Free People Book Club: Jitterbug Perfume Part 2

Jitterbug Perfume: the two key ingredients for making the most intoxicating and powerful perfume in the world are jasmine and beets.  I love the way that Tom Robbins describes these two plants in the book as if they have personalities… he has such a magical way with words.

“A few other flowers may be as sweet, but jasmine is sweet without sentiment, sweet without effeteness, sweet without compromise; it is aggressively sweet…Expansive, yet never cloying, romantic, yet seldom melancholy, jasmine has the poise of a wild creature, some elusive self-sufficient thing that croons like an organic saxophone in the tropical night.”

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“The beet is the most intense of vegetables.  The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion.  Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity.  Beets are deadly serious.”

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“The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fossilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies.”

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“Although the contention that matter can transcend, at will, its material character would have had Descartes spinning in one or the other of his graves, a person who can believe in physical immorality is merely a step away from believing in dematerialization.”

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Let me know how far along in the book you guys are and what you think so far!

click on images for sources.

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Ariel
12 years ago

I’m at the beach right now and am in total need of a good read. I waited last minute and was actually looking for a book store on my way to the island im staying at. unfortunately, there was no book store, but atleast i have my sketch pad! nice one ariel…haha

Taylor
12 years ago

I’m finally starting to enjoy this book! nice post! :D
http://www.forsurejadore.blogspot.com

sierra
12 years ago

Priscilla just phoned her step mom, i’m absolutely loving the book!

Alexxandra
12 years ago

i just began part four. There’s so much I want to say but if I do, I will reveal too many spoilers. Tom Robbins is such an inspiration.

gez
12 years ago

Tom Robbins!? I recently finished Still Life with Woodpecker …it was an absolute dream. TR’s words and images made laugh and cry. he’s amazing.
i need to check out Jitterbug – thanks for the recommendation!