Still Life with Woodpecker

The moon is one of the central motifs of the book, appearing immediately in Chapter 1 with the narrator’s statement that “Nobody quite knew what to make of the moon anymore” (4); Robbins also divides the novel into parts labeled as “phases,” like those of the moon. This preoccupation with the moon and its symbolic meaning, coupled with the loss of this meaning in the modern world, develops the theme of The Modern World, the Old World, and the Human Animal. Robbins uses traditional symbolism of the moon as feminine and romantic, but also illustrates the deeper human connection to the moon with the idea of “lunaception,” in which a person’s menstrual cycle aligns with the moon, which the narrator traces to ancient Babylon and the concept of the Sabbath. He then shows the impact of this elemental connection on the modern world with his observation that “nowadays hard-minded men with hard muscles and hard hats are relieved from their jobs on Sundays because of an archetypal psychological response to menstruation” (22). In this way, he connects modern civilization with human nature through the moon.

The moon motif emphasizes Robbins’s efforts to keep the

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