Phrase used to
insult small
towns, based on a
misunderstanding of the
context of its origin. People quote
Gertrude Stein and assume that the American
expatriate was comparing Oakland to
Paris and suggesting the town lacked
sophistication and
substance. Actually, she was comparing the
experience of visiting Oakland as an
adult to the
memory of living there as a
child.
Stein lived in Oakland, California from the age of five (1879) until her father died in 1891. When Stein returned to California on her lecture tour to the United States in the 1930s, she wanted to visit her childhood home in Oakland. She could not find the house, and wrote this:
What was the use of me having come from Oakland, it was not natural for me 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.
Source:
Everybody's Biography, by Gertrude Stein.