Hiss & Make Up: Reading from #JFTRE31

Mookie Spitz narrates a turning point in his new sci-fi novel Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine where Fazoolie’s illusory swagger collides with Dr. Casey Floyd’s unfiltered, ASD brilliance. What begins as a tense standoff quickly spirals into a chaotic dance of intellect and ego.

Their conversation crackles with intensity and awkward reconciliation of sorts. Jonnie, ever the bullshitter, pitches his vision with the confidence of a snake-oil salesman: “Do you think we can build it? A machine that can jump somebody to another universe?” Casey, unimpressed and guarded, shoots back with a flat “No, I don’t.” But Jonnie presses, reading doubt as opportunity, twisting resistance into a maybe. The verbal duel escalates—Casey’s sarcasm slices through Jonnie’s charm, while Jonnie thrives on the friction, pushing harder.

Between jabs, the stakes sharpen. Casey lays out the cold technical reality—data transfer to a processor, conversion to a multidimensional world line, the immense hurdles of bending physics itself. Jonnie doesn’t understand any of it, but he doesn’t need to, the less he knows the better at selling in bullshiht. The jargon and confusion only fuel his confidence: every great con needs a kernel of truth, and Casey’s expertise gives him an ear of corn to work with, Fazoolie already sitting watching his own nonsense with movie time snacks. 

As the debate simmers, subtle cracks appear in their defenses. Jonnie’s manic need to win reveals his chronic restlessness; Casey’s guarded posture betrays both genius and fragility. Even the black cat in the room seems to sense the tension, tail flicking in sync with the growing storm.

By the end, the air is thick with both exhaustion and possibility. The two adversaries—now reluctant allies—recognize they might actually need each other. Jonnie asks, “How long do you think it’ll take?” Casey fires back, “How much money can you raise?” Their banter ends not with resolution, but with the spark of a dangerous partnership—one that could crack open the Infiniverse, or destroy them both. Join the moment the conman and the savant lock themselves on a path to either brilliance or oblivion... and likely both. 

The Novel

Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine

First Reading

Alice Unchained

Next Reading