Kurt Vonnegut Jr. has a lot to say about Massacres. He witnessed the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. His novel Slaughterhouse Five is based on it and his experiences since.
It is so short and jumbled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.

And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "Poo-tee-weet?"

I have told my sons not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee.

I have also told them not to work in companies that make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that.

Mas"sa*cre (?), n. [F., fr. LL. mazacrium; cf. Prov. G. metzgern, metzgen, to kill cattle, G. metzger a butcher, and LG. matsken to cut, hew, OHG. meizan to cut, Goth. m�xa0;itan.]

1.

The killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; as, the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day.

<-- St. Valentine's Day massacre; Amritsar massacre; the Wounded Knee massacre. -->

2.

Murder.

[Obs.]

Shak.

Syn. -- Massacre, Butchery, Carnage. Massacre denotes the promiscuous slaughter of many who can not make resistance, or much resistance. Butchery refers to cold-blooded cruelty in the killing of men as if they were brute beasts. Carnage points to slaughter as producing the heaped-up bodies of the slain.

I'll find a day to massacre them all, And raze their faction and their family. Shak.

If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, Brhold this pattern of thy butcheries. Shak.

Such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable ! Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.


Mas"sa*cre, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Massacred (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Massacring (?).] [Cf. F. massacrer. See Massacre, n.]

To kill in considerable numbers where much resistance can not be made; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to the usages of nations; to butcher; to slaughter; -- limited to the killing of human beings.

If James should be pleased to massacre them all, as Maximian had massacred the Theban legion. Macaulay.

 

© Webster 1913.

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