"Emergency" by Denis Johnson

[Barbara]

Our next short story is "Emergency" by Denis Johnson. It is from his collection Jesus' Son. You can find it in Narrative Magazine at the following link: https://www.narrativemagazine.com/iss.... You can also listen to Tobias Wolff read it for the New Yorker and listen to his discussion of it with Deborah Treisman here: https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fic... I haven't listened to that yet but I did read an interesting analysis of the story here: http://may-on-the-short-story.blogspo...

On the Narrative site, there is a little bit of background about Johnson and goodreads has some short biographical information. He died in 2017 from liver cancer. There are some great obituary articles online from the New York Times, the Guardian and the Nation.

[Barbara]

My first reaction to this story was laughter. It was all so surreal as those various people came in and out in the Emergency Room. When Georgie came in from prepping the guy casually with the knife in his hand, I simply couldn't help it. I could imagine, especially if you were high, how it would be somewhat irresistible to do that. You would want that knife out of his eye. Georgie and the narrator also reminded me of some guys that I knew growing up, never quite in my own reality, skirting along the edge of theirs and always entertaining in a weird way.

The blogspot analysis got me thinking at a deeper level though. An emergency room brings people close to the thin line between life and death on a daily basis. Georgie can't mop up all the blood in the introductory paragraphs. He sees on a daily basis how vulnerable the human body is and how difficulty it is for the skin to hold it all in. How do you get that reality out of your brain for a while?

What did you all think? Were you impatient with the drugginess of it? Is it a classic story or just a vestige of the sixties?

[Lyn]

I thought the knife bit was funny, too. I didn't mind the drugginess so much as the baby bunnies dying.

[Sheila]

Really glad I listened to this story rather than just read it off the page. I think this helped with the humour which I am notoriously inept with on paper.

I loved the droll pace of it, thought the graveyard scene fantastic. I thought the guy was stoned but did not foresee what he had really been seeing, the deserted still playing snow dusted drivein. Excellent imagery.

I "discovered" Denis Johnson through CR but can't recall whose recommendation or whether it was a group read. I know I bought a double bill of Train Dreams and Jesus ' Son and only read Train Dreams, so I must go back to the other stories there.

This final last is masterly. I mean where would you end this type of story? How? By giving Georgie this ambiguous job description psychedelicly full of hope, arrogance, fringe-tinged, self-praising, pride in his 'menial' work, otherworldly, yet knowingly knowing that his attention to the detail of cleaning the floor, albeit mocked, is key .

[Kenneth P.]

I t feels very classic to me Barb, but also a vestige of the 60's (in 1973). I get the impression that Johnson was trying to archive an era, hence the drive-in movies. When you think of it the drive-in, by itself, was kind of surreal.

Drugs drugs drugs. "I felt the beauty of the morning. I could understand how a drowning man might suddenly feel a deep thirst being quenched."

"That world! These days it’s all been erased and they’ve rolled it up like a scroll and put it away somewhere." Yes they have, and that's probably a good thing.

[Joan]

My first reaction was that I did not like it at all. Perhaps because my Dad died recently after several trips to the emergency room I found the opening repulsive and I still don’t see the point of bunnies- It reminded me of the media outrage over “crush videos” at the turn of the century.*
Then I read your comments and realized I agree the imagery was effective. I, too, liked the cemetery/drive-in, Georgie’s final lines, the part about days rolled up in a scroll ...and the overall drug-induced haze. I thought Johnson captured the soul-numbing reality of night-shift work in an a dead end job.

I wish I’d listened to it as Sheila did, somehow listening to the voices often helps me connect and sympathize with characters I find hard to like.

* https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/m...

[Barbara]

Oh my gosh, Joan, I didn't know about crush videos! The thought is making my whole upper body ache -- heart ache?

In the case of the bunnies in the story, I think it was another attempt to address the seemingly insurmountable task of trying to save lives. They accidentally hit the mother, then find that it's pregnant, then try to save the babies. That, in itself, was probably impossible but the two life savers are also so high as to be incapable of anything constructive.

I'm really glad you posted. That description of "the soul-numbing reality of night-shift work in a dead end job" is perfect.

Ken, my first impulse is to be glad that those days are over too, but are they? Different drugs perhaps but I'm betting there are still places like that.

Sheila, there truly was no other ending that would have worked, I agree.

I still haven't listened to the audio on the NYer site but will. I actually want to do that more for the discussion than for the story.

[Kenneth P.]

Joan, what are "crush videos?" Do you mean "snuff films?"

Oh Barb, those days are indeed over. Drugs, of course, are not a thing of the past. They are no longer romanticized. Instead of part of a colorful counter-culture, they are an ugly underbelly. I often wonder if we Boomers are a bit complicit.

[Barbara]

Ken, if you click on Joan's link at the bottom of her note, you'll see what she's referring to. It has to do with animals but I could only read the first few paragraphs.

I agree that drugs aren't romanticized these days. I just assume that anywhere people are surrounded by medications/drugs, there are going to be people who find ways to steal and use them.

[Joan]

Barbara - thanks for that rationale for the bunnies.

Kenneth, as I understand it Snuff films focus on murder or suicide, crush videos different.

[Kenneth P.]

Thank you for the link Joan. That's all I can say.

[Joan]

Kenneth P. wrote: "Joan, what are "crush videos?" Do you mean "snuff films?"

Oh Barb, those days are indeed over. Drugs, of course, are not a thing of the past. They are no longer romanticized. Instead of part of a ..."

Have any of you read How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan? I’ve not read it. I’d like to be open-minded but main-streaming psychedelic drugs scares me a bit.

[Barbara]

I heard Pollan interviewed about the book. He's pretty scholarly in his presentation. But, I haven't read it. I'm very open minded about medical marijuana. I've seen the results and they are significant. But, psychedelics seem like a step that would need a lot of care.