The Art of Fiction No. 64
VONNEGUT
Many people see the Dresden massacre as correct and quite minimal revenge for what had been done by the camps. Maybe so. As I say, I never argue that point. I do note in passing that the death penalty was applied to absolutely anybody who happened to be in the undefended city—babies, old people, the zoo animals, and thousands upon thousands of rabid Nazis, of course, and, among others, my best friend Bernard V. O’Hare and me. By all rights, O’Hare and I should have been part of the body count. The more bodies, the more correct the revenge.
INTERVIEWER
The Franklin Library is bringing out a deluxe edition of Slaughterhouse-Five, I believe.
VONNEGUT
Yes. I was required to write a new introduction for it.
INTERVIEWER
Did you have any new thoughts?
VONNEGUT
I said that only one person on the entire planet benefited from the raid, which must have cost tens of millions of dollars. The raid didn’t shorten the war by half a second, didn’t weaken a German defense or attack anywhere, didn’t free a single person from a death camp. Only one person benefited—not two or five or ten. Just one.
INTERVIEWER
And who was that?
VONNEGUT
Me. I got three dollars for each person killed. Imagine that.
Via The Paris Review
