Cannibalism in the Cars

It tells the darkly humorous tale of apparent acts of cannibalism from the point of view of a congressman on a snowbound train.

It takes a week for the members of Congress to resign themselves to cannibalism for survival, whereupon they hold ineffective elections to select candidates (victims) and follow proper parliamentary procedure.

Having finished his story, the old man departs the train, but the conductor clarifies to the shocked listener: "He was a member of congress once, and a good one.

The story uses wordplay to raise to the foreground the latent double meanings that accompany political discourse.

It is framed as a secondhand story heard by another train rider, with the narrator using the vernacular and mannerisms of a politician rather than a common man.