Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about William Kotzwinkle's Doctor Rat.

The Short of It

Plot: There is no joy like dying to advance science, at least according to Doctor Rat.

Page Count: 243

Award: 1977 World Fantasy Award

Worth a read: No... but worth a glance at a chapter or two.

Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: N/A
Technobabble: Frequent descriptions of animal experiments.
Review: This book is truly horrifying to read. It's about the gruesome nature of animal testing - and cruelty to animals in general - and is chock full of graphic animal gore. It's the child of The Jungle and Animal Farm but without subtext. Consider checking it out to read a couple of chapters - the grotesque fascination wears thin. Some might consider the unambiguous use of Nazi imagery for animal testing to be a step or three too far.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

The Learned Professor brings the flame right into the dog's nostril, shoots it right up there. Excellent, well-aimed. The cocker is being forced to inhale the flame. Now the assistant lights his own lighter and both nostrils are filled with fire, as the dog's mouth snaps open in a soundless howl. 

I'm sorry to say that this experiment is not original with our great university. It was dreamed up at Harvard. Well, of course Harvard's one of the better schools, and I'm not really jealous. Hand in hand with Harvard, we're continuing the great Burning Issue Experiment. It's essential, it's informative, it's good for the nation.

That's it, Doggie, take a good deep noseful of fire. You'll like it.

The POV character here - it's hard to say protagonist - is a rat who has been experimented upon for so long that he is a Mad Doctor. It is his firm belief that all of the barbarity that occurs is necessary to further science; he writes a newsletter to explain why different experiments have been done. 

We alternate chapters between his perspective and that of others, usually other animals. Wild dogs, whales, an old elephant... and also animals getting slaughtered, animals who are being experimented upon, and so on. It's a rough read. 11/10 on the gruesome scale.

It's fascinating, though in a deeply sickening way.

Doctor Rat is deplorable, and there's a certain dark humor to his perspective. Of course the experiments have to continue; how else will we know if after 100 years of experiments, extreme heat is still fatal? There are new ways to burn animals, after all. 

There is growing unrest among many of the animals in the lab with Doctor Rat. The main plot focuses on his anti-revolutionary activities, doing his best to fight the rebellion. It's a weak plot; we move from one type of experiment to another, with the rebels trying to dismantle it - or just chasing Doctor Rat - and the Doctor either fleeing or trying to salvage materials. It's a way of having us go through the lab to witness myriad horrors.

"Don't worry, fellow rat, it won't take long."

"What are they doing to me!"

"Nothing that won't be done to all of us, sooner or later, dear brother. Remember the slogan, death is freedom."

"I don't want to die!"

The Learned Professor who directs the many and varied experiments in our lab has now stepped up to the stand. Carefully, coolly, he makes the cisternal puncture, draining out the rat's spinal fluid. The rat wants to die now, I assure you.

Death is freedom, brother!

Pacing is awful. The Doctor Rat chapters are repetitive, the other chapters inconsistent. Chapter length is extremely short, leaving the book feeling extremely choppy.

It's worth a glance, honestly. It's a bizarre and horrifying read. That said, Doctor Rat overstays its welcome. Once you've read about two rats being stitched together it seems excessive to also read about one having its teeth grow into its brain. Animal Testing = Bad. That's the point.

If you'd like to purchase this one, consider using the link below, I'll get a few cents at no additional cost to you!

I am Doctor Link! 

That said, it's also up legally and for free on Archive.org's Open Library. You can borrow it for an hour, which is sufficient to get the idea.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

Perhaps I don't understand the extremes of animal cruelty, but it really feels like the Nazi imagery goes way over the top here.

Death is freedom, that's my slogan. I do what I can for my fellow rats, giving them the best advice. For after all is said and done, the Final Solution (5% formaline) is death, and death is freedom.

This nugget comes at the very beginning of the book. The "death is freedom" motto comes up a lot, which is, of course, a twist on "Arbeit Macht Frei" - Work Makes You Free - which stood over the gates of Auschwitz. 

The joy of reading Animal Farm is the unexpected use of animals to demonstrate politics. Doctor Rat, on the other hand, uses Nazi fascism to underscore how bad animal cruelty is. It feels egregious. The gay animals have pink tags, a number of them are gassed, the dead are incinerated. To be clear, I'm not reading subtext into this; it's very clear in the text. 

No one is really saying, "Hey, you know what my hobby is? Animal torture!" Explaining that they paralyzed a chimp's arm and then watched it gnaw away the skin of its arm because it couldn't feel anything is already enough horror. Adding on "...and they're Nazis" is really putting a hat on a hat.

Speaking of egregious: Doctor Rat's songs. 

Do the New Necropsy

Let me see you quiver and quake!

Do the New Necropsy

when they extirpate your liver and take

your head off with a cleaver

do the New Necropsy and shake, shake, shake!

Look, we get it, it's terrible. And he is both blind to the horror and obsessed with it. Having him sing songs about it is just heavy handed and totally gratuitous.

I read this book in one sitting. At first out of curiosity, then a sick fascination, and then the knowledge that if I stopped reading it now, I would have to return to it later. It's a real kick in the teeth.

Maybe read something happier before bed, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!