Vision of the Future

"Why, Sal, do you realize the shelves they build these days crack under the weight of knickknacks after six months?....Same with houses, same with clothes. These bastards have invented plastics by which they could make houses that last forever. And tires. Americans are killing themselves by the millions every year with defective rubber tires that get hot on the road and blow up. Same with tooth powder. There's a certain gum they've invented and they won't show it to anybody that if you chew as a kid you'll never get another cavity for the rest of your born days. Same with clothes. They can make clothes that last forever.

"They prefer making cheap goods so's everybody'll have to go on working and punching timeclocks and organizing themselves in sullen unions and floundering around while the big grab goes on in Washington and Moscow."

On the Road, written by Jack Kerouac in 1951 "to amuse his wife, or at least the wife he had then".

Body Count

"I was once told by a man in a subway station that I should be turned into a vending machine. That way people could put in their money and get out a small piece of me whenever they wanted. This book is as close as I'll ever come to fulfilling that man's fantasy.

"I'm twenty-seven and I still feel as innocent as when the body count started. I stopped counting long ago, but I still believe the next one will really love me.

"Every man I ever loved got something different from me. Push this button for wifely allegiance, that one for exotic whore, that one for a pal. I've been a little of each I suppose. Body Count is whole raw truth, so it's unlikely that any two people will have the same reaction to it.

"A lot of men will say "That chick sure picks bastards. I'm nothing like them."

"All I ask is that you not understand it too quickly."

Body Count, by Francie Schwartz, 1972, Stated First Printing. Offered for sale by Chewybooks as of 1-14-2011.