Joi sent me a copy of Jitterbug Perfume the other day, and because he wants to protect me from idleness sent me Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (actually, the latter had more to do with mutual thumb impairments).
I’m enjoying Jitterbug immensely; its scope and vigor delight me. Unfortunately, I’m nettled by Robbins’s persistent specific denunciatory asides about Christianity; they seem to fit too neatly into a glib cultural resistance to all of Christian faith out of keeping with a novelist’s, an artist’s obligation to tell the truth. Indeed, the irony of Robbins’s powerful claims to be telling the truth (over against what he represents as an oppressive, imperialist Christianity) seems lost on this writer whom I would otherwise expect to be keenly attuned to such twists.
If you share Robbins’s distaste for Christianity, or don’t much care what he thinks about it, this should be a seamlessly delightful literary argument for his vision of immortality. His prose works so sweetly that even I, dedicated as I have been to cultivating a discourse of theological practice and identity that stands squarely athwart Robbins’s path, have found it a toothsome progressive dinner of character, plot, and philosophy. I only wish he didn’t reveal a painful paucity of wisdom in his facile derogation of my faith.
Posted by AKMA at July 9, 2004 01:31 PM | TrackBackOops. Sorry about that AKMA. I thought it was funny when I read it, but in retrospect, I guess it would be offensive. Glad you could navigate around the snarkiness towards Christianity and enjoy the story.
Posted by: Joi Ito at July 9, 2004 01:40 PMOne small comment regarding Tom Robbins and Christianity. Christianity is a faith but it's also a social/political movement that is wide open to the kind of satirical roasting Robbins is a master of...
I think it's great that you can navigate though the offensive material and credit to genius of his inventions. It's an alternate universe and probably not restricted much by the dimensions of truth. - McD
Whew, boy! I haven't read Robbins for, well, decades. This discussion brought back memories of sitting at a cheap formica table in the kitchen of an apartment in Seattle reading Cowgirls & drinking Christian Brothers brandy & laughing my ass off. That is, just now I was remembering what it is like to be young. It was nice, being young. I read a lot of good books sitting at that table.
Posted by: Joe at July 9, 2004 05:16 PMNo, Joi, it’s not like that. It’s just a blemish on what’s otherwise a delicious work. Robbins is obviously a tremendously gifted literary composer, and there are plenty of thiings to criticize about Christianity (Dave). And to be fair, toward the end he puts in a few good words for Jesus, and takes some pot shots at Hindus (not that kicking Hindus makes the work better, but that it shows that his animus is not limited to Christianty).
As a Christian, though, I find his treatment of Christianity (as both a discourse of truth and as a social/political movement) with less delicacy than he devotes to other topics, when he clearly is quite capable of nuance. That applies as well to satire as to the topics he wants to commend.
Posted by: AKMA at July 10, 2004 02:08 PMI got a sense of a more conflicted attitude toward Christianity from Robbins when I read Another Roadside Attraction and Skinny Legs and All. I think Jitterbug Perfume is only one of two of his novels that I haven't read, so I can't really compare it with what I'm familiar with. I found it intriguing that he's a student of religion; I think the thing I found lacking in Robbins was that I never got as strong a sense of what he did believe in compared to what he didn't, although he addresses his issues with Christianity most in Skinny Legs. Overall I admire him most purely for his mastery of and experimentation with language.
Posted by: ARJ at July 12, 2004 08:04 PMRead Villa Incognito for some more of Robbins' insights on faith. I think it's one of his best.
Posted by: fp at July 13, 2004 11:24 AM