The Helping Friendly Book Club: First Book
“Another Roadside Attraction” by Tom Robbins
Boxwood Tap & Grill
August 14th, 2013
Thoughts and notes on “Another Roadside Attraction” by Tom Robbins.
Metafiction - Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, uses literary techniques to draw attention to itself as a work of art, while exposing the "truth" of a story. "Metafiction" is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, usually using irony and self-reflection. It can be compared to presentational theater, which does not let the audience forget it is viewing a play; metafiction does not let the reader forget he or she is reading a fictional work.
https://www.definitions.net/definition/Metafiction
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The theme of our book club is the never ending search for the secrets of eternal joy and never ending splendor. Why? Because what else is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of life? What provides you eternal joy and never ending splendor?
Does anybody currently think they know any of the secrets to eternal joy and never ending splendor? Would you mind sharing? Does anybody know where a person might go looking to find such knowledge? Who might have it? Where do they keep it?
How many people think these secrets actually do exist? Where do they come from? Are they timeless? Do they apply to all people of all ages or just some people from some periods in history?
What’s the difference between Eternal Joy and Happiness? Or pleasure?
Would anybody care to speculate on what these secrets might be?
In your own life, what brings you the most exquisite joy?
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I chose this book because it is Tom Robbins’ first book and so that seemed like a good place to start. After reading this book I went on to read all of Tom Robbins other books and can say he is probably my favorite author now, but I admit that I did not understand what was going on the first 80 pages of Another Roadside Attraction the first time I read it. I knew I liked the way he used language, and there were some one or two liners in there that just blew my mind, like about the Monarch butterflies and whatnot, but I didn’t really get it, I just kept reading. I kept reading and it progressively got better and better as it began to fall into place and I began to see the structure of the book was actually very intentional, and the initial confusion was part of it. Non-linear thinking processes are very underrated in our society, though in the post-modern age I think they are starting to gain more credence again.
Who here thinks fundamental reality is linear? Who here thinks fundamental reality is non-linear?
What part of your mind do you think knows more, your conscious mind or your unconscious mind?
How does your unconscious mind communicate with your conscious mind?
How can this communication be facilitated? Encouraged? Is it only a one-way communication?
What methods do you have at your disposal for exploring the unconscious?
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Before reading this book I was really into non-fiction. I read a lot of “technical” spirituality books like David Hawkins and Ken Wilber because I was collecting data and always looking for the Truth. After reading Tom Robbins though, I realized that you can still be talking about the ultimate Truth in the form of a novel, or a “story”. I am reminded of the great Native American storytellers who played such a central and revered role in their culture. All the stories of the Bible were at one time passed down orally. If you go back far enough, oral traditions are the bedrock of our culture, and yet their role of importance has been lost in our society.
Who is the greatest storyteller you know? What makes a great storyteller?
Who tells stories in our culture today? Who tells stories that have moral worth?
After reading Tom Robbins I realized there is something about a good story that not only keeps you more engaged than reading analytical non-fiction, but also massages the psyche into a different emotional state to hopefully open it up to new ideas. Context creates meaning, and sometimes you can’t just hear the punch line, you need to go step by step along the journey to arrive at that answer for it to make any sense. It is hard to present a new idea to someone if it threatens in any way something that person has already taken for granted to be true. We are so reactive and defensive to new ideas, or ideas that don’t fit our rigid worldviews, that we have really closed off our capacity to continually grow and learn it seems (taboos). This is either an evil plot by The Man or a natural phenomenon of psychological culture. Whether we are intentionally being trained to be reactive and respond emotionally to ideas outside the status quo or not, it is happening. This seems to be the basis of modern American Politics. Create a rigid binary choice of either/or and then force people to pick one side or the other. Nevermind whether both sides are at the root basically the same, and eliminate all other choices.
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The topics covered in this novel are delicate subjects to talk about and I admired the way TR was able to bring them up. It also has this feeling like there are secret inside jokes littered throughout. The way the narrator is able to connect directly with the reader is great, and he uses comedy to talk about very serious issues. Without the humor-buffer most people never can get close enough to consider the actual point before a preprogrammed emotional trigger cuts off their critical thinking capacities and interjects a knee-jerk response rejecting any further consideration of a new idea.
I love the way Tom Robbins structures his books, but if you haven’t finished reading then this is probably something we should hold off talking about until the next meeting when everyone has finished it.
I like this book because given what Edward Snowden has revealed to us it is quite relevant to current events. I love the CIA’s role and the Secret Catholic assassins. It turns into a bit of a Da Vinci Code spy novel.
People’s reactions to this book tend to fall into 3 categories. One group of people will simply not understand what he's saying and think it’s too confusing and non-linear and never really make it through. Another group probably thinks his subject matter is offensive to their faith and immoral and be upset about it and write him off without much deep consideration, and the third group will think this is the smartest, wittiest book they’ve ever read and get tingles thinking about how society has been structured, at least in name, around the Greatest Story ever told for over 2000 years.
To those who feel this might be threatening your faith I would just like to say it is a novel and I don’t mean to make anybody feel uncomfortable, but if we are really going to search for the secrets to eternal joy and never ending splendor, we need to be willing to search for the Truth. We need to have critical thinking skills. If we are confident in our faith we should welcome differing views. This is my first book club and the first book, so maybe I could have chosen his next one’ Jitterbug Perfume’ to begin with, but now we are into it and I just hope we have some intrepid readers that are willing to read all the way through.
Themes:
Soulmates
Linear vs non-linear- The I Ching or Book of Changes
Scientific vs. Religious worldviews
Style
Comparative religion
Pre-Christian vs Christian ideologies.
Official values vs actual values
The state of the church
The emergence of a new type of religion
Hypocrisy/Paradox – is this a good or bad thing?
Outlaws: tend to be the ones that stir everything up and only sometimes have the moral high ground.
I like this book because it touches on the same split in our society that “Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” does, between the classic and the romantic, between Religion and Science. It illustrates this dichotomy vividly but doesn’t offer a simple, clear alternative, although it hints at one. It seems to say the answer is not going to be either or but a fusion of both/and.
We are sort of in a state of decay where we have these high ideals that used to actually mean something, but everything has become rotten from the inside now. For example you have the Catholic Church with all its pomp and circumstance and high and mighty rigid rules and righteous judgment of people, and at the same time it is deeply rife with scandal and child abuse on the inside. The facades on the outside are starting to crack and people are seeing into a very hollow inside.
The question becomes how long can you keep this house of cards standing?
When Plucky and Marvelous are doing their think tank sessions towards the end, trying to figure out what to do, the question is raised, is it better or worse to rip out people’s faith from them? “(Don’t Truth me! – SOT) Remembering that there are sweet and pure Nuns who really do embody the principals Christ taught, is ruining the foundation of their faith worth stripping away the powers from the people who abuse it?
What is the spiritual peril it is causing people?
How does a person find genuine meaning in their life these days?
Where have all the role models gone?
Who are three Role Models in society today that you would want your kids to look up to that you don’t know personally?
While it is true that Plucky Purcell hates the church and all the bad things it has done in the name of Christ, he does love the actual believer, the nun, the simple good hearted person who wants to find God and follow the church blindly. Even within the church there is a dichotomy between the power hungry priests and the typical good hearted parishioner.
I also like this book because it ties in and hints at the Secret History of the World which is something I’ve become more and more interested in over the past few years. It is amazing to really go back and look for the foundation which so many assumptions in our society are predicated on. That we think it is 2013 is kind of the biggest mind control there is. Studying the pre-Christian history and trying to imagine how the world once was and how it has come to be that we think this is the only way it can be is fascinating. We have no real timeline for fitting the Great Pyramid into our historical conception of the world, so we just sort of overlook it. The things that don’t fit are overlooked.
What value comes from trying to study pre-Christian history? What function is served by not digging deep into these things?
This again seems to be about massaging the mind into a place where it can catch a glimmer of just how long humans have been on earth, about how many different cultures have come and gone, and about what we really know and don’t know.
Humility is very important when searching for the secrets of eternal joy and never ending splendor and that is not something most people have enough of, in or out of the church.
There are ideas and beliefs that hold society together and they serve a purpose, but over time those stories begin to get holes in them and through a natural process what once was a good enough answer for one generation, doesn’t hold up for the next one. This is a natural process of evolution I feel like. Through death comes life, this is a Christian concept.
That being said, how do we keep society from falling backwards without laws and edicts? If everything is up for questioning, how do we keep from spiraling backwards without locking in rigid social rules? That being said, how do we not stagnate in society under these rigid social laws that perhaps are meant to be outgrown at some point? Ie Slavery? Women’s rights?
Do you think Christ would agree with the Roman Catholic Church and what they have done in his name?
