Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. ![]() The containers were stored neatly in racks. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. “American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: “It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the men who flew them. He was in favor of increased bombing, of bombing North Vietnam back into the Stone Age, if it refused to see reason.” (P. He told of many terrible and many wonderful things he had seen. The major had been there on two separate tours of duty. He said that Americans had no choice but to keep fighting in Vietnam until they achieved victory or until the Communists realized that they could not force their way of life on weak countries. “The speaker at the Lions Club meeting was a major in the Marines. She had no idea what game was being played.” (P. “The soldiers’ blue eyes were filled with bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh.” (P. He was in the back seat, of his car, which was why he couldn’t find the steering wheel.” (P. He concluded that somebody had stolen it. Amazingly, he was eventually hard against the right-hand door, without having found the wheel. “When he failed to find the wheel, he moved over six inches, and searched again. He dimly sensed that somebody was rescuing him. He lost consciousness, but the music went on. When he opened his eyes, he was on the bottom of the pool, and there was beautiful music everywhere. Billy was numb as his father carried him from the shower room to the pool. ![]() His father was going to throw Billy into the deep end, and Billy was going to damn well swim. “Little Billy was terrified, because his father had said Billy was going to learn to swim by the method of sink-or-swim. He had made Billy Pilgrim admire that picture several times.” (P. ![]() “He had a dirty picture of a woman attempting sexual intercourse with a Shetland pony. “Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.” (P. “The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the zipper of the fly of God Almighty.” (P. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.Īnd what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?” (P. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.” That was kind of him. I told him that was one of the things I learned in college after the war.” (P. Shortly before my father died, he said to me, “You know-you never wrote a story with a villain in it.” “Another thing they taught was that nobody was ridiculous or bad or disgusting. And he’s given a regular trial, and then he’s shot by a firing squad.” (P. And then this one American foot soldier is arrested in the ruins for taking a teapot. A whole city gets burned down, and thousands and thousands of people are killed. “I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.” (P. ![]() “I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’ ” (P. “You know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing anti-war books?”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |