Doctor Rat William Kotzwinkle

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.There has never been a rat like Doctor Rat, Ph.D.Frenzied survivor of medicine’s most vicious experiments; brilliant eunuch; insane prophet of progress through genocide.DOCTOR RATis sheer horror, pure joy, a one-rodent crusade.He’s man’s best friend… Nature’s worst enemy…and the world’s maddest Messiah.He’s an experience you’ll never forget.“Bill Kotzwinkle is one of the few American writers who is in complete control of his materials and his materials seem to come from somewhere deep down…”—Kurt Vonnegut.Jr.This low-priced Bantam Bookhas been completely reset in a type facedesigned for easy reading, and was printedfrom new plates.It contains the completetext of the original hard-cover edition.NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.RLI: VLM 8 (VLR 5-8)IL 9+DOCTOR RATA Bantam Book / published by arrangement withAlfred A.Knopf, Inc.PRINTING HISTORYKnopf edition published May 1976Bantam edition / September 1977Portions of this novel originally appeared in REDBOOK magazine.All rights reserved.Copyright © 1971, 1976 by William Kotzwinkle.This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, bymimeograph or any other means, without permission.For information address: Alfred A.Knopf, Inc.,201 East 50th Street, New York, N.Y.10022.ISBN 0-553-10382-2Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada* * *Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc.Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a bantam, is registered in the United States Patent Office and in other countries.Marca Registrada.Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10019.* * *PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAContentsIn the colony I’m known as Doctor Rat…We all smelled it…Deceitful dog…The wild dogs, then, are our leaders…Doctor Rat, Doctor Rat…My front paws are tied…Oh, you disgusting dog…We lift our heads and howl…Pure bile, fellow rats, that’s what this talk of freedom is…We live in eternal day…Chicken manure, fellow rats…We’ve got to recruit the dogs…Sweet Jumping Dormice…Now, dogs, through this stream…These rebel broadcasts are so unnerving…I slept in the cave of the ancients…What a pile of dog shit this is…We stand, nervously waiting…Fellow rats, please, if you have any legitimate complaints…I was born in this big room…The goddamn rebel wheels have suddenly stopped…I, the hyena, watch the entrance of the imperial bird…I’m temporarily in command of the microscope stand…On Vulture Peak, the eagle sits…First we’ll dismantle the cisternal puncture stand…And now I see them coming…How I would love to whip up a good hundred percent Lethal Dose…The eagles are departing on by one…Looks like old Doc Rat has finally…I am a giant of the waves…I’ve got to climb up this icy thermos…I’m John Downing for the BBC…What a lot of filthy bilge…Blast…This is the moment…Whale blubber…Captain Black, have you ever seen…Intoxicating wheel of whirling rats…I hear you, sea maids…It’s bright midmorning…Oh Jesus, woe is me…The family wakes…Excuse me…Favorite tusk, on the right…I move along quietly…Come on, Mossy Sloth…Hup bup bareeep four…Where is the meeting going to be…Tunneling my way out of this burrow…Slowly, I make my way across the great plain…Claude Bernard, give me your blessing…Come along, Honey Badger…The Rebel Militia thunders past me…Banana mice, can you hear me…These animals yapping…Mr.President, as you know…We sit and groom each other…The exercise wheel is slowing down…The Wildlife Department says…The enemy patrols have all passed by…Man is coming…The dinitrophenol explodes…This is Able Baker One…Run, cub, run…Ed Hanson for CBS here…Doctor Rat…My shell has been…John Cooke for CBS News…Yikes…My old tusks are lowered…Here at our special CBS Control Center…I lie in the great plain…They’ll make shoes…Sergeant, what’s moving…I lower my horn…I think I’d better throw some…Your unicorn…As president of the Toshido Fisheries…I crawled to the mountaintop…For CBS in England…I, the hyena, crawl to my water dish…Surpassing Sloth…Crawling out from under all this…In the colony I’m known as Doctor Rat.Having been part of this laboratory so long and having studied so carefully, it’s only right I be given some mark of distinction other than the tattoo on the inside of my ear, a mark that all the other rats have too.Some of them have tattoos and V-shaped wedges cut out of their ears.Some even have three or four wedges cut out of their ears, but that doesn’t mean they are as learned as I.It simply means they have had the liver removed (one wedge), the liver and pituitary gland removed (two wedges), liver, pituitary and pineal glands removed (three wedges), and so forth.After they remove your heart, no more wedges are needed, ha ha!Then they just bottle your bones, bottle your bones.But I’ve come to enjoy the smell of formaline—a 5% solution is satisfactory for removing all the soft parts of a rat’s body.Yes, the smell is pleasing to my nose because I know the bones aren’t mine.From my platform here in the maze, I can watch the whole procedure—a dead rat is now being dunked in the formaline.Soon all the soft parts of his body will fall away.Then a simple solution of sodium carbonate, bleaching powder, and water is sufficient to take off the rest of any muscles or fat left hanging.The expense is not great.To the rat involved, of course, the expense is complete, but what does he care, he’s free!Death is freedom, that’s my slogan.I do what I can for my fellow rats, giving them the best advice.For after all is said and done, the Final Solution (5% formaline) is death, and death is freedom.My own case is not unusual.I was driven mad in the mazes.The primary symptoms of shivering, whirling, and biting have all passed now, but I’ve been left with the curiously mad practice of writing songs and poetry.Obviously this is somewhat out of place in a scientific atmosphere and I do my best to suppress the tendency, giving all my attention to writing learned, factual papers.I like to think they’re the very latest word in animal behavior.Well, why shouldn’t they be? I’m intimate with all the animal behavior programs.There’s an interesting demonstration going on in the lab at the moment: A young rat has just been placed on a small metal stand.His back paws have been pierced by thumb tacks which hold them in place nicely; his front paws are raised onto the metal stand and tied there, so he’ll remain in an upright position.His eyes dart about [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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