In Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, everything is explained. from metaphors, to apples, to the pyramids, within the next page there will be a sketch and an explanation, almost like science fiction novels explain spaceships and lasers. One example that stuck out to me the most was this quote:
A hamburger was made out of an animal which looked like this:
The animal was killed, and grouped into little bits, then shaped into patties, then fried, then put between two pieces of bread. The finished product looked like this:
(p.124)
It’s a masterfully executed critique on what was, and still is, modern science fiction. Everything always being explained to be “realistic” is considered the norm in science fiction, but when it’s put into our world, we see it as childish, condescending.
This could just be a general critique of people losing their ability to critically think, too, and could also be a silly little quirk of the novel. Since this was written in the 1970s, and I’m looking at it through a modern lens, I’m most likely taking something out of it that may not even be there. But that’s the beauty of this book: many of the messages are still relevant, which just goes to show the stubbornness we have to changing our ways.