Tom Robbins, R.I.P.

 I first read Robbins over 40 years ago. A friend gave me Robbins' Still Life With Woodpecker. Then I lost track of him until prison, where the leisure library had a bunch of his later books. He has now died: Tom Robbins, author of 'Jitterbug Perfume,' has died at 92 (NPR).

As a result, critics tended to pigeonhole him as a trippy hippy. "Establishment critics to this day write me off as a counterculture writer, even though [of] my nine novels, the last six have had nothing to do with counterculture themes," Robbins said in 2014. "I wouldn't have missed, say, the '60s, for a billion dollars, but neither I nor my life's work can be defined by counterculture sensibilities."

Longtime University of St. Joseph professor Catherine E. Hoyser, now a professor emeritus, authored a guide to Robbins' novels for students. She agrees that the scope and ambitions of his work far exceed his college-dorm-room reputation. "People who believed that he was a drug-taking bon-vivant that wasn't particularly serious in his work actually don't pay attention to the profound nature underneath that humor," she says.

Underneath the fantasy and whimsy, Hoyser says Robbins was an advocate for feminism, social justice and the environment. She singles out his 1994 novel, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, in which frogs are disappearing: "He was writing about this well before people were even noticing the decline of species on our planet from climate change."

YouTube, of course, has videos. I spent the afternoon listening to them; it seemed a good way to pay my respects.

Tom Robbins Quotes

The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.

***

The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens -- but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it's love and love alone that really matters.

***

Throughout most of our history, nothing - not flood, famine, plague, or new weapons - has endangered humanity one-tenth as much as the narcissistic ego, with its self-aggrandizing presumptions and its hell-hound spawn of fear and greed.

***

When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on - series polygamy - until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimension to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.

***

If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill-take it and push it as far as it will go, push it beyond where it has ever been before, push it to the wildest edges of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic.

***

You risked your life, but what else have you ever risked? Have you risked disapproval? Have you ever risked economic security? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous about risking one's life. So you lose it, you go to your hero's heaven and everything is milk and honey 'til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That's not courage. Real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one's clichés. 

 

 sch 2/10