Musings on a Missing Goddess

Sissy Hankshaw has phallic thumbs, and is able to hitch a ride with an endangered whooping crane. This lands her in the grasp of a lovely creature named Bonanza Jellybean, and, more importantly, into the cave of the Chink. Cowgirls Get Blues only when directed improperly.

The first time I ever taught Tom Robbins, the students were more upset by Bonanza Jellybean than anything else. There was little connection to Plato, because, after all, there was a Chink in that cave, not a Greek. And Greek would have brought the students too close to Bonanza and company, again. This experience was highlighted when two of my fellow instructors, who had also decided to teach the book, decided to leave it out of classroom discussion, because it was just too controversial.

The next year Redemption came in a most unexpected way. I had taught Cynthia Reide in Introductory Speech. She was a decent student. I think she even received an A. But I certainly didn't expect her first speech in Speech 102.

This assignment was always a throwaway. Something to get a feel for the students style, get them on their feet talking. The assignment was to Introduce someone who had profoundly influenced their life. This could be a real person, a celebrity, or even a fictional person. Fictional persons were rare. Usually I got Coach, or Mom or Dad. Sometimes Kennedy or Martin Luther King. All good choices. Cynthia Reide stood up and introduced Sissy Hankshaw. She admired Sissy as a person who had turned what appeared, on the surface to be a handicap, into her greatest asset. She took what she was given and became the best hitchhiker in the world. This, of course, had vague connections to Kerouac and Neal Cassidy and Ken Kesey, but Cynthia left it with Sissy.

A number of writers have tried to translate the mythology of other eras to our own. With the exception of Roger Zelazny, whose science fiction works on Egyptian mythology are outstanding, few have succeeded as well as Tom Robbins. As our culture has taken up the path of Kerouac and Kesey, Robbins has been there to provide directions.

Another Roadside Attraction provided the first look at an alternate mythology. But wayside shrines are not all that uncommon in other countries. Even England has its assortment. We've just so buried the original owners of this part of the earth, that finding the Serpent Mounds is very difficult.

But beginning with Jitterbug Perfume, Robbins moved into the areas of pagan myth. Those parts of our pasts that have been relegated to the back closet of the JudeoChristian culture. In this he joins moden poets/songwriters like Leonard Cohen.

Cohen, a Canadain Jew, had to face JudeoChristianity head on. More appropriately JudeoCatholicity. His Master Song seems evocative of the loss of "goddesses" in our very patriarchal society. Astarte became the whore of Babylon, even in the eyes of such supposedly enlightened "mystics" as Alistaire Crowley. But Cohen, and now Robbins, have focused attention on the missing goddesses of our culture.

Skinny Legs and All may animate inanimate objects. A phallic stick, included. But it also brings direct attention to the place where we have lost connection with Grandmother Earth. It is appropriate that that Kosher delicatessan is a setting near the least common denominator United Nations. The dance of seven veils may have been done to arrouse the patriarchs, but it evoked the goddesses.

While our new counter culture speaks of Mother Earth and Gaia, while feminists study textbooks on bringing out the goddess in everywoman (who some say now replaces Everyman) Tom Robbins has been calling forth the mythology which truly needs to be studied to bring some harmony back to our individual lives.

In Frog Pajamas, an Indian lives in the basement of a bowling alley. Buried beneath the basest chaos of European culture there is,again, a mirror on the wall. This time it connects to Timbuktu U. A place of transcendental enlightment. Facultied by the John Lillies, Tim Learies and Andrei Codrescus. Of course Plato is, again, evoked. As is Darwin debunked. And Astarte or Ishtar are called forth, along with a Greek or Roman goddess or two. The tarot is present, as transport in itself. (Shades of Zelazny's Trumps.) Druids are hiding out around every corner, and in every tree. But Darwin lost that monkey. In a tree.

Tom Robbins scares people because he threatens the status quo with the past. He brings forth our cultural heritage in a language that is to modern for many. Plus, he allows us all to laugh as we try to find a way to reverse the image in the mirror. And this scares everyone.

In that sense he is also like Carlos Castenada. The vision of reality may be too much for too many. But for the few, the long strange trip can begin in a single novel. . .

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