Tom Robbins in Harper's

In the September Harper's Magazine, veteran author Tom Robbins writes on (and on) about a need that he senses for playfulness in American literature. His protracted beginning with a suicide scene, we can only hope, is poetic license. I found it daunting, the focus on the gloominess and lack of wit in contemporary writing to such an excess, but I soldiered on, consulting my dictionary several times (word for the day: diathesis, a constitutional predisposition toward an abnormality or disease). It's been ages since someone else's writing send me searching for meaning in my Webster's. Now I remember why I subscribed to this magazine when my undergraduate diploma was still damp! It continued the joy of learning that was the best part of attending college.

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