A Letter to a Woodpecker

As Salman Rushdie once observed, “A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”

I can’t think of too many authors who did all that better than Tom Robbins.

Tom, I’m glad you lived, and I’m sorry to hear you died. I know – 92 is a fair age and it’s not really my business. Memento mori and stuff. I just liked knowing there was someone on the planet who saw right through it all, who somehow combined extended metaphors and run-on sentences into a stew that simultaneously made readers laugh out loud but also consider deeply abstract ideas in ways that changed their lives, however incrementally, for the moment and forever, and who, right up to the end, managed to remain, at least in the public eye, unstained by it all.

William Gibson wrote: “The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

That metaphor is exposition. It’s evocative because it’s accessible. It sets the stage and even provides some foreshadowing because the referents are known to the reader. Familiar images conjure mental pictures that conjure a mood. You know what you’re in for.

Tom Robbins wrote: “The sky was the color of Edgar Allen Poe’s pajamas.”

WTF? The reader silently asks, among so many other questions, while smiling and rolling her eyes. You know that you have no idea what’s coming next.

Italian critic Fernanda Pivano once described Robbins as, “The most dangerous writer in the world.” Pivano understood that to challenge readers is to make them unpredictable. That’s the sort of thing that got Socrates killed. Vonnegut, Salinger, and Heller were subversive. Bradbury, Orwell, and Huxley were dystopian. Hemingway and Fitzgerald were insecure, overcompensating drunks. But you can teach all of those authors’ books in school.

Trying to stuff a Robbins novel into a lesson plan or a multiple choice test is like trying to conduct an orchestra of hamsters on speed. While you’re on mescaline. And they’re on fire.

I love all of Robbins’s books for different reasons, but if I have to pick a favorite it’s Still Life With Woodpecker. You could make cases for Jitterbug Perfume, or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, or any of them, really, but for me you just can’t beat a love story featuring an environmentalist princess, an outlaw, Twinkies, and lots of dynamite. From the book:

“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words ‘make’ and ‘stay’ become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free.”

What’s your favorite love story? Drop me a line – I’m curious!

Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription.

Here is a taste of what I’m reading, watching, and thinking about.

What I’m Reading by Listening –

My next Ironman is seven weeks away (there’s an app for that) and last Saturday I had a three-hour bike ride on the calendar. Unfortunately, life had other plans and I had to start the ride at 4:30am to be on time for the rest of the day. Drivers are bad enough in daylight so I stayed indoors.

When I ride in the garage I get bored, so I also occasionally get a little creative or productive. I recently rediscovered audiobooks for these moments, and Saturday I clicked into Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus. I’m about a third of the way through it, and I’m impressed by the way Harari characterizes the way we have historically developed information into story (which organizes and galvanizes people to action) and lists (which help people get stuff done). I like where this is heading, and I’m glad to know smart people are lending some perspective to the AI hype/panic.

From Harari’s website: “We are living through the most profound information revolution in human history. To understand it, we need to understand what has come before. We have named our species Homo sapiens, the wise human – but if humans are so wise, why are we doing so many self-destructive things? In particular, why are we on the verge of committing ecological and technological suicide? Humanity gains power by building large networks of cooperation, but the easiest way to build and maintain these networks is by spreading fictions, fantasies, and mass delusions. In the 21st century, AI may form the nexus for a new network of delusions that could prevent future generations from even attempting to expose its lies and fictions. However, history is not deterministic, and neither is technology: by making informed choices, we can still prevent the worst outcomes. Because if we can’t change the future, then why waste time discussing it?”

What I’m Never Going to Read But I Think Is Hilarious or Maybe Awful –

The show Severance was created by Dan Erickson when he had a job that was so mind-numbing he wished he could totally disassociate from that part of his life. Now you can too!

From Lifehacker: “Apple has released eight chapters of The You You Are, the fictional self-help book by Dr. Ricken Lazlo Hale that is central to the plot of the show. If you want to read it, you can even download it for free, or listen to the audiobook version, narrated by Ricken himself (actor Michael Chernus). This is all a sly commentary on how revolutionary ideas are routinely manipulated and co-opted to serve the ruling class, and how easily people can be tricked into feeling like they're ‘sticking it to the Man,’ even when the Man is at once profiting and protecting itself by taking the teeth out of dangerous ideas. Think Wal-Mart selling Che Guevara t-shirts, or one of the richest corporations in the world making a TV show about the dehumanization and misery of corporate drudgery.”

What I’m Watching –

I had mixed feelings about rewatching David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. I have fond memories of watching the show in those halcyon days before streaming. I remember what it was like to get together with friends each week to watch a new episode, and talk about what we saw and what it meant. I didn’t want to ruin the nostalgia.

But Paramount Plus is running it right now, and my wife hadn’t seen the show, and she likes Severance, and I don’t think Severance would be Severance without Twin Peaks, so… We’re on Episode 3.

It totally holds up. The combination of cinematography, music, horror, sweetness, quirk, supernatural, camp, mystery, pie, and coffee still appeals, even to the younger generations. Check out this review from the independent student newspaper at Boston University: “It’s a show that proved TV could be a medium for artistic storytelling.”

What I Wish Frank Zappa Had Been Wrong About –

In 1986, musician (and extremely intelligent, composed, eloquent cultural commentator) Frank Zappa appeared on CNN’s “Crossfire” in a suit and tie and calmly explained how Ronald Reagan’s policies and attempts to censor music lyrics and videos were putting the country on a path to fascist theocracy. You can watch a brief clip here (with YouTube ad garbage before and after, sorry about the internet) or the whole show here.

Tom Robbins quotes I’m pondering —

Our greatest human adventure is the evolution of consciousness. We are in this life to enlarge the soul, liberate the spirit, and light up the brain.
We’re our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
Wit and playfulness represent a desperately serious transcendence of evil. Humor is both a form of wisdom and a means of survival.
– Tom Robbins

Quote I’m still pondering from last week —

Thanks @Clark for pointing out that it was Benjamin Brewster, and not Yogi Berra, who made the following observation about theory and practice. For those who may not recognize the name Benjamin Brewster, he was one of the original trustees of Standard Oil, a giant near-monopoly that eventually morphed into ExxonMobil, Chevron, and other ridiculously profitable companies. For no productive reason whatsoever, except that I resent every single person throughout history who made gobs of money by ruining our planet and/or taking advantage of other people, I will venture to guess that Benjamin Brewster, a robber baron who attended Yale and became a “financier” in the Gilded Age, was probably a selfish dick. All that being said:

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
– ~~Yogi Berra~~ Benjamin Brewster

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