she was Jewish, this was the safest thing next to leaving France altogether. Yeah. So rural France was not as affected by Nazi control and rations. In rural France, you could grow your own food, trade with neighbors, and ultimately stay secret. And rural villagers kind of had each other's backs. Sure. So another thing to take notes. Be nice to people. Grow potatoes. So, which brings us to Gertie's relationship with this very complicated intellectual. We have to talk about this. Bernard Fahey. This is where all the propaganda against Gertie during this time comes from.

It's very confusing because you will have to figure out if it's good or bad. And remember, good and bad, it's objective. So, I guess. So it's a hard one for me, too, because I don't have the answers. So let me give you some context so you can dissect. If Gertie is chilling, it's, okay, sorry. If Gertie is chill siding with dude or not, it's very complicated, but, like, very relevant. So this boy, Bernie, he was a French intellectual who loved Gertie because he also loved American history and culture and one of the first Frenchies to take American literature seriously, especially our girls' work.

And their relationship before her commercial fame was crucial. He took her seriously before a lot of other Europeans did. He introduced her to French cultural figures that she otherwise wouldn't be able to touch because of her background. So he made her kind of legit in some French circles. So he idolized her, saw her as a genius, and even described her as a prophet of modernism. And Gertie totally vibed with him, too. She saw him as a friend that understood her, especially a French friend that understood her in a way that other European writers didn't.

Remember, she is, like, an American hero, not necessarily a French one. Right. But I think she missed some red flags, like some far-right red flags. Oh, no. Yeah. So she, I guess she didn't know about his extremist political ideologies, maybe until later. Oh, my God. You got to vet your tribe, dude. Yeah. Yeah, of, like, oh. But I guess they didn't, like, it's not like they had, like, you know, fucking Instagram. They don't have this context, too, of what could happen with this, of maybe it's one thing to have an idea, and it's one thing to, like, put it into practice, I guess.

Yeah, like, I never thought I'd be, like, fucking living through what they were living through. You know what I mean? So it was really easy 10 years ago to look back and be, like, what the fuck were all the citizens doing, you know? Totally. And now it's, like, oh, I get it. Fucking sheep and wolf's clothing. Or wolf and sheep's clothing. It's hindsight is 20-20 kind of a thing. I'm, like, she didn't know that this would happen with this guy's idea. I don't know. Maybe she did, and, like, the blind eye kind of vibes. Sure.

So he is complex because, honestly, he was extremely conservative but hated republicanism, which, as an American, it is hard to separate that today. So I told you it's very complicated. But at the same time, he's against liberalism, secularism, and social equality. Like, okay, what? What do you, what? And he also hates modernism. Gertie was a modernist. But I guess he didn't really see her as that, maybe. He saw her above that in, like, a prophet kind of way. Like, maybe a postmodern. I don't know, like, where these people are. I need to talk to all these people.

She's just like, okay, well, you're gassing me up, so I like you. Yeah. Like, he likes her even though she does, is, her, she embodies everything that he's against, it seems like. But he saw something different in her. I mean, I think it goes to show of, okay, I can make, I can make different claims for the people that I know versus, versus my strangers. Like whole bodies of demographics, right? Yeah, exactly, where you're like, well, that just shows your intelligence then. Of all of these people could be your friends, but you can always say, oh, no, I don't want gay people to marry.

Only these people that I know that like me and then are nice to me. And you're like, that's, you're dumb, you're dumb then. I'm sorry, you're dumb. Like, that's crazy. And I guess their relationship was so much more personal than that. Like, when you can be friends with a conservative Christian nationalist. Those aren't Republicans, by the way. They don't know the meaning of that term. It is possible, I guess. So I understand, but I don't agree with people when they say that they can't be friends with people that have different political values.

Like, I get it, it's hard, but I think it's really important right now to not divide and not have this happen again. It's like, just try to be friends. Like, I understand where you are coming from cutting off all the maggots. Like, I see you, but do your best to be above it in social circles, unless it's toxic and unhealthy. Like, stay friends, see what happens, because this is just so freaky how fucking relevant this all is. Yeah. And I'm not trying to virtue signal like you guys think I'm doing. I have a very hard time understanding these people, but I'm doing my best.

And that's what we can do. Like, okay, rant over. Like, fuck it. At the end of the day, freakishly nice. I don't know. There's nothing else. And other than all that other stuff that I don't agree with about Bernie, I do like that he hated the Freemasons. Which I do want to talk about one day. When I'm in a better place emotionally. Yes, yes, yes. He was a conspiracy theorist. Yes. Which makes so much sense. And we talk about my conspiracy theory holes on Patreon and how they can get into, like, a weird conservative Christian place. Like, where the fuck did I?

I have all these complex feelings now. Because I, too, am obsessed with Freemasonry and the broader sense of, like, secret societies and shadow governments and the Illuminati. And I think his sources were based in anti-Semitism at the end of the day. This is not about fucking religion, you guys. It's about controlling money, you guys. It's not about Jewish people. It's the powers that be. Yeah. So Bernie's thoughts on Freemasonry had to do with the Jewish Freemason conspiracy, which I don't know. I think if he were here today, he would understand that Freemasonry ultimately is not about Jews or Catholics or liberals.

It's about money and power. So put this guy along with Alice on the list of dead people I need to talk to on the other side. But on the other hand, we hate Bernie because he was a bad conspiracy theorist. He put Jewish people in the same boat as the Freemasons and actively promoted anti-Semitic propaganda. Yeah. What are you doing? He collaborated with Nazis to fuck with Jewish people in every which way. So he was a cunt because he protected select friends from scrutiny while persecuting strangers.

And these are dangers that we can face today when we dive too far into conspiracy theories, get into an unhealthy place. There are unhealthy communities that melt your brain. So what is she doing with this dude then? Okay. Okay. So at the end of the day, Bernie held Gertie at a different standard than all the other Jewish people that he was actively persecuting. And protecting her from the regime that he was fully a part of. So even though he's interesting and relevant, he is ultimately a fucking murder associate. Should he do? Yeah. Fuck him.

And the tricky thing is Gertie regarded him as one of her closest friends. Calling him one of her four permanent friendships. That's weird. Yeah. I don't know, Gertie. I don't know about that one. They were friends since the 20s. What is the Alice thing? They were friends since the 20s. So Alice went along with this. And they totally related intellectually. And there's nothing said about her views on his politics. So I can just assume that she didn't agree with them. So this is something we can learn from in a fucked up, twisted way.

I think this totally relates to today with the division of families and friends over political views. I think each of us has experienced being uncomfortable or even horrified by a friend or family member's beliefs. And you know in their heart that the way they're thinking, you know in your heart that it's wrong. Yeah. Do we talk about it? Do we avoid talking about it? It's confusing. Do we talk about it and try to understand each other? Do we agree to disagree? Do we totally cut people off? What do we do? I don't know. Everyone has a different answer. That's okay. I think friends are not.

I think Gertie should have said something about their friendship. At least like we don't agree on everything but he's my friend kind of a thing. Like we don't have any of that. However, there is another thing. And we'll talk about how you can look at this in her benefit. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt in this one. So here's the tea. She translated this asshole, Marshal Philippe Payton's fascist speeches for an American audience. So I guess Bernie might have suggested to Gertie.

So a fascist friend suggested to Gertie to this marshal to translate his speeches because he knew that Gertie could help Americanize them for American readers. Maybe so it wouldn't sound so like fascist-y. Because we don't like that, you guys. Remember, we don't like that. And now these translations were never published. And we can think of this in a few ways. Like, again, benefit of the doubt. So she couldn't have agreed to this because she was scared and she knew that being friends with Bernie was keeping her alive. Yeah. I could not blame her for that if that's how she felt.

But there are some critics that think that maybe she was looking into fascist ideology. She allegedly supported Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Basically, Spanish Mussolini. Like, awful military authoritarianism Catholic conservative hardcore dictator vibes. And I don't know if she, like, knew that. I'm going to say that she didn't totally know. Like, fuck, dude. Okay. We're devolving. Now, one thing is, I could not find the actual printed page of this. This is all hearsay. So this could be propaganda. This could be totally propaganda.

This could be, like, this is something she might have said in passing but not written down in, like, a context that makes sense. So this is why, like, things towards the end of World War II are, like, kind of confusing for Gertie fans. It's like, is this real or is this propaganda? Right. It could be propaganda. And there's one more little thing. Okay. This is really dumb and supposed to be funny, but it isn't. So she told the New York Times in 1934 that Schittler deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.

I think she was trying to be, like, a cringy edgelord about this one, like, trying to be funny or something. But, like, clearly it's bad timing. What? You're Jewish. And in 1945, lots of stuff happened. So the Battle of the Bulge, German forces were surrounded by allied forces and surrendered. Schittler schmilled himself. Japan surrendered after Soviet forces declared war. And U.S. forces dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So we really don't want anything like that to happen again. Gertie's buddy, Bernie, was in prison. And I guess she even went to visit him in jail.

But I guess he escaped prison and, like, lived a quiet life in Switzerland. And Gertie was not reprimanded for her connection to him. Gertie and Alice returned to Paris and wrote Wars I Have Seen, which is more about her day-to-day life and fears and the people around her, including the villagers and the occupying troops. But unfortunately, it does not give us her views on straight-up fascism and Nazis. She does condemn anti-Semitism and writes about her fears being a Jewish woman during the German occupation. But not as much as, like, we want. Yeah.

Like, we want a little more on you, Gertie, of, like, you think this is bad? But it also could be, listen, we don't know what the fuck's going on right now. Yeah. I don't know all that. Like, it could be, we could be seeing it different. And she's not here to defend herself. So we can't. And it's not, like, today where we have so much information available to us about why everything is happening and what is happening. I mean, this is, like, a newspaper, right? And maybe, like, a telegram. And then all the news media, like it is now, is completely controlled.

So it's hard to know what to believe. And it could be some, like, internalized stuff, too, with all of this propaganda of how could you not, like, kind of internalize some of this hatred towards your own kind of just like we have internalized misogyny and internalized racism that we're constantly unpacking and trying to work through. Yeah. She might have not been there yet of not really sinking in because it was so horrendous. Right. And things like that have happened before. But I think that this was, like, a big shift. Yeah. And stuff and everything.

Well, and with her parents dying when she was so young, do you think she had, like, a lot of cultural identity in Judaism, you know? There's that, too. There could be some. And maybe she's, like, rationalizing and separation of culture of, like, I'm not that or something. I was born Jewish, but I'm not. I don't identify with it. Right. Or something like that.

But, okay, and now it's pushing you farther away and farther into otherness, and you're trying to find some kind of way back into – I can't imagine what – I mean, I can't imagine a weird way of, like, what this kind of propaganda does to your brain. But – Well, and not knowing about concentration camps, not knowing all of that. Totally. I mean, you got to think at some point, like, all your fucking neighbors are disappearing. Like, you've got to put that together, you would think.

And then it's, like, I want to defend her, but then I'm also saying, like, but you've experienced this kind of persecution, and you were afraid, and all of these other people were afraid going into their deaths, dude. Like, you're a writer. Fucking write something about this. But it's – she writes about it, but it just – it's not as – not enough as what we want. We wanted more. We want to know that you know that – like, you need to tell me that you know this is wrong, right? Totally. Right? Right? So it's weird. It's weird.

And a lot of people do defend her of, like, listen, you weren't there. You don't know what this shit is. I'm like, right, right, right. And then a lot of people are like, but why? She was there. Like, why didn't she talk about it? What? Yeah. And then she's friends with these people, and I could totally see this being – this is survival. But she didn't really claim it like that, you know? Like, maybe she was still scared after this time, which I could totally see that. Traumatized. Yeah, for sure. Traumatized. She's doing her best to protect herself. So, unfortunately, we will never.

Oh, I don't like that. Don't love that. Here's some crazy other tea. So, back to Ernest. So, Ernest. So, after the war, this bitch published a memoir, A Movable Feast, about his early career in Paris. And he describes Gertrude as controlling, jealous, sexually repressed, and overly abstract. Like, full-blown character assassination. Yeah. Like, it's actually crazy how mean this is. He said she had lost the ability to write anything that was readable. Like, this is the reason that this bitch blew the fuck up. I just – what? That's like fucking – You got famous from her. The student murders the master? Jesus. 100%. Okay, okay, okay.

So, here's the tea. I guess in her book, the autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and another one called Everyone's Autobiography, she kind of took credit for his style, which, I mean – So, he didn't love that, because he was a huge – he's a Leo, Leo Cancer. So, yeah, he's going to hate that. Yeah, he – How dare you take credit for my fucking work, right? And I guess he didn't like how he was portrayed as this, like, man boy? I mean, you kind of are – okay. She wrote, he was always talking about how to be a real man. Get up. We see you.

So, I guess Ernest fans give him the benefit of the doubt, too. While he was writing his book, he was in, like, a really bad spot, and he was depressed. Boo-hoo. Sorry. I shouldn't do that. I shouldn't do that. And he's scared off all of his bitches. Men are allowed to have feelings. You're allowed to have feelings. He's so toxic, though. There's all these people around you trying to help you, babe. There's all these people around you that love you, babe. Don't push them away. Yeah. And he was, like, punishing everyone for his stuff. It's not cute. That's such a Leo thing to do.

You're not hot anymore. You're not even hot anymore. You're not even hot anymore. So, Gertie continued writing and discovering new artists and continued being super iconic and controversial until July 27, 1946, when she died during surgery to remove a stomach tumor at the age of 72. Hmm. And before her surgery, to Alice, she asked, what is the answer? In that case, what is the question? It's so Gertrude Stein of you. And Alice, okay, some crazy ups and downs with Alice. Unfortunately, Alice never fully recovered from her grief.

She became extremely depressed, lost the apartments, and all of the Matisses and Picassos after the Stein family seized them. Yeah. Gertie left everything to Alice in her will, but because they weren't married and the Stein family had the legal authority of her assets, Alice got fucking nothing. Ugh. But then, even when she lost everything, in 1954, she published a cookbook called The Alice B. Toglis Cookbook, which was a huge success because it was part memoir, part recipes, and part love letter to Gertie. Aww, how cute. And then she converted to Catholicism. Okay, that's a weird move. Okay.

I think grief drives you to do interesting things, and she loves a good structured environment, maybe? Yeah, maybe. And she continued Gertie's legacy of developing young writers. She would write back and forth to young writers until March 7th, 1967, died at the age of 89. Wow. And those are our girls. Aww. Aww, I love, weird, weird at the end. Weird at the end. Yeah. No. What? I don't know. I think, I think she needed like another decade to maybe address it. Like, she just needed like one more decade to be here. Sure. To be like, listen, I didn't know what was happening.

I think that's where my head is. Yeah. I didn't know how to process this. We'll keep it there. We'll keep it there. We're keeping it there. We're keeping it there. Three giant episodes. Thank you guys so much. Oh, thank you. And I also like haven't even scratched the surface of how giant cultural impacts, modernist icons, feminist icons, queer icons, but politically complicated. We need them. That's where we are right now. Yeah. We're fucking complicated. I don't know. Oh my God. I don't know the answers. Absolutely not. And I feel like these episodes were more about Gertie and Alice as a duo.

So I'm going to go for people at the party. Oh. People at the party. So here's an iconic, more, a little more modern duo. So you'll love this. And I think we've done this before. I'm fine. Elton John and David. Oh, cute. Oh, yes. So Elton, of course, being the uber talented superstar who changed culture as we know it. And David as the calm, steady, supportive partner who drives the whole ass machine. Sure, sure, sure. While also being insanely smart and creative himself. So their home was the hub of art and music and fashion and culture and probably all kinds of other fun stuff.

Just like Gertie and Alice's salon. And even though their public lives were wild, their domestic lives were much more quiet and structured and intimate. Sure. Just like, oh, cute. Good job, dude. You gotta be exhausted. I was just, I loved this energy. I was totally enthralled with these girls and can't wait to dive further into Gertie's writings. And so I was looking at the cookbook. I was looking at Alice's cookbook. She has hashish fudge. What? She has weed fudge. Oh, my God. I love her. Done. Bought. Good purchase. Buy now. In the cart. Let's go.

And I guess she has a really good lemon souffle recipe in there, too. That's highly good. To pair after you have the hashish fudge. Let's get some souffle. Let's fucking do this shit. Let's go. Oh, my God. I haven't even. So good. Two white clots down. Two white clots down. I had an herbal tea. I'm on antibiotics, though, from the pneumonia. So give me two more days. I'll be back at it. Immediately. All right. Listen. Listen. It's some tough times out there. Take care of yourself. Drink water. Yeah. Drink water, too. Get outside. Do some stretching. Maybe some tai chi.

Tell you all about my tai chi in the morning. All right. We love you. We love you so fucking much. We love you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.