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"All the King's Horses" is a short story written in or before 1951 by Kurt Vonnegut. It can be found in his collection of short stories Welcome to the Monkey House . It derives its title from a line in the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
- Kurt Vonnegut
- USA
- 1968
- English
17 de jun. de 2023 · Normally, I'd dismiss it as some throwaway nursery line that doesn't mean anything, but in Zack Snyder's cut of the Justice League, Part 5 is named "All the King's horses", leading me to believe that there is some actual meaning there. If I had to guess: the point is the irrelevance.
Buy 'All The King's Horses' here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-the-kings-horses-single/988577692Song: All The King's HorsesArtist: KarminaI do...
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Traducción. Todos los caballos del rey. All The King's Horses. Es una vieja puntuación que tiene que ser resuelta. It's an age-old score that's got to be settled. Es una deuda antigua que tiene que ser pagada. It's an age-old debt that's got to be paid. Cuando el Rey se rompa en toda Su gloria. When the King breaks through in all of His glory.
- Overview
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"All the King's Horses" is a short story first published in Collier's on February 10, 1951 and reprinted in Canary in a Cat House in 1961, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968 and Complete Stories in 2017. It was sold by May 19, 1950 under the title "White King".
A "Mr. Anthony" at the magazine produced a memo objecting to the ethnic identity of the enemy, Pi Ying. Although Vonnegut made an effort to adjust the story based on these comments, in a letter to editor Knox Burger he pointed out that no one would object to a German Nazi as the villain, and that despite being a "Democrat, pro-Fair and New Deal", he thought no more fondly of "Communist Russia" than he did of Nazi Germany. With by then 3,000 Americans dead in the Korean War, "killed in a chess game with Russia looking on", Vonnegut argued his sixteen chess pieces in the story were "peanuts" compared to "a casualty list as long as King Kong's arm".
An Army transport plane carrying Colonel Brian Kelly, en route to India as military attache with his wife Margaret and twin 10 year old sons Jerry and Paul, is blown off course by a storm. It crash lands on the Asian mainland, where Kelly, his family, the pilot, co-pilot, and ten enlisted men are captured by soldiers of the Communist guerrilla leader Pi Ying. Two days after their capture, he informs his prisoners that Col. Kelly will play a chess game for their lives, using the sixteen of them as the pieces. If Kelly loses, all the prisoners will die, while if he wins, those pieces still on the board will be released.
Watching the game is Major Barzon, a military observer from the Russian Army who claims to have no power in the situation, and a young woman, clearly Pi Ying plaything, who Kelly had thought showed some pity when he asked that his children be spared from participating. With the game now set to begin, Kelly finds himself quickly thinking in cold, rational military terms. When Margaret protests about the cruelty of what Pi Ying plans to do, he responds that the Americans gladly make instruments of war to use against innocent people. Slowly, the Americans take the board, with Kelly as the white king who, with detachment, leads Margaret to the position of queen and their sons as the knights. The players are allowed ten minutes per move and no move can be taken back.
The sergeant as king's pawn moves forward two squares, only to be threatened by Pi Ying's queen's pawn. Kelly moves a pawn to protect the sergeant, but Pi Ying takes him anyway in a strategically pointless maneuver and has the sergeant killed. Losing his ability to de-personalize his players, Kelly panics until the pilot pushes him to refocus on the game. An hour into the game, using a purely defensive strategy with minimal risk, Kelly has lost only three pawns and a bishop, but four real lives compared to Pi Ying's mere wooden pieces, whose only strategy has been to maximizes the losses on the white side. However, Kelly realizes he can checkmate if he can move Pi Ying's knight away from the center of the board and that he can only spare one piece for this offensive. Kelly has his son Jerry move out, although almost immediately cries out that he's made a mistake.
Pi Ying is delighted, explaining the error to the horrified young woman next to him. Pi Ying takes Jerry, thus assuring eventual victory for Kelly and the others. Margaret, hysterically, screams abuse at her husband for what he's done. About to order Jerry's execution, Pi Ying is stabbed to death by the young woman, who also stabs herself. Barzov, clearly and immediately in charge, declares his intention to win the game, not having recognized Kelly's feint. He grants Kelly the option to take his move back, but he refuses, although Jerry is allowed to stay alive until the end of the game. His ploy unseen, Kelly checkmates Barzov in three moves. Barzov calmly announces he'll allow the boy and all the others to live and deliver them safely to their own territory, not out of kindness but because of the potential political problems were Russian forces to directly kill American prisoners. Offering another game, Kelly refuses but says should the invitation be extended again, he'll be there.
"All the King's Horses" was adapted as the third installment of Showtime anthology series Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House, first aired on May 12, 1991. It was directed by Allan King, written by Stan Daniels, and starred Len Cariou, Miguel Fernandes, and Don S. Davis. The episode won a CableACE award for Best Dramatic or Theatrical Special, while Len C...
"Is it for the love of God that Americans make bombs and jet planes and tanks?" Pi Ying
"[T]he honor of the first move belongs to the white men. An ancient tradition." Pi Ying
"When human beings are attacked, x, multiplied by hundreds or thousands, must die—sent to death by those who love them most. Kelly's profession was the choosing of x."
"For a Russian to be chivalrous with an American is a spiritual impossibility, a contradiction in terms. In a long and bitter history, we've learned and learned well to reserve our chivalry for Russians." Barzov
1."May 19, 1950", Letters, pg. 35.
2."October 31, 1950", Letters, pp. 37-38.
By Mother Goose. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king's horses and all the king's men. Couldn't put Humpty together again. Source: The Dorling Kindersley Book of Nursery Rhymes (2000) Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Letra. Traducción. Todos Los Caballos del Rey. All The King's Horses. Golpeo el hielo de mis huesos. I knock the ice from my bones. Trate de no sentir el frío. Try not to feel the cold. Atrapado en la idea de ese tiempo. Caught in the thought of that time. Cuando todo estaba bien, todo era mío. When everything was fine, everything was mine.
