Breakfast of Champions

      I don't know if I should call this a review of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, because essentially this is just a piece the describes the message I got from the book.
      This book took me a lot longer to read than most books take me. Normally, I devour books in  a 6-8 hour sitting, but as my fellow bloggers will tell you this was a three week project.
      Today, I got to thinking why it took me such a long time. It's not longer than most of the books that I read. Nor is it very difficult to understand. So why did it take me so long?
       So this is what I came up with. Normally, outside of class I fall under this funk, which I don't know if most people do, in which I only read books for pleasure. I tend to stay away from books that push me to think outside of the box. I'm sure my fellow English majors are saying then why bother reading if you are not going to push yourself in one form or another, but all I can say is that after hours of reading 'the law' Nicholas Sparks or an equivalent seems to be the perfect remedy.

           Yes, I know you just cringed, but bare with me.

       I quickly found when reading the book that I was going to have to do some major thinking,  so much so I paused after every few chapters and pondered those chapters for days.  So that is why it took me so long.
 
   Don Don Don

     See I am not so bad.  Now on to the book.
   
     The narration of the books is pretty unsettling. The narrator treats Earth as this setting the reader is totally unfamiliar with and by reintroducing Earth the reader gets to reevaluate it.
      He touches and explains topics such as slavery, pollution, racism, sex, and other controversial topics. Getting this information from an outside perspective the reader begins to realize how ridiculous our past and current positions and actions are on those topics.
    In addition, he draws his explanations of planet Earth which I feel helps him drive the point on how ridiculous our societal conventions are. As the drawings aren't very good and just puts an image to something he is already describing as ridiculous.
     He also makes a point to mention the Earth's detached feel through the portrayal of human beings as robots. The world is full of robots who all act and think a certain (the same) way. They are all programmed.
     The only one who really sees the world for what it really is, is Kirgore Trout (the story's protagonist) and he is basically an ostracized member of the community whose work was considered so worthless it was put in porn magazines.
    Throughout the novel, the narrator really makes it a point to demonstrate how structured the world is and how easy it is to predict everything because of how programmed the world is. Therefore,when the narrator releases his protagonist, Kilgore Trout, from the novel the point that the only way the world can change is through thinking outside of normal conventions really comes through.

    The book was a wonderful read. I am glad not to have as Mr. Vonnegut so beautifully stated made a "perfect pig" of myself" with the "pages and words" and took the time to take it all in.
    The world is corrupt and broken. However, in order for real change to happen we will need an absolute reprogramming as it is not just one or two things that are wrong with this world. I think that is the most difficult part of the book to accept, but as I look at the news and the world it is an absolute necessity.
     Now this is definitely an over simplification of the book, but I hope you got the gist. If you have read the book I would totally love to discuss it with you.