“And turn it into something that you never thought that you need”

75. Skullcrack City – Jeremy Robert Johnson

Like a combination of Brain Damage and Re-animator if the only song on the soundtrack of either was Swimming Pool Q’s (this is a terrible band name because of that apostrophe which hurts me to type and is there when they’re not even possessing anything[!]) “Corruption.” That song ran through my head as soon as I thought of Brain Damage, which wasn’t hard with the drug hazes and the constant pursuit of the drug Hex and the sleaziness like Henenlotter’s New York and well, the whole brain shenanigans for Shenanigans Patrick Doyle, the main character, are a little like the brain shenanigans in Brain Damage.

I thought of Re-animator later, when there were more injections and scientists with questionable motives and then some other science that’s supposed to be, like world saving against the other science, but it all seems to involve brains and goo and living in an altered state.

Anyway, I’m sure Jeremy Robert Johnson has seen Brain Damage and Re-animator, even if he wasn’t referencing them directly, which he’s really not. The content of the novel is more interested in unraveling interwoven science and money conspiracies, which is not actually of interest to me so much.

However, I do know he’s seen Blade Runner (or he read Philip K. Dick, but, I’m on a movie angle) because he named the turtle in the novel Deckard. This imaginary addict’s devotion to his imaginary turtle was the most inspiring thing in the novel. I like seeing people devoted to their pets. Even if the pet ends up eaten off page by a paranthropus boisei (big grindy teeth, very strong jaw) – gigantopithecus – gorilla hybrid, he still wrote poems about it and fed it and changed the water while he was high out of his mind earlier on. I worry about literary pets, because most of the time the purpose they serve is to spur some sort of action when they die or to demonstrate true devastation. Deckard’s posthumous contribution was about longevity, which, good.

Yes, the takeaway from this book is that it’s important to take care of your pets. It’s the real reason for the season.