Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson
When a man in a suit made of cockroaches meets a man in a suit made of Twinkies — well, that’s about as easy as subtraction gets.
From Jeremy Robert Johnson’s Extinction Journals
About a year ago I came across this novella, fell in love, then promptly forgot it in favor of my ever-increasing to-read stack. Shame, really. Recently (today, actually) I revisited the story, coming away from the experience with all the enthusiasm I had after the original read.
Extinction Journals manages the high-concept, visceral storytelling consistent with Bizarro literature, but delivers in addition, literary quality unfortunately uncommon with a lot of work in the same genre. The literal tale is of a man, the sole survivor of a nuclear cataclysm, searching the country for survivors in a suit made of cockroaches. The deeper tale explores survivor’s will, collective consciousness, and how the two working together can be an apt gateway to the primal instincts forgotten in a world that would destroy itself with it’s own creations (while also managing to touch on snark-less political commentary).
Buy, read, enjoy.
This has been one of my favorite short stories. What an enjoyable read. You should check out Carton Mellick III. He has just the right combination of bizzaro you might be looking for.
I’ve read a bit of CM3, not enough to yet have a solid opinion of his work either way. I really enjoyed a flash piece he had in Vestal Review a while back (http://www.vestalreview.net/roots.html). This piece isn’t nearly as visceral as his other stuff, but it’s good to see that he is able to strike a balance with work as polarizing as his is.
If you liked Extinction Journals you should definitely check out JRJ’s story collection “Angeldust Apocalypse” if you haven’t yet. It truly is beautiful.
Thanks for writing this.