Sunday, December 14, 2008

Another Roadside Attraction

Tom Robbins serves up a hippy-fied Nietzsche: God is dead -- more accurately, Jesus is dead, and so, too, is the 'God the Father' myth that co-opted him and that has structured our society. The old habits of thought, feeling and practice that underpin this structure are now just constricting. Their demise is liberating and should be celebrated. But what replaces the old system? Apparently, it's some sort of nature mysticism -- we are all 'slowed down light', at one with the energy at the heart of everything.

Okay, this sort of thing can easily become a big, flaky mess, but after about fifty pages I succumbed to the grooviness of it all -- well, I enjoyed the story but wasn't swept up by the early New Age philosophy.

I prefer Robbins' next book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, but that might be because I read that one in my 20's, which is apparently when one is most susceptible to Robbins' magical-mystical writing.

Allegedly, Elvis Presley was reading Another Roadside Attraction just before he died. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing....