Why is it called "Crab Town?" Some folks say its because of some obscure government plan to allow homeless people to live in ruined buildings for "free." Some say its because of the radioactive black sewer crabs that infest the area. Others say its because of the street gang the King Crabs that once ruled the streets. Of course, it might be because there is still one nuclear crab bomb in the middle of town still unexploded. What ever the reason the point is crab town is not a nice place to live in.
The novel "Crab Town" is about people driven to the edges. Crab town is a death sentence. Folks are dying of radiation sickness and poverty. In that environment folks will do anything. In this case they rob a bank, badly. It becomes something of "Dog Day Afternoon," mixed with Monty Python and "1984."
How bad is this future? It's so bad folks will sell ALL their organs, have their brains turned into a gas and pumped into a balloon. But then they find out they aren't told that they are going to be charged each month for "gravity shoes." Why? Obviously if you can turn brains into a gas you don't really have to use a balloon. The only reason to do so is because first it is the cheapest thing, and second because you get to double hose the poor sod you just sucked all those juicy organs from. It's the type of future where parents can present a bill to their grown children for EVERYTHING.
Hope you enjoyed that birthday cake.
Behind it all, there's a fairly serious point here. All the characters here are being screwed by debt. Given our current political problems, it seems to me a lesson we should keep in mind.
STRANGE SPANNERS being an accounting of strangeness of the warp and woof of my mind For those of you new here, think of this as 1/2 "Night Gallery" Our Motto: Nos somnium quisnam es futurus fatum quod insolitus tutus vos!
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