Busybee's highly entertaining Super Mario Bros.: A Literary Criticism from wayyy back in the year 2000 is worth the 5 minutes away from Facebook and then... sharing on Facebook. (thx for tha link Sarah!)
Enter Mario, the fallen hero. At the very outset of his adventure, he is doomed, as almost right away he steals a dealer's mushroom (obviously mixed with peyote) and begins to hallucinate, that he is big, that he is powerful. As though on PCP, he finds it easy to break solid bricks by punching it and does not perceive the pain; however, when dealers, pushers (personified by turtles much like Thompson's literal lounge lizards), and other minions of the kingpin catch up with him and retaliate for his original drug theft, he immediately loses the empowering effects of the peyote, and in fact, seems very small and vulnerable, and must desperately seek out another hit.
