Breakfast of Champions

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions was a literary subversion, both in its wacky style and message. The sprinkles of sketched artwork interspersed within the novel along with its self awareness with Vonnegut appearing as his own character gave this read a comical character but one which was hilarious. I think it is definitely Vonnegut’s unique ability to thread together random passages and events in a grand spectacle, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I really enjoyed Kilgore Trouts’ paragraph long summaries of his books, which were all touching in their own way. The most important of Trouts’ novels is  “Now It Can Be Told”, which is a message from the creator of the universe telling whoever is reading it that they are the only real person in the world, whilst everyone else who exists and has existed was a robot. I think this story drives the message home: by becoming more self-aware of ourselves, we hold the key to unlocking even greater empathy with our fellow human beings.

Created by Apurva Shukla.

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