rub a dub-dub?
?!? Better watch it, you'll get your hand slapped!
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Revealing my ignorance again--
tall as the town clock tower, Samson-syrup-gold-maned, whacking thighed and piping hot, thunderbolt-bass'd and barnacle-breasted flailing up the cockles with his eyes like blowlamps and scooping low over her lonely loving hotwaterbottled body ...<
You have got to be kidding me. I'm sorry, I know he's famous and revered and all--I've even read things of his that I like--but did this book by any chance start with, "It was a dark and stormy night..."? Surely he wasn't serious, but was writing this OTT to demonstrate ... something?