Friday, September 23, 2005
The Vonnegut EffectI'm reading 'Breakfast of Champions' for the first time since high school. This is after I snorted 'Cats Cradle,' 'Slapstick' and 'Mother Night.' It's having the same effect on me it always has; that is, I'm starting to go around narrating things in my head in a Vonnegutish way. Like Kilgore Trout I've accepted that I am to be the eyes and ears of the universe, so I keep explaining things. 'This is a cafe, creator.' I say silently. 'It's where you get coffee and sit for hours pretending to read and write, when you're really waiting for a familiar face to save you from the inside of your head.' Or 'that girl's wearing tapered leg jeans, creator. She's ignoring the fact they make her look like a piano stool because they're somehow in fashion. Fashion is where a group of people conspire to make people wear silly things.'
I wonder if there's a category in the DSM-IV for this?




