Hey 3.5 readers.
BQB here.
I’m worried I might be giving away trade secrets here but oh well, only 3.5 people read this blog anyway.
I have decided for the time being I will stick with “The Last Driver” and “Toilet Gator,” bouncing between the two of them.
I have an idea in mind for a Toilet Gator sequel. In this one, there is a madman who sends electric eels up into toilets. The eels attach themselves to unsuspecting butts and then the psycho can control the eels so he threatens to have the eels shock people in the butt until they are fried to a crisp unless he gets what they want.
Originally, I wanted to call this book, “Toilet Shocker.”
However, the madman is inspired by Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathon, which tells us that men are, by nature, barbarians and without government to tame them, life is “nasty, brutish and short.” It would take me a while to explain but basically he wants the world to descend into government-less anarchy, making people doubt government as the govt cant save them from butt shocks.
So now I’m thinking of calling it “Toilet Leviathon.”
ARGUMENT TO CALL IT TOILET SHOCKER: It’s about people who get shocked on the toilet. If it is about people getting toilet shocked, then people show know that up front. The cover could be an electric eel with spots flying about him popping out of a toilet.
ARGUMENT FOR CALLING IT TOILET LEVIATHON – A leviathon is an ancient, biblical sea monster, an allegory that all the world’s evil takes the form of a monster that swallows us all. I believe that’s what Hobbes was getting at when he called his book Leviathon, that if man didn’t give up his naturally barbaric ways and seek a higher existence through government, then man’s collective evil, like a sea monster, would swallow the world.
It’s a cool name and the cover could feature a sea monster popping out of a toilet, but it would be false advertising as a sea monster never pops out of a toilet. I suppose a metaphysical one does as the madman convinces people to resort to their barbarian ways.
OTHER THOUGHTS – I’m not 100 percent sold on this one because umm…in my head, it doesn’t seem funny. I mean, maybe I’ll find the humor when I start writing but…you know…if I can’t think of a way to make toilet shocks funny then I might hold back and just move to my other funny sequel ideas.
Toilet Shocker or Toilet Leviathon?
Bookshelf Battle 
Toilet shocker. It has a double meaning, and who remembers Mr T. Hobbes esq. of Malmesbury these days anyway (my suspicion is he was writing something politically framed by Elizabeth I’s police state and James I’s subsequent rule, but less funny than Shakespeare, who was doing the same sort of thing, but with more rude words.)
My understanding is he was basically the first to raise social contract theory, giving the rise to the idea that at their core, people are technically free to do as they please but give up that freedom to government to live a better life.
I’m not 100 percent sure this will be the bad guy’s motivation but I can’t think of another motivation for him to shock people on the toilet. I briefly flirted with the idea that he was a military man done wrong by his superiors and seeking revenge through toilet shockery.
I’m not sure I’ll do this one as how it would be funny has yet to come to me.
Yes he was, a thinking since re-framed by the way social change followed with industrialisation and the shift to the ‘modern’ world. To me, there is great potential for funny in the contrast – someone with 16th century ideas (which were usually a bit rude, outside the Levellers, Diggers etc) confronted by current thinking. I did say ‘current’, didn’t I…
Toilet Eels? I’m thinking ‘Leviathon’ doesn’t work well, either. Perhaps you can use it as a prequel title? 🙂
I’ll go with Toilet Shocker. Thoughts on cover?