Kurt Vonnegut Gets Trippy In 'Breakfast of Champions'
You wouldn't expect a novel full of anus and vagina drawings to break your heart, but Breakfast of Champions does just that. Having just turned 50 and lived a life where his mother committed suicide, he witnessed the horrors of war and his son had a nervous breakdown, Kurt Vonnegut tries to figure out what it all means in his seventh novel.
Vonnegut explores mental illness, suicide, free will, racism and the meaning of existence, all while playing a giant sandbox of his own creation. Old Vonnegut characters, a stand-in for Indianapolis and even Vonnegut himself play a large part in this novel that starts comical, becomes tragic and then veers into the psychedelic.
So join Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim for an in-depth discussion about the plot, themes, characters and unfortunate film adaptation of Breakfast of Champions.
Segments:
Plot Time! (02:00)
Kurt Blurt! (1:14:00)
Recurring Characters Update! (1:36:00)
Kurt Cameo! (1:38:30)
Related Reading! (1:39:15)
VonneWHATMEAT! (1:49:45)
Vonnegrades! (2:14:45)
Movie Time! (2:17:22)
Vonnegut News! (2:32:30)
Related Reading:
Short Story: Ray Bradbury: "The Earthmen" (part of The Martian Chronicles)
Book: Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Book: Jonathan Safran Foer: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Book: Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Short Story: Harlan Ellison: The Region Between
Short Story: Michael Swaim: And It Goes Like This (A Fable)
