Bob and 88'ers:

I just think this is great. Here we are, trying to "define" the way a
typically incidental word like "very" does it meaning in this experimental
writing! (I love my job!)

In its conventional uses, "very" tends to flatten meaning rather than do what
it is "supposed" to do--enhance meaning. "I am tired." "I am very tired."
Supposely the second sentence indicates a greater tiredness. But it doesn't
necessarily add anything. In some instances it can take away. "I am tired" is
a pointblank statement and there's no doubt about your tiredness when you say
it (especially if you're so tired that a three-word sentence helps indicate
that condition). But if you use "very" with an adjective such as "mine" it
actually focuses or strengthens the word through oddity or disorientation:

                        not:            mine
                        but:            very mine

If something is yours ("This toy is mine"), is it also very yours, or very
much yours ("This toy is very mine")?
 
"Mine" indicates possession and "mine" standing alone doesn't conventionally
indicate any doubt about it. "This toy is mine" is definitive. So here the
word "very" doesn't help to underscore its partner-word ("mine"). It actually
serves to call "mine" into question! 

What does it mean to say mine?

What does it mean to speak of "mine" with respect to Valentines?

In love, is there such a thing, truly, as "mine"?

What do you possess in love? (Is it when you use words about love? When you
say "I love you"?)

Can someone be yours but also *very* yours?

Do conventional expressions of love in language (think Hallmark cards) get at
the core of what

                                "be mine"

means?
                
                                Be my Valentine!

After receiving a conventional Valentine, you say "Oh, thank you. I do want
to be your Valentine" or you say "Oh thank you for the nice card. But I
prefer not to be your Valentine."

When you receive (read) Stein's Valentine, you say: "Gee, what does 'my'
mean? How did words of love come to mean this? And: alternatively, can I be
my own Valentine and still love you?" Etc.

In the first instance, you think you're thinking about love but you're
actually stuck on the language that got nowhere new. IN the second instance,
you think you are thinking about language (because it's hard and raises basic
questions) but in fact you are also thinking about love, because love, in
part, is "about" asking basic questions about significance.

--Al