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Short Story: EPICAC (Kurt Vonnegut) 1. Who is the narrator? From…
Short Story: EPICAC (Kurt Vonnegut)
1. Who is the narrator? From what point of view is the story told? Why do you suppose Vonnegut chose to use this point of view?
2. What do you think the letters E-P-I-C-A-C might stand for? Why do you think so?
3. What is the significance of EPICAC’s being “too big, in fact, for even Von Kleigstadt to understand much about”?
4. The narrator states that EPICAC “looked like a machine, but he was a whole lot less like a machine than plenty of people [he] could name.” How, in your opinion, can a person be like a machine? How can a machine be like a person?
5. Who is Joe Stalin, why would “the Brass” want to fire a rocket into his overcoat, and how does this allusion contribute to the story’s setting and meaning?
6. What does the narrator imply is the reason for EPICAC’s underperformance? How does the narrator go about implying this?
7. Why does Pat think she could never be happily married to a mathematician? To what extent do you think you can accurately predict someone’s personality type according to their profession?
8. The first time the narrator attempts to converse with EPICAC, he sets only about half of the computer’s dials so that “his circuits were connected up in a random, apparently senseless fashion.” What is significant about this?
9. What is ironic about the narrator’s reference to EPICAC’s response to the narrator’s first question as an “absurd coincidence”?
10. What does Vonnegut accomplish by having the narrator and EPICAC communicate with the particular code they use?
11. Does this story contain a serious message or is it solely meant to entertain? Explain.1. Who built EPICAC and for what purpose?
12. Who is the narrator? Why does he call EPICAC his friend?
13. Why do we need computing machines in a modern war?
14. The narrator has a personal problem. What is it?
15. How does EPICAC start helping him?
16. Why does the narrator have to give definitions of “love” and “girl” to EPICAC?
17. EPICAC helps the narrator solve his problem, but another problem arises? What is it?
18. Why does the narrator lie to EPICAC?
19. How does the second problem get resolved?
20. What wedding present does the narrator get from EPICAC?
21. In this story Vonnegut deals with many themes. What is Vonnegut saying about love, war, human beings and machines?
