From: wilhited@brahms.udel.edu (Douglas Ben Wilhite)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.tom-robbins
Subject: Robbins - a low volume newsnet
Message-ID: <C0p8IE.MB6@news.udel.edu>
Date: 11 Jan 93 16:59:01 GMT
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Someone (I can't remember who) recently commented on the fact that this group isnot very active. In order to spice up activity a little, and just get some new wavelength beyond, "I just read Woodpecker and loved it," I would like to pose the following question to our readers...
From your own character, along with the examples provided by Robbins himself, and with evidence from Robbins our life theories as purported in his novels, is itpossible to say that a true Robbins fan is the antithesis of a computer, and news network, literate?
I have my own thoughts..
Robbins extols, beyond and above all else, the power of freedom. This is clear in all of his leading characters, male and female, as seen in Sissy, the Woodpecker, and Alobar. Outdoor experience, physical contact, sex, and adventure are all considered by Robbins to be aspects of this all powerful freedom. A true "Robbins person" is not content to be either inactive or indoors, as most
extremely demonstrated by the imprisonment of Bernard and Leigh-Cheri, which
would have ended in death had it not been for their escape.
Extended use of a computer, in order to gain both understanding and a little proficiency, requires just what Robbins abhors - to be locked indoors for
extended periods. The computer literate, in exchange for an electronic world
of simulated interaction, deprives himself of the external, sensual, physical
world of contact, danger, and suspense.
My conclusion from these two views is that no Robbins character would find
him or herself in front of a computer for very long. Probably not even long
enough to read this odd treatise. A fan of Robbins is one who finds in these
novels a pure, brilliant example of what he has in himself. Robbins' characters
are magic because they are such a true picture of what his readers conceal
within themselves. A true fan of Robbins would, similar to these characters,
rarely find him or herself in front of a computer, and then only last a few
minutes until the desire to be outside began to overwelm him/her. Thus the
idea of a Robbins newsnetwork is almost self-defeating, in that those who would
be most interested in the material are most likely the furthest removed from it.
The only hope to cure this vagary may be the cellular laptop terminal.
I hope this little note opens up some new talk.
The beauty of Robbins work is that it, at least, attempts to pass itself off
as applicable to the real world situation. In a true sense, Robbins is a
