号外 – Another Tsutsui Plug

salmonellamen2

The back cover of Salmonella Men from Planet Porno. If this paragraph from the story “Bravo Herr Mozart!” doesn’t interest you, then you might be a fundamentally boring person:

Mozart fell ever deeper into poverty from this time on. He studied to be a magician, and tried to make ends meet by taking side jobs, like “theatre manager”. But when his manservant Figaro upped and married in Prague without his permission, Mozart’s financial fortunes reached an even lower ebb. He became dependent on a person called Chloe, went around seducing women and acting like a right Don Juan, wrote musical jokes for the NHS, walked the streets naked shouting “Eine kleine Nachmusik!” and summoned the God of Death by playing his magic flute.

The stories in the collection are mostly dark satire (ironically categorized as “science fiction” in Japan, I believe), but “Bravo Herr Mozart!” is a nice bit of absurdism.