Rather than being a silly non-realistic children's-literature grown-up, Johnny's mother is portrayed as being duped by social media and medical authorities. ("But Johnny's mom's phone said it's not just pretend / 'Only a bigot would say that! How dare you offend!'", with angry emoji and inverted Facebook thumbs-up icons bubbling out of her phone into the scene.) We get illustrations of protesters bearing signs saying "Human Walruses Are REAL Walruses", "Literally Walrusphobic", "He/Him/Walrux", _&c_. The worms come in an orange pill-type bottle labeled "Wormones." (Separately, walruses don't eat worms, but that's not the main problem here from a literary perspective.)
[TODO: spoil the plot, and mention the Walsh-as-Zookeeper easter egg]
+[TODO: walrus diet link]
The satirical real-world references (which do not earn the dignity of the word _allusions_) completely ruin the mood, to the extent that I don't think this is really a book _for_ children. (Not even an ideological book for children, meant to socialize them into the correct beliefs.) It's a novelty "children's book" for the brief amusement of ideologically conservative grown-ups.
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff