Addicted to War

War. What is war? According to Websters Dictionary, it is a state of organized, armed and prolonged conflict between states, nations, and or other parties. It is a defining part of human nature that has grown with society and will never leave us. Yet it is among the most popular topics to critique. Writing an anti-war novel, would prevent war as effectively as writing a book about glaciers would prevent their motion. So why do it? 

This question struck me as I began reading Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel in which the author embeds an actual, external presence within the text, from where he narrates the story of a Word War II veteran who survived the firebombing of Dresden, and is now an aging husband and father who has been for the past years struggling to find a way to write a book about the events that transpired during the war. Claiming to have "come unstuck in time," the events of the novel are narrated in a cyclical manner rather than a linear one as is done in most novels. Flashbacks of the war, along with the decision on weather to write a condemnation of it or glorify war instead, and produce an epic rather than a representation of reality where the basic themes that predominated this first chapter.