Jitterbug Perfume, Week 16, Daffy Yum

JITTERBUG PERFUME
Week 16, Jan. 19– Jan. 25

Page 106

This page really expresses the "stone remains, water goes" line. Even water stays if it freezes or gets stagnant. It shows how desire trumps detachment as well. Alobar and Kudra become fierce invalids as they fight the blizzard to get to the Bandaloop and safety. Alobar's desire for life in general and Kudra's in particular inspires him to heroic action to save her.I can understand that. When desire gets ahold of me, its pain and pleasure are irresistible, much like a passionate beauty with very long fingernails.Alobar laughs as his ridiculous life passes before him. What kind of laugh would you laugh at your life? Mine would be rueful and amused I think. How about you?

Dale
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Mine would contain 2/3 what was I thinking?? and 1/3 yippee! finally found the right track, with a dusting of cinnamon on top.

Gem
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My laugh would probably be somewhat hysterical and, whilst not exactly bitter, there would certainly be tears.

Deena
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I think my laugh would be exactly like the laugh Jim Carrey gave as Andy Kaufman at the end of Man on the Moon. Kind of an "Aw, shit--the joke was on ME!" I haven't participated in Daffy Yum yet. I might try to catch up with you all.

pk (popartmonkey)
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It would vary from a snort of acknowledgment that something amusing had occurred to uproarious in reaction to the sheer genius of it all. If graphed in terms of volume over time, it would appear to be a sinc function convoluted with your average everyday transcandenent function.

BoB - whoohoo, math! (Bob Nesheim)
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:-) There must always be tears--an integral part of the endarkenment.

Dale
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LOL (my current laughter at life) BoB. Science in spite of it all.

Dale
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Page 107

I think Tom sort of uses Kudra to fuss at himself. He quotes her interior monologue that Alobar is always prattling about the meaning of things--which is a pretty shorthand way of describing what Tom's novels do, but that I never find tiresome.The Bandaloop have flown the coop. The caves are bare, but Alo-Kud take it all with Taoist calm. Sweep floor. Make love.

Dale
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Page 108

So does anyone know what TV movie Tom is talking about at the beginning of the Seattle section? The Transcosmic Pigout?

I guess Tom Robbins has written so much and about so many things that synchronicity is inevitable. I'm always running into things that remind me of his novels in some way. I'm reading Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints, a book of bio-essays by Joan Acocella. The first artist is Lucia Joyce, the troubled daughter of the author of Finnegan’s Wake. Not only is Finnegan’s Wake a big deal in Fierce Invalids, there is a bonus little Robbinsesque vignette of Lucia, the slightly mad daughter, dancing silently in the background while Joyce worked on Finnegan’s. One biographer cast her as a co-writer of the book, saying that her dancing was his inspiration.

And, of course, the fabric of the ordinary world always crinkles in interesting ways. Weird graffiti has been much with me recently. On a sidewalk, I encountered a reminder of Magritte the painter who under an illustration of a smoking pipe wrote the words, (in French) "This is not a pipe." I ran across a word painted on the sidewalk that said, "Image".

Marijuana leaves are popular for engraving in wet cement around here. And on one wall someone had written, "I am a pussyboy." WTF, I asked myself. Does that mean he is like Switters and knows 100 words for vagina? Or is he like Larry Diamond who describes sexual organs with culinary names like "Pussy Fricassee"? Or is it a pre-op transgender who hasn't quite made up his/her mind? (Who knew that the efforts of Feminists to de-genderize the language would come in so handy for talking about third-sexers.) The world is strange once your brain gets Robbinsized. (Or Robbins sized.)

And that's not even mentioning the smells, odors, scents and bouquets.

Dale
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Who-boy...that’s some "bouncy" world over there, Dale if I had to guess at a title for that movie...it might be a re-make of "The Blob" by Monte Python.

"Perfume...the smell of creation"

Michael