Mesothelioma Lawyers, New York
Thank you for reading my first novel, Mesothelioma Lawyers, New York. Be sure to read Mesothelioma Lawyers, New York the movie script, which is a prequel to the novel.
Below I've included some insider extras, giving my comments and pointing out references that may have been overlooked.
Anyway, you can rest assured that this is a work of fiction, and life will go on as usual on Friday, December 21, 2012. I think.
Hunter Nuttall
12.19.16.16.9
Prologue
The opening of the novel is similar to what Jack Bauer says in the opening of the first season of 24. The narrator and lead character, Jack Crowley, gets his first name from Jack Bauer, though his last name was chosen for no particular reason.
Originally, the novel was going to be divided into 24 segments corresponding to the 24 hours of the day. This idea was abandoned when it became clear that the novel would mostly consist of talking and thinking, not having enough action to fill each hour with ever-increasing intensity.
Page 1
According to the 2012 conspiracy crowd, the Mayan calendar predicts that the world will end on December 21, 2012. The novel starts three minutes before then, in a flash forward.
Jack's opening thoughts are similar to Ishmael's opening thoughts in Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
This was the first page to be written, and very little of the storyline had been thought through at the time, including what was on the other side of the door. Originally, Jack was in his own office, and he had a gun. In the end, it turned out to be Morty's office, and Jack never had a gun.
Page 2
"Prana" is an actual Sanskrit word for "life."
Truth, love, and power are the three primary principles of personal development, as defined by blogger Steve Pavlina.
Page 5
"Mrityu" is an actual Sanskrit word for "death."
Page 8
The main part of the novel starts 24 hours before the supposed end of the world.
The first line here comes from the opening line to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
Page 11
Futile resistance and assimilation are references to the Borg from Star Trek.
Page 13
In many novels, unseasonably warm or cold weather is a sign of bad things to come.
Page 15
This sounds like the Berlin wall, though it's three feet taller.
It also sounds a bit like the world in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
Page 17
The two people Jack alludes to are Milli and Tuck.
Page 18
"Joe the mesothelioma lawyer" is a reference to "Joe the plumber," who played a part in John McCain's presidential campaign.
Page 20
At the end of the novel, Jack decides that the town does need to be renamed.
Jack suspects that he will die from mesothelioma, and this remains uncertain at the end of the novel.
Milli's name (with a different spelling) comes from the 1991 movie Hot Shots. "Sleepy Weasel's success depends on our ability to maneuver below enemy radar. I wanna see a major display of low-level flying. Topper, Kent, you're up first. Show me what you can do." "Copy that, Purple Fluffer Nutter." "Roger that, Milli Vanilli Chilly Willy."
Page 22
A TV special was once done about a statue of Jesus that cried blood. The blood was found to be female, supposedly because of the immaculate conception.
Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, claimed that she perfectly understood complex books on quantum physics simply because the wanted to understand them. In an article on Slate, Emily Yoffe said, "Pop quiz, Rhonda: What is the energy of a single photon [in eV] from a light source with a wavelength of 400 nm?"
The three constructions mentioned have been proven to be impossible, at least in Euclidean geometry.
Fermat's Last Theorem was proven by Andrew Wiles in 1995, 350 years after it was first conjectured by Pierre de Fermat. Marilyn vos Savant rejected the proof because of its use of hyperbolic geometry, though she later retracted her argument.
Milli's mind is said to have slowed down significantly; this was done because a character who was a superhuman genius as an infant would otherwise be very difficult to write for as an adult.
Whether Milli would play an instrumental role in ridding the town of mesothelioma lawsuits, or whether Jack would live to see the day, remains unanswered.
Page 23
In the 1959 movie Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent curses Princess Aurora, saying "The Princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. But, before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, and die!"
Page 25
The cryptic phrases in Jack's notes are things the old man said in the 1987 video game The Legend of Zelda.
Dewey, Cheatem & Howe ("Do we cheat 'em? And how!") is a common gag name of a fictional law firm.
Page 26
The 33rd degree of the Freemasons is discussed in Dan Brown's 2009 novel The Lost Symbol.
Page 28
At a software company where the author worked, a made up user named Frank Breadstick was created to test the various applications.
Page 31
The Gambini-Rothenstein case comes from the 1992 movie My Cousin Vinny.
Page 32
On Seinfeld, George Constanza worried about his fiancée Susan socializing with his friends. He feared that his worlds would collide, with Relationship George killing Independent George.
Page 33
Milli says something similar to a line by the Queen in Shakespeare's Hamlet. The actual line was "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," though it is usually misquoted with "methinks" at the beginning.
Page 35
The fact that Jack had so many thoughts during one phone ring, as well as the opening time jumps, are hints that time is not linear.
Page 36
Not surprisingly, Frank's assertions about the Mayans are completely wrong.
Part of what he says comes from the lyrics of the 1969 song Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In by The 5th Dimension. There is no consensus on what or when the age of Aquarius actually is.
Page 37
What Frank refers to as "that movie" is 2012 starring John Cusack, though this novel was written before the movie was released.
The "you talkin to me?" scene that Frank describes is based on a scene from the 1976 movie Taxi Driver.
Page 38
"Ivana" is a very common first name in parodies, because it sounds like "I wanna," in perhaps a German, Polish, or Ukrainian accent.
Page 39
Jack pauses after learning that Ivana took the files back while Jack was talking to Morty. This hints that Jack wonders if the two events are connected.
Page 40
Later, it becomes apparent that Frank and Janice were being tested by Morty and Ivana as potential recruits for their cause. They failed the test.
Page 43
The monstrous "It was a dark and stormy night" sentence is based on the first line of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The phrase has become a classic example of ridiculously overcomplicated writing.
Since Jack is referred to as "our relectant hero," it appears that the novel itself is speaking. It directly mentions the reader, thereby acknowledging that it is a novel.
Page 45
If you don't know what the Diet Coke and Mentos thing is, look it up on YouTube.
Page 47
The crazy glue and razor blades thing comes from the 1985 song One More Minute by Weird Al Yankovic.
Page 49
Morty's name comes from various villains: Voldemort from Harry Potter, Darth Sidious from Star Wars, Adolf Hitler, and Ivan the Terrible. His black cape, Romanian origin, and title of count are reminiscent of Dracula. This gives a gentle hint that he might be a bad guy.
Page 50
The Fleming trial is a reference to the 1979 movie ...And Justice For All, starring Al Pacino.
Page 51
A bottle of bourbon is later found in Morty's office, suggesting why he's willing to look the other way on such matters.
Notice that Morty says "Frankly, Jack" when unknowingly answering Jack's question about Frank.
When asked if he saw anyone else there, Morty answers "Not a soul." This technically might not be a lie, because while he did see Frank, Frank's soul may have been sucked out of him.
Page 54
The name Plenty O'Lawsuits and some of the dialogue here is based on Plenty O'Toole from the 1971 movie Diamonds Are Forever. Jack appears slightly flirtatious towards her, but also mentions his wife.
Page 55
The "we are the dreamers of dreams" sentence comes from Gene Wilder's line in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Page 56
Jack's line comes from an episode of The Simpsons titled "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" When Marge Simpson gets into the car and finds that the whole family is missing, she says the same thing, though with each name replaced by a different name with the same initial.
Page 60
Kentucky Jones is a play on Indiana Jones.
Frank Scully, author of Behind the Flying Saucers, was quoted as saying, "Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?"
Page 63
Jack says he's not a one-dimensional stock character, another instance where the novel actually tells you it's a novel.
Page 64
On Seinfeld, George was thinking about saying "I love you" to his girlfriend. Jerry said that if he didn't get an "I love you" return, "that's a pretty big matzah ball hanging out there."
Page 66
Jack had told Frank that he wasn't an expert on the ancient Mayans, but he shows here that he knows some things about them.
Page 67
There's no logical reason why Tuck would be able to read Jack's thoughts here. Might there be some mystical connection between them?
Page 68
Everything in the novel concerning the Mayan calendar is accurate, with the exception of obvious jokes like the one here.
Jack is not religious, but he often mentions Jesus, God, and praying, in a non-religious context. This is ironic, considering how much of the book of Revelation comes true in the novel, and Jack's connection to it.
Page 74
Tuck pretends to use smelling salts here, and he is later revived with real ones. This is also another example of how time passes at a different rate for Jack than for other people.
Page 76
This was a real program the author wrote. It didn't play Spades as well as the people he usually played with, but it did a great job of simulating their personalities.
Page 82
The biggest difference between Jack and Tuck is apparent by now. Jack needs control, while Tuck needs adventure.
Page 95
Tuck is describing the way this novel was written. It was done for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2009, where participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. In this case, it took only 21 days to finish the 55,000 words.
Jack says that in his novel, the bad guy will turn out to be who you least suspect. This (incorrectly) hints that maybe Morty isn't the bad guy after all.
Page 97
The 616 thing is true. Most likely, 616 rather than 666 was meant to be the number of the beast.
Page 100
Jack doesn't say the typo "spread;" he says it "metastasized." Living in this town apparently affects your vocabulary.
Page 102
Tuck sure has a great memory, doesn't he? :)
Page 106
The car accident story as an illustration of nonlinear time comes from blogger Steve Pavlina.
Page 124
The name "Teflon Tyrone" was obtained by running the author's name through an online gangsta name generator.
Page 128
Prana and Mrityu sound like the Turtle and Robert Gray (Pennywise) from Stephen King's 1986 novel It.
Page 131
In the 1999 movie Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Yoda says to Anakin Skywalker, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
Tuck and Morty's conversation sounds like a conversation between Neo and Agent Smith in the 1999 movie The Matrix.
Page 140
In the 2002 video game Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, one of Agent 47's weapons is a fiber wire that does not set off metal detectors.
Page 145
The Russian Gulag scene comes from the first season of 24. Jack Bauer said these lines to force a confession out of Ted Cofell, though Cofell died of a heart attack before he was tortured.
Page 158
Phazon comes from the 2002 video game Metroid Prime. It's a highly radioactive, mutagenic, and semi-sentient substance from the planet Phaaze.
Page 160
Morty doesn't realize that he himself has been poisoned by the phazon. He thinks that he joined Mrityu on his own free will.
Page 167
Robert Langdon said the "You are the heir" line in the 2006 movie The Da Vinci Code. This line was booed at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Page 176
In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall weighed six dying patients to determine the weight of their souls. He found that on average they lost 21 grams upon their death. His research was flawed and heavily criticized, but the 21 gram figure stuck. The 2003 movie 21 Grams took its title from this premise, presenting it as if it were scientific fact.
Morty loses 21 pounds upon his death, or about 9,500 grams.
Page 181
In his 2009 book The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits, Gregg Braden says that the minimum number of people needed to change the world is the square root of 1% of the population.
Page 185
The first paragraph here sounds like some lines in Dr. Seuss' 1957 book The Cat in the Hat.
Page 187
In the 2003 movie The Matrix Reloaded, the Architect tells Neo that he will need to select 23 individuals from the matrix - 16 female and 7 male - to rebuild Zion (though it would be 8 males including Neo).
Genesis 7:16 is about Noah's Ark. It says "And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in."
Page 193
Notice that Jack and Tuck (Kentucky) are comparing Jack Daniels and a bourbon from Kentucky.
Tuck's comment about Peking duck and Russian caviar comes from the 1967 movie You Only Live Twice.
Page 194
For years, Maker's Mark was marketed with the tagline "It tastes expensive...and is."
Jack's thought about the 90 proof label is flawed, since 90 proof means 45% alcohol, not 90%.
Page 196
This scene is reminiscent of when Robert Neville was forced to strangle his dog Sam in the 2007 movie I Am Legend.
Page 197
In the 2003 movie The Matrix Reloaded, the Architect explains to Neo that the path of the One was a cycle that had been repeated six times thus far, being slightly different each time. Jack may be in a repeating cycle as well, as he is now narrating 11:57 PM again, though differently from before.
Page 198
The Book of Revelation describes the beast as a dragon with ten horns and seven heads.
The "if you strike me down" line was said by Obi-Wan Kenobi to Darth Vader in the 1977 movie Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
"Avada Kedavra" is Voldemort's favorite spell in the Harry Potter books and movies. In Aramaic, it means "Let the thing be destroyed." In ancient times, it was used to cure illness (the "thing" being the illness). But in the Harry Potter universe, it is called the Killing Curse (the "thing" being the victim).
"Expecto Patronum" is a spell used by many wizards in Harry Potter's world to cast a Patronus charm. The Patronus is a physical incarnation of one's innermost positive feelings, used to ward off evil spirits such as Dementors. In classical Latin, it means "I await a protector."
Page 199
Jack wakes up at 12/21/2012 2:12. The digits form a repeating sequence: ...12212012212...
Page 201
"Harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding" are lyrics from the 1969 song Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In by The 5th Dimension.
Epilogue
12.19.16.16.9 is the Mayan long count representation of December 6, 2009.
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