Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. Set in the fictional town of Midland City, it is the story of "two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast." One of these men, Dwayne Hoover, is a normal-looking but deeply deranged Pontiac dealer who becomes obsessed with the writings of the other man, Kilgore Trout, taking them for literal truth. Trout, a largely unknown pulp science fiction writer who has appeared in several other Vonnegut novels, looks like a crazy old man but is in fact relatively sane. As the novel opens, Trout journeys toward Midland City to appear at a convention where he is destined to meet Dwayne Hoover and unwittingly inspire him to run amok.
Vonnegut sprinkled plot descriptions for Trout's stories throughout the novel. He also filled the book with some of his own simple felt-tip pen drawings, intending to illustrate various aspects of life on Earth. These drawings include renderings of an anus, an American flag, the date 1492, a vagina, little girls' underpants, guns, trucks, cows and the hamburgers that are made from them, chickens and the Kentucky Fried Chicken that is made from them, an electric chair, and the sunglasses the author himself wears as he enters the storyline.
you had me at vagina
Sunday, September 14, 2008
the razors edge
For years, this has been the book that I buy every time I find it so I can put it on my shelf in preparation to share it with friends looking for a good book to read. This story centers around four main characters (two men and two women) coming of age during and immediately following WWI. All four live a comfortable lifestyle until the two men experience the unthinkable as they work as field medics, ambulance drivers. My favorite character, Larry Darryl, returns from his ambulance-driving experience uncomfortable with the luxuries to which he was previously accustomed. Soon after his return, he decides to 'loaf' despite his female admirer's chagrin. Larry takes the road less traveled by exploring the world with little to no regard to the lifestyle Americans find so enchanting prior to the Great Depression...and without judging the people who come in and out of his life sometimes at their very lowest points. His former love marries the other man in hopes of achieving the social stature she craves. I won't give any more of the story away. The reason why I love it so much is that Larry could have lived the comfortable life, but he chose to do something uncomfortable so he could really experience life and people as they are. When I feel stuck in my comfortable American notions of the way life is supposed to be, I read this book and think about the difficult path that Larry took. Unpopular, imperfect, real.
A good, short read worthy of minor classic statusA reviewer (bpr2d@mtsu.edu), A reviewer, 02/08/2007
A thoroughly excellent read. I believe Salvadore Dali' must have read this book. His book HIDDEN FACES seems to echo some of the rich characterizations here. It may do well for our generation of war ravaged young people to read this. Men sometimes drift after witnessing the destructiveness of combat. This book deals with the destructiveness of World War I and its affect on Hemingway's LOST GENERATION.
A good, short read worthy of minor classic statusA reviewer (bpr2d@mtsu.edu), A reviewer, 02/08/2007
A thoroughly excellent read. I believe Salvadore Dali' must have read this book. His book HIDDEN FACES seems to echo some of the rich characterizations here. It may do well for our generation of war ravaged young people to read this. Men sometimes drift after witnessing the destructiveness of combat. This book deals with the destructiveness of World War I and its affect on Hemingway's LOST GENERATION.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thin Red Line:
"When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless. Whether he looked at a tree or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference. It was pointless to the tree, it was pointless to every man in his outfit, pointless to everybody in the whole world. Who cared? It was not pointless only to him; and when he was dead, when he ceased to exist, it would be pointless to him too. More important: Not only would it be pointless, it would have been pointless, all along."
Such is the ultimate significance of war in The Thin Red Line (1962), James Jones's fictional account of the battle between American and Japanese troops on the island of Guadalcanal. The narrative shifts effortlessly among multiple viewpoints within C-for-Charlie Company, from commanding officer Capt. James Stein, his psychotic first sergeant Eddie Welsh, and the young privates they send into battle. The descriptions of combat conditions--and the mental states it induces--are unflinchingly realistic, including the dialog (in which a certain word Norman Mailer rendered as "fug" 15 years earlier in The Naked and the Dead appears properly spelled on numerous occasions). This is more than a classic of combat fiction; it is one of the most significant explorations of male identity in American literature, establishing Jones as a novelist of the caliber of Herman Melville and Stephen Crane.
"When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless. Whether he looked at a tree or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference. It was pointless to the tree, it was pointless to every man in his outfit, pointless to everybody in the whole world. Who cared? It was not pointless only to him; and when he was dead, when he ceased to exist, it would be pointless to him too. More important: Not only would it be pointless, it would have been pointless, all along."
Such is the ultimate significance of war in The Thin Red Line (1962), James Jones's fictional account of the battle between American and Japanese troops on the island of Guadalcanal. The narrative shifts effortlessly among multiple viewpoints within C-for-Charlie Company, from commanding officer Capt. James Stein, his psychotic first sergeant Eddie Welsh, and the young privates they send into battle. The descriptions of combat conditions--and the mental states it induces--are unflinchingly realistic, including the dialog (in which a certain word Norman Mailer rendered as "fug" 15 years earlier in The Naked and the Dead appears properly spelled on numerous occasions). This is more than a classic of combat fiction; it is one of the most significant explorations of male identity in American literature, establishing Jones as a novelist of the caliber of Herman Melville and Stephen Crane.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
please help
sometimes at night I think that maybe I don't like being a man. I tuck my balls into my ass cheeks and ask beth to suck my nipples. I'm confused. anyone else ever feel like maybe they are a cat stuck in a mans body?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
You All Suck Balls
Jon discovers the internet and all of a sudden we're in a book club?
5. The Thin Red Line -- I remember liking the book then being really disappointed by the movie.
4. Sphere -- I guess any movie where you really have to use your imagination gets ruined when people try to do it for you.
3. It -- Stephen Kings books don't always translate well to the screen, especially when they're made-for-tv miniseries.
2. Must Love Dogs -- I didn't see the movie or read the book, but I deduce they are both pieces of shit.
1. Running With Scissors -- fun book, bad movie.
Here's a good list of books to movies.
5. The Thin Red Line -- I remember liking the book then being really disappointed by the movie.
4. Sphere -- I guess any movie where you really have to use your imagination gets ruined when people try to do it for you.
3. It -- Stephen Kings books don't always translate well to the screen, especially when they're made-for-tv miniseries.
2. Must Love Dogs -- I didn't see the movie or read the book, but I deduce they are both pieces of shit.
1. Running With Scissors -- fun book, bad movie.
Here's a good list of books to movies.
Monday, September 8, 2008
list up bitch
1. oliver twist - i the jtt version ate my ass. in fact all jtt films eat my ass
2. moby dick - starring patrick stewart, stick to star trek
3. a christmas carol - you choose which film (scrooged had mary lou in it)
4. sum of all fears - ben fucking affleck, jack ryan was written gay for this film
i chucks idea of the shinning, but i like the movie. it makes me scared.
therkalsens?
Remember---- Who your Friends are
You dont want anybody to pick books that have commercial appeal today. Well you just narrowed this blog down to you and, um, let me see, NOBODY. I loved Jurassic Park as a kid. and was wholly disappointed in the movie. I'm gonna go back and get a masters in Lit so I can repost. Talk to you in 4 years.
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