Not Just Another Trippy Story

     Denis Johnson’s “Emergency” is not just another drug-induced story. To be more clear, it first reminded me of Hunter S. Thompson’s works employing the style of “Gonzo Journalism” (because of the speaker seemingly alternating in between realities). However, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” for instance, claims to be based on true events in Thompson’s drug-induced haze. Also, Johnson’s story has moments of profound poetic wisdom. It sort of takes on this life/death spiritual theme, whereas FLLV does not.  Nevertheless, there are moments, especially once Georgie and Fuckhead leave the hospital and go on their drive, where you have to ask yourself, “Did I read that correctly?” “How much of the story is actually happening?” Thus, the style reminds me of reading Thompson or Tom Wolfe.
         I took special notice to Johnson’s use of dialog, especially with the development of Georgie’s character. While we get a deeper insight into Fuckhead’s mind from his own perspective as the narrator, we can learn the most about Georgie through their conversations. One instance of this is when Georgie dumps the baby bunnies onto Fuckhead’s lap and says, “Take them, take them. I gotta drive, take them.” He’s high on drugs for most--if not all of the story, but there are moments where Georgie evokes a certain sort of sympathy. Before they begin their drive he tells Fuckhead, “I need a quiet chapel about now.” The irony is that you feel he perceives their current situation on a deeper, yet more simplistic spiritual level. He is heedless and spacey at times of what’s going on around him (constantly responding with Who? or Me?), but ultimately he provokes the life/death theme that permeates throughout the story. “We killed the mother and saved the children.” Out of death comes new life.
         Lastly, I want to mention how the story weaves in the reoccurring theme of “sight” or “what’s being seen or what’s not being seen” in both inconspicuous and more obvious ways. The story opens with Georgie seeing blood all over the floor; the guy with the knife in his eye gets stabbed for “peeping” at another woman; Georgie and Fuckhead perceive different things: the the drive-in vs. the graveyards and angels. By the end, Fuckhead seems to evolve spiritually in some ways. "The snow melts and reveals" (he can finally see) "the blossoms that were always there." Johnson effectively uses this technique without it being too overbearing or terribly obvious, and by the end it functions to create depth to a drug-induced story.