On the SIMPSONS last Sunday was Treehouse of Horror XXII which was one surrealistic plot after another, , each linked somehow to the next one, all starring the Simpson characters. Almost all the tales were a poke at a similar recognizable tale. I think most all would instantly recognized what is being lampooned except one of the first ones. I am talking (or writing) about Homer lying in a hospital bed, blind, limbs shot off and tongue missing. In his present state he thought he could not communicate until his daughter Lisa learned the only thing he had control over was his farts. He could fart at will. At first they learned he could communicate by one fart meant yes and two farts meant no. Before long the farts communication method got more complex and Homer was coming out with some very deep and profound thoughts.
That almost came straight out of the book JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976). In the book in WWI a bomb blew up right in front of Joe Bonham. Joe face was blown away, his ear drums, tongue, all four limbs, and whatever else. He could not see, hear, smell, taste, eat, or utilize any other senses. After a while he figured out he was in a hospital and had tubes running in him to keep in alive and tubes running out of him to get rid of the waste: In goes the good and out goes the bad.
He lived within his mind. He was a young man. He remembered his formative past’s detailed and dwelled over them. He thought about God, he thought about the human race’s irrational ways of interacting which caused wars. He thought about his previous lovers, he thought in detail about everything.
In time, he discovered one nurse treated him gentler than the others. I forgot how, but he found a way to communicate to her. Maybe he started out contracting his body once for yes and twice for no, just like Homer did with his farting.
I would tell you the rest but it may ruin it for you, if you had plan on reading it.
I read the book in the 1960s when I was in the Navy. It was written in 1938, When I read it I was aware that the author, Dalton Trumbo, was blacklisted because he refused to cooperate with the House of Un-American Activities with their communist behind every bush hunt.
I think they thought since his books had an anti-war message he must have been a communists.
That is what THE SIMPSONS did during the Academy Awards.
