Ricochet River Excerpts - 10th Grade Reading Material

The following represents a portion of objectionable excerpts from the EDITED version. 
 
Starting with page 4…just a few of the expletives:
“What the fucking Goddamn…”
 
“I’m running this fuckin’ team!”
 
“Knees down,” Palermo bellowed.  “Suck it up, you pussies.”
 
“Fucking wagonburner…”
 
Pages 125-126:
“Do you guys screw?”
 
“Well, do you feel her up?”  You got a one-track…”  “Well do you?”
 
“That’s retarded,” Jesse said.  “You got to work those tits.  That’s part of making out.”  “It is?  I thought that was feeling her up.”  “No, that’s just making out.  Feeling her up is when you get to the hot wet part.  Pussy.  You really are retarded.  You’ve never done that?”  “Nothing below the waist,” I admitted.
 
Pages 158-159:
What was new was when I opened up Lorna’s raincoat and this incredibly delicious smell came rushing out.  Beyond mushrooms, beyond clams-it was pure steamed Lorna-as if I’d lifted the lid on her pressure cooker when I opened that raincoat.  It about knocked me out.  I buried my face in Lorna’s chest, and her jaws went slack when I kissed her.  I thought she was going to swallow me, tongue first, which would have been all right.  Lorna arched her back and pressed her hips into me as I fumbled with those hooks to her bra, behind her back.  Before I got it all the way loose I felt the juice coming up between my own legs and then the surging release, the warmth spreading inside my pants as Lorna chewed on my ear, and all I could do was kind of bounce on her.
 
Anyway I don’t mean to complain.  Lorna wasn’t complaining.  I ran my hand down her warm back and under the band of elastic and lace.  When I grabbed a handful of her tight buns it was like turning a doorknob.  Lorna twisted around and bit me on the knee.  I got her skirt undone and worked it off her while we rolled around some more in the grass and brush, slithering on and off the raincoat.
 
It was too dark to see much.  She clamped my head between her knees when I tried to.
 
I could have escaped this ridiculous position, but I didn’t.  Trouble is, you start thinking.  In the silent soft rain I could hear Lorna’s brain clicking, which is not usually a good sign.  She didn’t release her viselike grip on my head, but it was fine to just lie there smelling the history of the world…
 
Page 254:
Well, I’ll be whizzled,” Link said.  His eyes danced.  “You reckon a creaky old fart like me could of done something that good?  “Why, my wobbly old dick ain’t been stirrin’ for twenty years now,” he said.   The old lady, she done wore me to a stub. 
 
Pages 221-226 condensed:
Setting is Hotel Bonneville…Lorna and Jesse check in…“clothes bounce on the bed”…shower…getting into bed…Trojan condoms “What keeps it on?  Did it hurt?”
“Says here they’re supersensitive and lubricated”…
Wade and Cheryl (who is a one night pick up) arrive.  Cheryl knows French so is a help  ordering from menu for room service.  Start drinking wine…getting drunk…ALL take their clothes off.  Sipping champagne…sitting up…sheet didn’t reach far enough…champagne gone…
 …“you could hear everything.  I mean four people, two beds, it’s kind of hard to concentrate.  A bedspring over there was getting quite a workout, and Lorna and I were trying to be quiet about it…like Ouch.”
Drunk and laughing… “two beds shaking…finished…jellified.  This great, great opportunity slipped further and further away because everything was so funny and right.”

Rats Saw God Excerpts - Required Reading for 12th Grade

This is provided by the PABBIS (Parents Against Bad Books In School) web site. These excerpts present some of the more objectionable language found in the book. Unfortunately, the Clackamas High School Review Committee has endorsed the book by recommending that it be retained. We believe the glorification of drug use and abuse, graphic sexual depictions and use of profanity is not appropriate in our schools.

"Rats Saw God"
Thomas, Rob
Aladdin Paperbacks
202 pages
Copyright 1996

• Drug use starts on page 1, sentence 1 - “..tried to clear my head of the effects of the fat resiny doobie I’d polished off.. as I stumbled into senior counselor[s].. office. ..arriving in her class sporting quarter-sized pupils.. Wakefield Highs… losing war against us stoners.. less than a semester you’ve tallied one.. possession.. 3 under the influences”
• “..was so stoned when that picture was taken.”
• “..sneaking cases of Busch… raid his parents’ stock of Red Stripe.. beer..”
• “..spot the 8-inch.. nonfern.. marijuana:.. light.. soil.. watering.. will shoot up like.. a weed.”
• “..pulled 3 bottles of champagne out.. play a drinking game.. thought J was lying when he told us about all the chicks he nailed.. had caught her parents getting stoned. ..had sex with the editor of a high school newspaper. ..contemplated groupiehood in.. Econo Lodge room, but the bass player.. passed out before any deflowering..”
• “I’ve never masturbated, she said… Boy, I know how long you spend in the bathroom. You best start drinking. ..On my 2nd attempt, I succeeded in standing. ..grabbed the remaining bottle and chugged the dregs.”
• “..withdrew the 3-inch pipe and sealed Baggie of marijuana stashed.. throwing on a Dr. Zog’s sex wax T-shirt.. wandered.. down the beach. ..stuffed the bowl of the pipe with what little pot I had on hand.. hadn’t been smoking much lately.. lit the pipe and took the 1st hit. 20 minutes later I was a kite. ..D and I used to lie naked on the floor of her bedroom and study stars..”
• “I suppose if I had given you shit about your never having done heroin, you’d be playing bass for Alice in Chains by now?”
• “..boy grabbed my breasts.. had the nerve to say, Thank You, ma’am. The pleasure is mine.”
• “..still possible to have sex in college. Cheap, tawdry, meaningless, fleeting, anonymous sex. You can’t have it with everyone, but no one stops you from taking matters into your own hand. ..After… class, our TA.. buys us pitchers of [beer]..”
• “..aware of the creature from the black lagoon testing the metal of my zipper, I jammed my fists into my pockets… misconstruing my woody-concealing gesture as a show of defiance,..”
• “..spread-eagled on his back on the front lawn, asleep. ..robe.. untied, revealing.. boxers. A pubic hair exhibition.. through the open fly..”
• “..son of a bitch was only playing because he knew I’d come in wasted the night before.”
• “[She] shunned more feminine garments neither out of.. nor latent lesbian masculinity.”
• “..you make it sound like we’d be acting out Caligula in the room. ..don’t think anyone will be parading around naked. We’ll leave the vibrators and goats here at home.”
• “..scammy bullshit.”
• “..go to parties where everyone does the cocaine and X they bought..”
• “..good.. to be out of the.. drug ring in the.. afternoon. More of us get high, or make plans to get high, at that time..”
• “caffeine gives me such a different buzz than dope.”
• “[dad] probably thinks you’re gay. I thought about that.. liked the sound of it.. get my hands on some blatantly deviant skin mags, Bone Homme or something like that, leave them poorly hidden around the house,.. earn that disinheritance. ..I’m not sure introducing [dad] to [your girlfriend] would change his mind, anyway.”
• “Reflexively I scanned the room for drug paraphernalia, soiled underwear, stray condoms.”
• “If I were taking a middle-aged woman home, I’d have to pull the car over right now to be ravaged. ..Thanks for taking me to the dance. ..know.. I’ve been kind of a bitch all week.”
• “What’s up, man? You’re freaking. .. he’s dead. ..Kurt Cobain is dead. he blew his own head off. …heard someone saying.. Kurt Cobain was a prophet and that he died for our sins. ..white guy with.. skanky dreadlocks said.. set up to look like a suicide.. government wanted him dead because he had too much power. ..T.. handed me the joint..”
• Tries to have sex with girlfriend but dad comes home: “..began untucking her shirt.. feared the friction would ignite our blue jeans.. had never ventured inside girls’ clothing before.. cupped the satiny fabric covering her right breast.. squeezed. I began moving my thumb back and forth across her nipple.. began tracing the fabric of her bra.. tried to disguise my fumbling as some sort of exotic foreplay.. want some help? [she asked]… unhooked herself.. we were out of our shirts, naked from the waist up, and pressed against each other. [she] rolled me over on my back and straddled me. ..kissed my forehead first.. her nipples skimmed across.. my chest.. female breasts against my skin. ..sound of the automatic garage door opening.. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.. rolled out from under [her]..”
• “I kneeled down beside the bed and kissed her.. tasted the stale, fermented tang of beer.. she had slept where she had fallen.. slipped my hand underneath the sheets and ran it down the.. T-shirt that ended where her panties began. I rode my hand over her butt and down along her thigh. She murmured… she grabbed me and bit my ear. That’s what you get for being a perv [she said].”
• “S.. was still in her bikini bottom. The more I drank the less capable of averting my gaze.. thinking about medieval monks who would whip themselves for impure thoughts about stable boys.. [girlfriend and he] ended up getting the extra bedroom to ourselves. Have you thought about birth control? [she] asked when we were down to our underwear. ..no. I hadn’t. A bit, I lied. Think about it some more [she said]. safe in our underwear, a little drunk… forgot about.. condoms and spermicides..”
• “..more shit he dished out..”
• Long descriptions of him buying condoms and having first sex: “D. was a medical expert.. had to change my flights.. because I would have arrived at her most fertile time… discussed the pill.. mood swings.. nauseous.. gain weight.. make my boobs bigger. I say go for it. But she hadn’t. She offered to purchase the condoms.. [but] was a man’s job.. made me promise not to buy them from a gas station bathroom vending machine. No fancy colors, no feathers, no glow-in -the-dark.. nothing.. ‘for her pleasure’.. [sister] says lubricated kind.. You asked your sister what kind of rubber..? ..planned on swaggering up.. daring checker to notice my crotch.. thrown off by the selection offered by the contraceptive industry… gazing at the condom rack.. wondered if I would eventually develop.. brand loyalty. ..selected a box of 12.. less would seem superficial and cheap.. more.. narcissistic.. [she] unbuttoned her shirt.. We undressed each other.. standing naked from ankles up, hopping on one foot, then the other.. resisted the urge to cover my titanium love barometer between my legs. Was it the right size?.. shape?.. color?.. Would [she] know whether it was? ..was the first time she had seen it.. had rubbed it through my blue jeans.. groomed up my shorts dry humping until I thought I would die.. first time Junior had the pleasure of meeting a woman in the flesh. [She] gripped the shaft and gave it a couple.. tugs. How does that feel she asked?.. every sensual pleasure in my lifetime would be compared to this. ..nothing so far.. approached this sensation. As a.. middle-ager I might describe landing a marlin as feeling like great sex but right now I couldn’t tell [her that]. Nice, I answered. ..In final scene [in movie Shampoo].. Beatty putting it to Julie Christie on a.. floor, his naked butt ramming away pistonlike… Unless you count ‘oh yes’ no tender words were spoken.. I had a flash.. sex isn’t indulging in each heartfelt caress.. is friction, pure and simple. …loomed in push-up position over [her] naked body.. could have used Junior to cut glass. I began doubting she had an orifice down there.. I tried again. Brick wall.. Let’s roll over she said.. trading positions, [she] began grinding into me… meeting point turned into.. tropical rain forest.. don’t think I would have lasted.. had I not been sheathed in latex. [She] raised her haunches and reached back between my legs.. positioned Junior.. lowered herself down on me.. was inside her.. no longer a virgin.. allowed to hunt buffalo with the village elders. I could almost feel my complexion clearing up.. [She] started rocking back and forth. I attempted to thrust in a matching rhythm.. twice I fell out and had to be reinserted.. became easier to accomplish.. convinced her we should try this the old fashioned way. Back on top.. increased.. hip speed… condom.. was numbing most sensation.. sweaty bodies sliding.. her.. panting.. After years of self-service.. recognized.. impending orgasm.. my testicles desire to join my lungs.. reached point of no return. [her] eyes were closed, and she was biting her lower lip. And then it was over… Did you? she asked. ..2 minutes of snuggling, but in back of mind I was reviewing instructions.. [on] box of condoms… grip sides of condom when I pulled out.. tip contained only a moderate amount of fluid.. should be a billiard-sized globe at the end.. walked naked and embarrassed to the bathroom.. tied off end.. flushing it down commode.. didn’t want some renegade sperm scaling porcelain.. slithering into bed with [her]… Do you know why the French call these chairs boudoir chairs?.. Louis.. liked boffing sitting down.. Do you feel any different? No. What about you?.. sad [she] said.. closes a door behind me.. like my dad doesn’t have to love me anymore. ..wasn’t a big deal as I thought it would be.. I was gone before her parents came home. She didn’t try to make me stay.”
• “..he was.. bustin’ my balls. ..may be P.W. …pretty sure the last letter stood for whipped.”
• “I drank as fast as I could-four beers into downtown..”
• “..deal with shit,..”
• “..have any of those condoms left? No, me and my other girlfriends, we’ve been going at it like porn stars. That’s too bad. I might have one left. ..climbed into the backseat.. weren’t so concerned with the poetry of the moment. Only necessary clothes were removed.. enjoying the moment… she was too.”
• “..drive.. took 3 hours. ..right on the lake.. made love 4 times that day.. pretended to be unhappily married to clueless spouses.”
• “There were other, more pleasurable ways of expressing our love. We were experimenting with those regularly. ..had a routine.. drive down the block.. returned on foot to the doors of her bedroom. ..set the alarm.. for the middle of the night, make love..”
• “I knocked a couple times [on dad’s door], then opened it.. learned… the old man had a libido.. saw 4 frantic arms reaching for whatever they could find.. sheet flying up over blond hair.”
• “Like Mom, she was blond.. pretty.. young, maybe mid-30’s [he drives dad’s girl home] She pulled [music] out of the glove box.. wrapped condom came fluttering out behind it, touching down on [her] lap. [Your dad] said you had a serious girlfriend, she said stuffing the prophylactic back in.. [dad’s girl doesn’t tell his dad].. knew I owed [her] big.”
• “can you imagine your father… in the throes of passion?.. did you ever walk in on your mom and dad when you were little?.. heard their mom screaming and thought their dad was hurting her.. supposed to screw some kids up for tears. ..Jesus.”
• “..bullshit..”
• “..kept thinking that if she left [his girlfriend’s new boyfriend’s, one of their teachers, house] in the next 10 minutes, everything would be fine. ..hoping to find something sharp. …wanted to hurt myself. Cut my throat with a screwdriver. Drink a can of STP.”
• “..busted me for smoking in the projection booth.. grades turned to shit,..”
• “Jesus.. where have you been hiding?.. see your ass tonight.. party season.. weed, speed, and need out on the beach tonight,..”