But then again you can probably find this sort of thing on the internet. In fact, you can definitely find it on the internet: in the late 1990s there was a popular email circular, purportedly a transcript of Vonnegut’s commencement address at MIT. The email was a hoax, but easy to believe. In his speeches and essays, Vonnegut can sometimes sound like a blogger. And a lot of bloggers sound a lot like Kurt Vonnegut. In his stories, however, Vonnegut sounds only like himself.
Armaggedon in Retrospect is worth buying for one story alone, ‘Guns Before Butter’. Three prisoners of war, Donnini, Coleman and Kniptash, are fantasising about what they’re going to eat when they’re free. They make notes with crayons in stolen notebooks: ‘Desserts I Am Going to Try’; ‘Good Ways to Fix Meat’. Donnini is the gourmet: he dreams of Anitra al Cognac, brandied duck. Kniptash is the pig: ‘In taking down recipes in his notebook, Kniptash was inclined to regard the portions as niggardly, and to double all the quantities involved.’ The story is 18 pages long. If I tell you what happens, you probably won’t buy the book. You should buy the book.
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