No There There

from Slate

That makes the search for a compelling Kagan narrative even more imperative. But there's no there there...Lacking Sonia Sotomayor's up-from-poverty life story and John Roberts' sprinkled-with-fairy-dust charm, Kagan has been halfheartedly sketched by her enemies as a snarling hater of the military, and by her friends as awfully nice.

Gertrude Stein was famous for long torrents of doggerel, but nothing she said or wrote has proven so immortal as how Oakland, California has "no there there" (except for maybe "You are all a lost generation," directed condescendingly at Hemingway and Fitzgerald):

What was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from there yes write about it if I like or anything if I like but not there, there is no there there.

This comes from her memoir "Everyone's Autobiography." She was searching for a house she once lived in and couldn't find it. Moreover, she found Oakland unworthy of reminiscence.

To me I think this quip is not just minor disappointment. There is also subtle dig at California's disposable culture. Stein lived in Paris, and the quote gives off a whiff of haughty Old World dismissal.

But now "no there there" has become common enough currency to apply it to any non-entity. Journalists overturn every stone in search of a scandal that would complicate Elena Kagan's judicial appointment, but there's "no there there."

Could anyone use this phrase affirmatively? As in, "I love that new restaurant. Its ambiance is so unique. There's a wonderful there there." The phrase completely avoids an attempt at accurate description.

A "there there" is an essence, a gestalt, or a special luminosity that disappointing things don't have.