and speaking of the others

[kaffeeistgut]

Shane brought home Armageddon in Retrospect the other day, the collection they put out a couple years ago of unpublished short stories, all relating to war, specifically to prisoners of war in Germany. Reading those, and his first-hand account of the bombing of Dresden, I kept trying to imagine Vonnegut as a young man, but I couldn't. The picture on the back of the jacket was far more consistent with the image I've harbored since I was fifteen, first reading Slapstick in tenth grade geometry: a sweet-looking old man who might resemble my late grandmother if only she had been able to grow a mustache.

But I was reminded: We live in the future! We have google images!



The best thing in it, so far, is his last speech. I cried, and I wasn't even on the percocet anymore by then.