Kurt Vonnegut, Preface and Chapter 1 from Breakfast of Champions


1. Throughout the decades of the sixties and seventies, Kurt Vonnegut’s work was immensely popular, particularly on college campuses. Breakfast of Champions was published in 1973, the year in which the United States finally withdrew from Vietnam and the Senate began its investigation of the Watergate scandal that was to result in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. What might be the connection between what Vonnegut refers to as his "impoliteness" about "sexual matters . . . about American history and famous heroes, about the distribution of wealth, about school, about everything" and the social and cultural upheaval of the decade that preceded the publication of this novel?

2. In the preface, the author confides that he "feel[s] lousy about [his] books"; critiques the "maturity of my illustrations for this book" by providing a picture of an asshole; describes his book as "a sidewalk strewn with junk, trash which I throw over my shoulders"; and then signs the preface with the name "Philboyd Studge," which Vonnegut has earlier explained is "who I think I am when I write what I am seemingly programmed to write." What is the effect of these rhetorical "moves"? How might Vonnegut’s undermining of his own "author"ity be related to his irreverence toward "American history and famous heroes"? What does he mean when he says that he’s "throwing out characters from my other books, too. I’m not going to put on any more puppet shows"?

3. How does Vonnegut’s inclusion of the lyrics to the national anthem, sketches of the flag, the Masonic symbol from the back of the dollar bill, the year 1492, and the Statue of Liberty’s torch in his text contribute to his debunking or demystifying of these national symbols and icons? How do Vonnegut’s version of the discovery of America, his comments about the men "who had the most to do with the creation of the new government," and his observation that America "had most of the food and minerals and machinery, and it disciplined other countries by threatening to shoot big rockets at them or to drop things on them from airplanes" differ from what past generations of American schoolchildren have been taught about their country’s history? What is the purpose of these rewritings of American history?