Transcript:

John Brittle (reminiscing): Rodger Brittle, my brother wrote this book for me when I was merely a child… He was quite well-learned for his age; being twenty and all!

(jovial) I jest—of course!

(Reminiscing with a hint of dread and trepidation) He is a good writer, but that is not why I am reading it to you here; it is the drawings…

They are quite peculiar if you ask me.

(Being humorous) And although you haven't, I prompted it myself before you even had to; (said with menacing undertones) call me narcissistic if you will.

(Going back to jovial) I jest (a little bit of the ominous and foreboding threat as it dissipates) again…

(Trying to lie) But I am not really, I just like showing other people's work… *A lingering breath* (his own vain compromises his vanity) with my own voice!

(Trauma bleeding through more) This is a normal kid's book apart from some out of place illustrations of which could cause some dread and discomfort, but I digress.

(Trauma noticeable) For some reason he decided to go with a mixture of realistic sketches for the environments, rubberhose-esque for the various sapient critters and anime-like for—humans? Yea! The humans—apart from one!

Which is on the cover...

(Trauma beginning to overflow) On the cover is one of the problems.

A human drawn with more detail than the others; he appears to be a store owner with well extenuated bones—that look like if they pressed any harder the skin would be penetrated…

(Trying to calm down)He is either looking at the reader or Rodger Rat, it is an illusion that depends on the angle the book is positioned.

(Breaking down) The dissonance—the dissonance between the environment, Rodger Rat himself, the humans and who I self-proclaimed as a young child, ‘Mr. Grim Bones…’ Were all quite jarring, it was all quite jarring!