A la random convo with JJ:
d27: i want soup, but no-one will have any for me
charles mccharge: wanna go?
d27: where?
d27: i'm having a fit
charles mccharge: stop
charles mccharge: let's go
d27: i know.
charles mccharge: we'll figger it out
d27: bigger jones
d27: wait who was that?
charles mccharge: native son
charles mccharge: bigger thomas
d27: right! what was the guy from the steinbeck novel who killed the woman ?
charles mccharge: dunno
d27: gotta find out
d27: he kills her in a barn, accidentally
d27: mice and men?
charles mccharge: dunno
d27: its lennie
d27: still a terrible story
d27: Lenny kills his puppy in the barn. Curley's wife shows up. Lennie explains his fondness for soft things, and she encourages him to stroke her hair. When she wants him to stop he breaks her neck out of fear.
d27: anyway - lets go
charles mccharge: k

break to get soup...
d27: tthe origin of the scary rabbit theme: mice and men -- A huge imaginary rabbit tells Lennie George will leave him.
d27: soup is greasy but spicy and semi-good
charles mccharge: good
charles mccharge: my butt is greasy but spicy and semi-good
d27: you are hideous
charles mccharge: my buns are burning

Lo and behold, an early ancestor (if not the progenitor) of the evil imaginary rabbit character (scroll down to Lennie's death.) Remember reading this in high school?

Earlier this year, Sam and I had been struck by the perponderance of this particularly disturbing and effective theme, ie. Sexy Beast and Donnie Darko. I think we also saw it somewhere else, too.

I still don't know what to make of it, though.