Disclaimer: I can't say I particularly like Tom Robbins much, but I was flipping through "the sexy part" of Skinny Legs and All last night and came across something worth ruminating on:
"Whenever a state or an individual cited 'Insufficient Funds' as an excuse for neglecting this important thing or that, it was indicative of the extent to which reality had been distorted by the abstract lens of wealth. During periods of so-called economic depression, for example, societies suffered for want of all manner of essential goods, yet investigation invariably disclosed that there were plenty of goods available. Plenty of coal in the ground, corn in the fields, wool on the sheep. What was missing was not materials but an abstract unity of measurement called 'money.' It was akin to a starving woman with a sweet tooth lamenting that she couldn't back a cake because she didn't have any ounces. She had butter, flour, eggs, milk, and sugar, she just didn't have any ounces, any pinches, any pints. The loony legacy of money was that the arithmetic by which things were measured had become more valuable than the things themselves."
Perhaps Tom Robbins should just go ahead and do nonfiction, instead of doing "nonfiction couched in fiction." He might just win me over yet.
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