Obama & Henry V

If you've been following the speeches of Barack Obama lately, talking about being on the cusp of history, see if you hear echoes of Shakespeare's Henry V St. Crispin's Day speech.

"This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day"

Slaughterhouse Five or Do We Have Free Will?

I've just finished reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Has anyone else out there read it? Can you explain it to me?

It was interesting on a number of fronts:

• Definitely not a front-to-back narrative. When the narrator dies, he simply continues narrating the book. You hardly even notice.
• Calling WWII the Children's Crusade resonates with our current conflict. When I see lists of the dead, 95% of them are far younger than I am.
• It questions the existance of Free Will. Aliens teach the narrator that all of time is already laid out and visible, if you know how to see it. In fact, in the entire novel, the protagonist seems to make only 1 decision, to marry a woman no one else wants to marry. Everything else in his life seems to be a matter of being in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time and being accepting of what happens.

I am a free-will/personal-responsibility sort of person myself. Maybe it's a matter of wanting to feel in control, or of not being cut of from opportunity. Thoughts? I'd love to hear....