What is art?, quote by Tom Robbins

The most useful thing about art is its uselessness…My point is that there’s a place–an important place, as a matter of fact–in our all too pragmatic world for the impractical and the non-essential, and that art occupies that place more gloriously than does just about anything else: occupies it with such authority and with such inspirational if quixotic results that we find ourselves in the contradictory position of having to concede that the non-essential can be very essential, indeed, if for no other reason than that an environment reduced to essentials is a subhuman environment in which only drones will thrive.”

TOM ROBBINS, excerpted from “What Is Art and If We Know What Art Is, What Is Politics?” found in Wild Ducks Flying Backward: Short Writings of Tom Robbins (Bantam, 2005)

Photo: Tom Robbins

Z, essay by Tom Robbins

Z  (Excerpt), An Essay

by Tom Robbins

…It’s the most distant and elusive of our twenty-six linguistic atoms; a mysterious, dark figure in an otherwise fairly innocuous lineup, and the sleekest little swimmer ever to take laps in a bowl of alphabet soup.

 Scarcely a day of my life has gone by when I’ve not stirred the alphabetical ant nest, yet every time I type of pen the letter Z, I still feel a secret tingle, a tiny thrill. This is partially due to Z’s relative rarity: my dictionary devotes 99 pages to A words, 138 pages to P, but only 5 pages to words beginning with Z.

 Then there’s Z’s exoticness, for, though it’s a component of the English language, it gives the impression of having zipped out of Africa or the ancient Near East of Nebuchadnezzzar…Take a letter? You bet. I’ll take Z. My favorite country, at least on paper, is Zanzibar; my favorite body of water, the Zuider Zee. ZZ Top is my favorite band…Had Zsa Zsa Gabor married Frank Zappa, she would have had the coolest name in the world…

Photo: Tom Magliery, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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The above essay taken from Tom Robbins‘ essay, “Write About One of Your Favorite Things” (Esquire, 1996) and collected in Wild Ducks Flying Backward: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins (Bantam, 2005)

Zen Yo-Yo, haiku by Tom Robbins

Zen Yo-Yo
by Tom Robbins 

Brown spider dangling
from a single strand.
Up down, up down: 
Zen yo-yo.

Photo: O. Takizawa, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Note: This haiku and several others appear in Wild Ducks Flying Backward: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins (Bantam, 2005).

New Orleans in September, quote by Tom Robbins

“Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air–moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh–felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing. Honeysuckle, swamp flowers, magnolia, and the mystery smell of the river scented the atmosphere, amplifying the intrusion of organic sleaze. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time. In New Orleans, in the French Quarter, miles from the barking lungs of alligators, the air maintained this quality of breath, although here it acquired a tinge of metallic halitosis, due to fumes expelled by tourist buses, trucks delivering Dixie beer, and, on Decatur Street, a mass-transit motor coach named Desire.”  

TOM ROBBINS, Jitterbug Perfume

Find Tom Robbins‘ 1990 novel Jitterbug Perfume at Amazon.com.

Happy Birthday, Tom Robbins

Today is Tom Robbins 77th birthday! Hard to believe that the wild and wacky author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues has reached septuagenarian status. For me, reading Robbins’ 1971 novel Another Roadside Attraction was a revelation about what a novel could do and what it could be. Thank you, Tom, for opening up our minds and inspiring us with your imagination. 

“Often the things that pop out of my typewriter regale me, especially when I am trying to say something else and in a different way only to have a kind of metamorphosis take place during the act of typing and — ­whammo! — a concept I hadn’t counted on is strutting its vaudeville on the page.”  TOM ROBBINS, ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION

Photo: Tom Robbins at home in LaConner, Washington, by Alan Berner, The Seattle Times, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

New Orleans Nature Walk, Quote by Tom Robbins

“Louisiana in September was like an obscene phone call from nature. The air–moist, sultry, secretive, and far from fresh–felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing. Honeysuckle, swamp flowers, magnolia, and the mystery smell of the river scented the atmosphere, amplifying the intrusion of organic sleaze. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time. In New Orleans, in the French Quarter, miles from the barking lungs of alligators, the air maintained this quality of breath, although here it acquired a tinge of metallic halitosis, due to fumes expelled by tourist buses, trucks delivering Dixie beer, and, on Decatur Street, a mass-transit motor coach named Desire.”

…from Jitterbug Perfume, a novel by TOM ROBBINS

Find Tom Robbins‘ 1990 novel Jitterbug Perfume at Amazon.com.

“Jitterbug Perfume has a large and exotic cast of characters, all of whom are interested in immortality and/or perfume… Go see for yourself; you’ll have a good time.” The Washington Post

Z, Essay by Tom Robbins

Z  (Excerpt), An Essay

by Tom Robbins

…It’s the most distant and elusive of our twenty-six linguistic atoms; a mysterious, dark figure in an otherwise fairly innocuous lineup, and the sleekest little swimmer ever to take laps in a bowl of alphabet soup.

 Scarcely a day of my life has gone by when I’ve not stirred the alphabetical ant nest, yet every time I type of pen the letter Z, I still feel a secret tingle, a tiny thrill. This is partially due to Z’s relative rarity: my dictionary devotes 99 pages to A words, 138 pages to P, but only 5 pages to words beginning with Z.

 Then there’s Z’s exoticness, for, though it’s a component of the English language, it gives the impression of having zipped out of Africa or the ancient Near East of Nebuchadnezzzar…Take a letter? You bet. I’ll take Z. My favorite country, at least on paper, is Zanzibar; my favorite body of water, the Zuider Zee. ZZ Top is my favorite band…Had Zsa Zsa Gabor married Frank Zappa, she would have had the coolest name in the world…

Photo: Tom Magliery, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

###

The above essay taken from Tom Robbins‘ essay, “Write About One of Your Favorite Things” (Esquire, 1996) and collected in Wild Ducks Flying Backward: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins (Bantam, 2005)

Zen Yo-Yo by Tom Robbins

Zen Yo-Yo

a haiku

by Tom Robbins 

Brown spider dangling
from a single strand.
Up down, up down: 
Zen yo-yo.

Photo: O. Takizawa, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Note: This haiku and several others appear in Wild Ducks Flying Backward: The Short Writings of Tom Robbins (Bantam, 2005).

Happy July 22nd Birthday, Tom

Apologies to Tom Robbins for the 4-day delay in wishing him a happy birthday. I have been an uber Robbins fan for many years. My favorite is still his first novel, Another Roadside Attraction, which was like a revelation to me. You mean, it’s okay to make up wild, crazy metaphors, concoct outlandish stories, and invent outrageous characters? Count me in.

When I first starting reading his books, I was so taken with Robbins’ writing that I sent him a letter in care of his publisher — and he was kind enough to write back. I kept up a running correspondence with Robbins for many years — and met him a couple of times when he stopped in Chicago during his book tours. He was even kind enough to give me a book blurb. What a guy! Not only a great writer but a great human being.

Thank you for all those postcards, Tom — and, of course, thank you for all of your wonderful books. Hope you had a happy birthday!

Photo: Cade Martin, All Rights Reserved

Summer Road Trip: New Orleans

The air — moist, sultry, secretive…felt as if it were being exhaled into one’s face. Sometimes it even sounded like heavy breathing. Honeysuckle, swamp flowers, magnolia, and the mystery smell of the river scented the atmosphere, amplifying the intrusion of organic sleaze. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time. In New Orleans, in the French Quarter, miles from the barking lungs of alligators, the air maintained this quality of breath…”

TOM ROBBINS, Jitterbug  Perfume

Photo: Infrogmation