“I suspect there’s a bid for empowerment behind it all, the power going to whoever seizes the right to coin the names. In a reality made of language, the people who get to name things have psychological ownership of those things.. Couples name their pets and children, Madison Avenue names the products that dominate our desires, theologians name the deities that dominate our spirit－’Yahweh’ changed to ‘Jehovah’ changed to plain ol’ generic ‘God’－kids name the latest cultural trends or rename old ones to make them theirs; politicians name streets and schools and airports after one another or after the enemies they’ve successfully eliminated: they took Martin Luther King’s life, for example, and then by naming their pork barrel projects after him, took possession of his memory. In a way, we’re like linguistic wolves, lifting our legs on patches of cultural ground to mark them with verbal urine as territory that we alone control. Or maybe not.”
- Switters, page 211
This book kept me company while I was in Spain and I savored every word and every moment in the book. Tom Robbins is one heck of a writer with an outrageously funny and witty and super playful mind whose command of language is so hilariously realistic although a bit vulgar. I especially love the way he conjures images in his readers minds with his silly similes and humorous metaphors, thrown alongside a long list of ironies in the novel.
Much to my regret, I had to leave the book behind as part of my detachment exercises. I miss it from time to time but I find comfort in that whoever picks up that book might also experience the same enjoyment I did.
Much to my regret, I had to leave the book behind as part of my detachment exercises. I miss it from time to time but I find comfort in that whoever picks up that book might also experience the same enjoyment I did.
