On page 209 (a little more than 2/3 of the way through) of
the first hardback edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Breakfast of Champions, he reveals, while speaking as the
author--presumably as Kurt Vonnegut--via the ongoing meta-narrative threaded
amongst the various subplots, his vision of the connections between fiction,
social culture, and history:
As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had
become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my
countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity them, for I understood how
innocent and natural it was for them to behave so abominably, and with such
abominable results: They were doing their best to live like people invented in
story books. This was the reason Americans shot each other so often: It was a
convenient literary device for ending short stories and books.
Why were so many
Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable
as paper facial tissues? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part
players in their made-up tales.
And so on.
Once I understood what
was making America such a dangerous, unhappy nation of people who had nothing to do with
real life, I resolved to shun storytelling. I would write about life. Every
person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be
given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to
chaos. I would bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done.
If all writers would
do that, then perhaps citizens not in the literary trades will understand that
there is no order in the world around us, that we must adapt ourselves to the
requirements of chaos instead.
It is hard to adapt to
chaos, but it can be done. I am living proof of that: It can be done.
It is hard to determine just how embedded was the authorial
tongue in the narrative cheek when “the writer” (Vonnegut?) chose those words
to describe the technique used in the composition of Breakfast of Champions. It is easier today to see the effects of
story-telling on actual behavior through the media of TV, film, and now,
especially, in video games. But these are all the offspring of the story book,
so Vonnegut’s subjective viewpoint, even if over-simplified, has a certain
plausibility, I think.
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