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In honor of Mr. vonnegut's passing, I have been rereading Breakfast of Champions. It is particularly fitting in the context of the VA Tech shootings. Here is one passage in particular:
I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen. And then I came 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 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.
