Discard's protagonist, conversing with a forbidden love interest, declares, "The real problem with English majors is that we attempt to attach 'universal significance' to every detail of our lives." Thus disclosed is the challenge of selecting from a myriad of "universally significant" snippets those that truly define an individual - in this case, one who struggles to accommodate his values with what he perceives as an often valueless society. Discard's series of flashbacks combine with cultural polemics on 1960s - 1980s America to explain the attitudes and interests of a Viet Nam veteran whose indifference towards the limits of normalcy permit some self-fulfillment even in the context of self-defeat