I finished Still Life with Woodpecker. On the fence. Don't know if I want to buy into everything in the philosophy because the whole thing is just so flippant... i feel like the literature in my life lately has me in a bit of a tailspin. maybe it's just the general discontent with my job and void of hope for getting a better job because of this economy.
my favorite part:
"love is not a harpsichord concert in a genteel drawing room. and it sure as hell isn't Social Security, Laetrile, the Irish Sweepstakes, or roller disco. Love is private and primitive and a bit on the funky and frightening side. i think of the Luna card in the Tarot deck: some strange, huge crustacean, its armor glistening and its pinchers wiggling, clatters out of a pool while wild dogs howl at a bulging moon. underneath the hearts and flowers, love is loony like that. attempts to housebreak it, to refine it, to dress the crabs up like doves and make them sing soprano always result in thin blood. you end up with a parody. there're lots of pretty sounds that describe 'like,' but 'love' is more on the order of barking."
new words:
adventitious: adj. 1. Not inherent but added extrinsically.
gelid: arctic: extremely cold; "an arctic climate"; "a frigid day"; "gelid waters of the North Atlantic"; "glacial winds"; "icy hands"; "polar weather"
onanistic: Of or pertaining to masturbation (onanism); In a manner which suggests masturbation; hence, fruitless, self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, pointless
panatela: a long slender cigar
chiaroscuro: a monochrome picture made by using several different shades of the same color
osculation: (mathematics) a contact of two curves (or two surfaces) at which they have a common tangent
aspic: savory jelly based on fish or meat stock used as a mold for meats or vegetables
diadem: crown: an ornamental jeweled headdress signifying sovereignty
caroming: a. A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls. Also called billiard.
shamanic: Shamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. It is a prominent term in anthropological research. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman
I love Tom Robbins. Jitterbug Perfume is still my absolute favorite. I've also read Villa Incognito, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. I think Woodpecker is on my next list, along w/Just Another Roadside Attraction. If you read another, read Jitterbug...
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