Mad Men

As the novel progresses, we meet Kilgore Trout: a bitter, dark humored, failed science fiction author in his mid sixties, who lives in a rented basement about two miles from Billy's "nice white house." 

Billy became a fan of Trout after having read multiples books of his. One thing that triggered me, was the fact that all of Billy's theories: the alien kidnapping and the concept of time relativity, all came from Kilgore Trout's novels. This meant that these books had been feeding to Billy's fantasies. Billy had built his reality around these novels, in which he took memories from events that marked his life (the bombing of Dresden) and the items he used to cope with the post-traumatic stress disorder (Trout's novels) to create his own deceptive reality.

Similar to Vonnegut, Kilgore Trout is a very crude humored man. At Billy's 18th wedding anniversary celebration, Maggie White becomes fascinated with Trout and begins bombarding him with questions of his works. After the woman asks what his most famous novel was about, Trout sarcastically answeres: "All the great chefs in the world were there. Its a beautiful ceremony. Just before the casket is closed, the mourners sprinkle parsley and paprika on the deceased." 

Trout reminded me of my grandfather: a witty, dark humored man who also happens to be in his mid sixties. He is the owner of an animal food making business. I remembered he once told me that he already placed in his will, that the day he dies, he would like to be cremated and have his ashes placed in the food mixer so that a limited extra protein edition can be sent out into the market. 

"If we weren't all crazy we would go insane." - Jimmy Buffett