Getting Paper

Money,

“Oh man sometimes I wake up and feel like a cat runover. Are you familiar with the stoical of hard drinking, of heavy drinking? Oh it’s heavy. Oh it’s hard. It isn’t easy. Jesus, I never meant me any harm. All I wanted was a good time. The disease I host called tinnitus – more reliable and above all cheaper than any alarm call – woke me promptly at nine. Tinnitus woke me on a note of high exasperation, as if it had been trying to wake me for hours. I let me sapless tongue creak up to check out the swelling on my upper west side. About the same, yet tenderer. My throat informed me that I had a snout hangover on too. The first cigarette would light a trail of gun powder to the holster, the arsenal in my chest”(16).

The quotation above exemplifies a style of narration that is consistent throughout. First and foremost John’s drinking problem is referenced. Not only is it referenced, but in a very personable way as he asks us if we are familiar with these feelings associated with overdrinking. John often directs questions at the reader directly, especially in more vulnerable moments, i.e. the one mentioned above and the one in which he talks about Selina and his uncertainties about her whereabouts. The effect though, of his substance abuse and his reference to readers makes him seem like a distant character, almost impenetrable and unstoppable due to his high consumption of “heavy fuels”. As if he is drowning, willingly, because that is the only way he knows how to carry on. Not in a mellow dramatic way though, but rather in a very candid, almost comedic way. As if we were shooting the shit with George Carlin at the bar and he offhandedly mentioned a drinking problem but gave us no time to respond. This over consumption, followed by more consumption which will almost certainly lead to more over consumption is characteristic of this book and the recurring element of extreme states of being. However I think overconsumption, or overindulgence also does a good job of naming the recurring theme, especially in context to drugs and money, two very complimentary objects in this book and in life in general. Another element to briefly mention is his constant sickness and the way in which he refers to his ailments. The tinnitus is a bit uncharacteristic of tinnitus itself as real tinnitus is usually not so diverse in its projection of sounds. Moreover, the disease is more often than not found in elderly people. His teeth and their degeneration remind of a passage in which he describes how he would like to replace his whole body. The teeth also though are an interesting choice because of how they make the head hurt. That is, it is almost like the roots of his teeth have been so degraded by his habits that the damage is one of the many that extend into his brain.