bunny modern by david bowman
quirky, fucked up, quick read. imagine a futuristic world where people wear literature, absence of electricity, and backwards swimming sperm. there’s less babies as a result of the backstroking lil’ swimmers, childbirth is rare. nannies are fierce and gun-toting. these nannies hate, hate babies but take a drug which makes them, when an adrenaline rush hits (in the case of baby-napping), have aggressive, maternal instincts towards the children in their care.
this is written in hard-boiled mystery novels (see chandler, hammet).
quotes:
“i remembered how fathers wandered the streets strapped to their walkmans; how moms knelt at the household tv, channel hopping through network product.”
“but there’s nothing juvenile about this tomato now.”
“she is a severe, askew beauty.”
”...so the reaper looks like clint eastwood to me.”
“all more important than her coffee cup eyes.”
“she gives her curious cheshire cat grin below her deliciously troubled eyes.”
“a beautiful women’s beauty is in proportion to her utility.”
“oh that lost world. wait. dig this hallmark greeting card phrase, hollywood phrase, harlequin romance phrase: love at first sight.”
“apathy is a state that babies never enter.”
“sudden glimpse of a woman-shape. in a dress. devil red.”
“and my voice cuts deeper than narcotics.”
“finally i mutter. tofu. angels eat tofu.”
“realize that the blood rushing to my head reminds me a telephone ringing. an old-fashioned ring from before the reagan era.”
“and i’m still alive - dancing toward a fluorescent light buzzing at the bottom of this stairwell.”
“i see furious electricity glowing in each cloud of breath.”
“you’re just saying that because you think i’ll tell your mother that you had ice cream for breakfast. but i’m not your mother. i won’t sa a word. it will be our good-humor secret.”
“she was carrying two trays of —twenty? thirty? -- greeen ice cream cones. she headed back to the car. i should tell you that this car was white. the…woman began sticking the green cones upside down on the hood. then she went to the trunk. a moment later, there were light thumps on the roof.
then she gets behind the wheel. ‘now we’re a dinosaur,’ she said.”
“i’ll tell you that i don’t have a clue what beauty is - you all look like big mounds of vanilla to me.”
confession: i bought more books. i’m bad. this goal has significant road blocks.
