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Here areTom's answers to a recent set of questions submitted to him
by members of the AFTRLife Discussion List. (Click on "Discussion"
in the menu to the right to find out more about the list.) Updated February
1, 2003.
Kelli Thompson: When you're writing a book, how many
pens/pencils/pencil crayons/markers do you go through? I have a feeling
this query of mine will remain unanswered. Seriously though, I'm genuinely
curious about the pens as I don't want to question any thoughts that
are in your novels. I like to take them for what they are and . . .
thank, thank you for that wonderfully funny brain of yours!
TR: I write with a raven quill dipped in lizard blood.
Or, rather, I used to. Now that chameleons have become an endangered
species, I'm making my ink from berries. The juice of the deadly nightshade
berry produces the most interesting results. However, the next time
he has his blood exchanged at that Swiss clinic, I'm hoping to obtain
some of Keith Richards's old blood and give that a try.
Julie H.: South Africa
and some of our languages came up in "Fierce Invalids." Have
you ever been here, and if not, would you ever come?
TR: The closest I've been to South Africa is neighboring
Botswana, where I once spent three magnificent weeks in the bush, following
elephant herds, swimming in crocodile pools, etc. Would I come to South
Africa? Absolutely. In fact, should I manage to acquire enough money
in the next year or two, I'd love to take that refurbished 19th-century
luxury train that runs from J-burg to Victoria Falls.
Ivor: So my question,
Mr. Robbins, is: Do you wear a watch, and if so, why? And if I can sneak
a second or possibly third one in: Do you have any recommended reading
concerning time? (Don't think I ever read anything directly concerning
time apart from the Greenwich Observatory website).
Delighted to hear that you have a new book out next spring, I look forward
to a new book from you more than from any other author. Thanks for many
brain boings in your other books.
TR: Thanks, Ivor. While time, as we normally regard
it, is a completely artificial construct, our lives today would be uncomfortably
chaotic if we didn't organize them around a linear digital progression
or the position of two mechanical hands on an arbitrary dial. I wear
a Swiss Army watch, chosen because it has a bright green face and green
is my favorite color, except for flesh.I consult it fairly often because
I think it's thoughtless, selfish and rude to be late for an engagement.
Punctuality is one of my few virtues. Actually, punctuality may be my
ONLY virtue.
There have been any number of
good books about time written by theoretical physicists, a few of them
even reader-friendly, but in my opinion the most interesting writing
on the subject is to be found in books on Tantric Hinduism. I especially
recommend "Tantra, the Indian Cult of Ecstasy" by Philip Rawson.
Eleanor: Tom, have
you much interest in the approaching Ice Age, Fruitarian diets, and
what do you think will become of the emerging twenty-somethings?
TR: Well, I know this much: if there really is a new
Ice Age heading our way, I'm not going to spend what little time I have
left eating raisins and bananas. I'll see you at the pizza parlor, Eleanor,
especially if you're a "twenty-something," because I have
enormous respect for your generation, and faith in its potential.
gigglypunk: Were you
at all prepared with the sort of instant guruism (father of that instant
mysticism achieved when one "gets" your stuff) that had to
have been thrust upon you with the evolution of the WWW, and the scattered,
"closeted" TR fans being brought together to support each
other and swap philosophies? Had you imagined, back in the seventies,
that in the future there would be these electronic shrines to honor
you? Do you enjoy the notoriety, or is it annoying and/or overwhelming?
TR: No, I never dreamed that things would turn out
the way they have. I still can't believe it. The truth is, I've never
sought that kind of recognition and can't allow myself to take it seriously
or even to think about it very much. When one starts to buy into one's
celebrityhood (not that mine is very great), one pays with one's soul.On
the other hand, of course, I'm extremely grateful, honored and touched
that there are readers like you who seem to understand my work and respond
to it in a profound way. It's rather elating to realize that there are
so many of us glad fools who've elected to reject conventional reality,
and who have taken, instead, the left-handed path. I wish all of you
the luck I wish myself.
Journey: To what do
you attribute that marvelous imagination of yours that stretches so
far beyond the pale?
TR: According to my mother, some sort of phantom stole
into the room where I lay in my cradle and struck me on the head with
a silver hammer.
Anise: What have you
read lately in the form of fiction?
TR: The two most rewarding new novels I've read in
the recent past are "The Last Report on the Miracles at Little
No Horse" by Louise Erdrich and "The Death of Vishnu"
by Manil Suri. There were passages in both those books that knocked
my socks off, even if I was barefoot at the time.
Dale: Tom, what places
in the world that you've traveled are the richest in terms of erotico-spiritual
dynamics?
TR: Were there an Olympics of spiritual sexuality (or
sexual spirituality), Thailand would win all the gold medals. There's
always been a thin line between the erotic and the transcendent (for
the Tantrika, the two are virtually synonomous), and in Bangkok that
line is particularly -- and wonderfully -- slender.
Many thanks, everybody, for your kindness,
your interest and your support. Let's continue to ride that strange
torpedo, to ride it with grace and humor, and never give a goddamn inch.
-- Tom Robbins |
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