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The Butterfly Kid: Difference between revisions
updated/corrected Physical God, added tropes
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Fixed consistent misspelling of "Laszlo) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (updated/corrected Physical God, added tropes) |
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* [[City of Weirdos]]: Greenwich Village, as ground-zero for hippie culture.
* [[Contemptible Cover]]: It doesn't look all that impressive, but it hides a fun and funny book.
* [[Country Mouse]]: Sean, but he adapts quickly and well, mostly thanks to Sativa.
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: THE Judge, who ''may'' have been a creation of the Reality Pill, except the Lobsters took him ''very'' seriously.
* [[Dirty Coward]]: Laszlo Scott.
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{{quote|The trouble was that Laszlo was a skunk, a nerd, a slimy loathsome thing whose major joy was to bring trouble and discomfort to everyone he encountered. For kicks he sold oregano to high-school kids from Queens. He stole from people poorer than himself as a matter of habit. He invented foul stories about innocent people and circulated them for a hobby. He once caught a social disease and spread it broadcast, especially among the naive and virginal, for upward of six weeks, until it got too uncomfortable even for him.<br />
Laszlo was an incurable backstabber. In the Village society, where trust took the place of law, he could not be trusted. He was a wolf in black sheep's clothing, a one-man plague. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Even worse, he was a notorious drag.]]}}
* [[Lust Object]]: Sean, for Sativa. They fall into both bed and a serious relationship with each other within a couple hours of their first meeting, so it's probably mutual.
* [[Mind Control]]: Deliciously played with. Even as he's being interrogated by Ktch with a psychotronic "torture machine", Chester discovers that he can control him and the other Lobsters by focusing on a song, "Love Sold in Doses", that his band performs. As a result, he learns ''far'' more about the Lobsters' plans than they learn about his.
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: The plot revolves around a plot by pacifist aliens to take over the world by overdosing humanity with a drug that causes ''solid, physical hallucinations that can be seen by people other than the one taking the drug.''
** Also, the unintended effect of the alien torture machine on Chester.
* [[New Age Retro Hippie]]: Practically every human character we see, but there's no "Retro" here -- in the 1976 of the book, the hippie counterculture is still a vibrant and living thing, almost at the tipping point where it stops being "counter" and becomes the culture. And the narration suggests that that's ''exactly'' what happened after the events of the book.
* [[Physical God]]: Michael manifests a "small pantheon" the first time he takes the Reality Pill: [[The Rolling Stones|Mick]], the god of teenyboppers; Moe, the god of tourists;
* [[Shout-Out]]: Sean greeting Chester with [[Gunsmoke|"Howdy, Mister Dillon"; [[The Rolling Stones|Mick]], the god of teenyboppers.
* [[Stage Magician]]: When Michael encounters fellow author Tom Waters, he (Tom) is working as a fortune teller and trickster at a traveling carnival. (In real life, Tom Waters was indeed a professional magician and member of the Magic Castle.)
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