The radiogunner in
Catch-22, a satirical WWII novel by Joseph
Heller, who literally spills his secret all over
Yossarian and the back of tehe plane durring teh first mission over Avignon.
After Yossarian learns this secret he is doomed to a life of ambiguous morals, anti-social behavior, and paranoia.
From Catch 22:
"
Yossarian felt his heart stop, then pound so violently he found it difficult to breathe. Snowden was wounded inside his flak suit. Yossarian ripped open
the snaps of
Snowden's flak suit and heard himself scream wildly as Snowden's insides slithered down to the floor in a soggy pile and just kept dripping out...
'I'm cold,' Snowden wimpered, 'I'm cold...'
Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrolably. He felt
goose pimples clacking all over him as he gazed down despondently and the grim secret Snowden had spilled all over teh messy floor. It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a windown and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. Taht was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all."
