#422 Why Coyote Never had Money For Parking- Chuck Palahniuk
Coyote is in a struggling marriage with Hyena, and has a
weekly tryst with Flamingo, the local prostitute. He loathes living in this
(literal) urban jungle where he thinks nobody contributes to society and
they’re all out only for themselves. He wanted to be a rock star, but ended up
in this disappointing marriage instead:
“He knew that marriage was like one of those movies where
the only exciting parts are all squeezed into the three minute preview.”
Nobody in this story is exactly what they seem, and not only
because they’re written as animals.
Reading these anthropomorphic stories where all the
characters are animals is like seeing those Gary Larson Far Side comics. Its
funny on the surface because, “hey look a cow is talking like a human.” But
then you see the satire right below the surface. If done well, you forget the
delivery method, and are left with the message. It’s brilliant because too
often, people see an archetypal character and assign a stereotype from their
own mind into it, and the commentary is tainted or lost.
So in that way, it’s also kind of a Rorschach Test for the
reader. When Coyote calls Ox and Llama lazy no good ____ you see them as ____.
When really they are just an Ox and a Llama, there is no subtext for them
written in. Which is fascinating to me. Sometimes a Jackass is just a Jackass.
Notable Passage: “Everything was free if you’d pay enough.”
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