I really messed up on that last post, here it is corrected, I think.
Hello David, I love Tom Robbins!!!!!!! His novels are the only fiction I've been able to read in the last ten years. It was Case, Krimel, and/or &company that first mentioned 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'. OMG! What a great book! Marsha On Apr 3, 2010, at 9:05 AM, David Thomas wrote: > All, > > The Philosophy of Serendipity or The PoS. > > As the rain poured and out of something new to read Thursday evening I > scanned my bookshelves for something uplifting with philosophical overtones. > I settled on a novel that starts serendipitously on the Thursday evening > before Easter at 4:00PM and ends at 5:50AM the Monday morning after it. I > read a little too fast for perfect synchronization finishing it again last > night but I think I may have started a new Easter tradition for myself. But > next time maybe it would be neat to follow the timeline closer to the one > laid out in the book. > > One of the philosophical points of the book is captured in this passage: > > "Sarah Bernhardt was such a powerfully popular, awe-inspiring actress that > when she toured in North America her performances invariably sold out, even > though she spoke hardly a work of English. Whatever play she did, > Shakespeare, Moliere, Marlowe, or whatever, she did in French, a language > few nineteenth century Americans could comprehend. Theatergoers were > provided with libretto so the might follow the action in English. Well, on > at least a couple of occasions, ushers passed out the wrong libretto, a text > for an entirely different drama that the one that was being staged. Yet, > from all the reports, not once did a single sole in those capacity crowds > ever comment or complain. Furthermore, on critic ever mentioned the > discrepancy in his or her review."... > > "We modern human beings a looking at life, trying to make some sense of it; > observing a 'reality' that often seems to be unfolding in a foreign tongue- > only we've all been issued the wrong librettos. For a text we have been > given the Bible. Or the Talmud or the Koran. We're given Time magazine and > Reader's Digest, daily papers and the six o'clock news; we're given > schoolbooks, sitcom, and revisionist histories; we're given psychological > counseling, cults, workshops, advertisements, sales pitches, and > authoritative pronouncements by pundits, sold-out scientists, political > activists, and heads of state. Unfortunately, none of these translations > bears more than a faint resemblance to what is to what is transpiring in the > true theater of existence, and most of them are dangerously misleading. > We're attempting to comprehend the spiraling intricacies of a magnificently > complex tragicomedy with librettos that describe barroom melodramas or > kindergarten skits." > (Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas-Tom Robbins-1994) > > In life we are all unconsciously writing our own librettos mostly out of > bits and pieces of others. In the spring, at Easter, it's probably better to > go out and watch nature's play leaving your libretto at home. > > Dave > > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html ___ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
