My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon page

If you’re like me, you had to read this in high school. I reread it as an adult because the first time its awesomeness was tarnished by the fact that it was mandatory. Being a pessimistic youth, my thought was, “How good could it be if they are making me read it?” They don’t make you read Batman; they make you read Moby Dick. I’m glad I reread it as an adult. Little did I realize, my knee-jerk rejection of the book as something forced upon me, beyond my control, was mirrored by the theme of the book.

Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist who survived the Dresden fire-bombings was abducted by an alien race and became “unstuck in time.” If you didn’t get this impression, the book is strange. As the term “unstuck in time” suggests, there isn’t a chronological sequencing of events. Instead, the story leaps around from Pilgrim’s adult life as an optometrist to his time as a young soldier in the military to his time as an exhibit in a Tralfamadorian Zoo.

While the novel covers a lot of life, many of the important themes are seen in protagonist’s war experience. It should be noted that there is an autobiographical component to this book. Vonnegut was a prisoner of war who was ordered to help dig for survivors in the wake of the fire-bombing of Dresden. This gave Vonnegut a unique perspective of war and how similarly it is experienced by the enemy. An important line of tension in the book is between Pilgrim’s character and that of the jingoistic Roland Weary.

The Tralfamadorian subplot has a lot to do with being out of control, and learning that perceptions of control are illusory. This is exemplified by the time jumps, which leave Pilgrim completely unable to predict what will happen next. Then there is Pilgrim’s experience being exhibited in an alien zoo, what  could be less in control than that.

Like most of Vonnegut’s work, Slaughterhouse-Five is a dark comedy. There is humor throughout, but humor wrapped in the macabre. For example, whenever anyone dies there is a chorus of “So it goes.”

Everyone should read this, and reread it if necessary.

View all my reviews

Ciao for now
Lola

Got March Madness? Want to do the bracket thing, but really aren’t into guys in shorts? Well, for those who would rather curl up with a book than watch guys run around, playing with their balls, here’s just the thing (no matter your reason – I don’t judge!):

Out Of Print is running their own bracketing, and it’s all about books! What’s the best book/series out there? Want to have your say? Download the bracket sheet here, and fill it in.

WARNING: This ends on March 25th, so fill it out as soon as possible, and email it in to fans@outofprintclothing.com.

According to Merriam-Webster, satire is “a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn.” What the definition fails to mention is that satire not only exemplifies foolish actions and ideas, but it also exploits their faults and corruption with humor. In the article “A Launching Pad of Belief: Kurt Vonnegut and Postmodern Humor,” author Kevin Brown writes that critics believe satire is no longer possible because of the “horrors of the twentieth century and the post modern belief in the lack of objective truth, especially in relation to morality…satirists now write merely for pleasure, not to instigate any change in morality.” However, in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five, the moral message of anti-war is present but it is muted with the boring, almost lifeless attitude of protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, which ironically makes the novel interesting to read. “Only the candles and the soap were of German origin. They had ghostly, opalescent similarity. The British had no way of knowing it, but the candles and the soap were made from the fat of rendered Jews and Gypsies and fairies and communists, and other enemies of the state. So it goes.” By conveying a moral message (mass murder) while eloquently injecting pleasure through humor (“so it goes”), the reader better understands the corrective purpose of which the novel could ultimately prompt a change in morality.

With the common goal of moral change, it is important to be well informed of what the moral norm of the idea or situation is before diving into the waters of a texts moral message. Lack of pleasure and moral norm in a satirical text could cause a hypothetical idea to transform into a literal one in the eyes of the reader. In Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim comes up with an outlook on life to help him cope with the traumas of life after war. “‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.’ Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future’” (Vonnegut 60). Billy’s theory causes him to assume the the concept of free-will is a sham and that everything in his life has been predetermined. However, the notion of a predetermined life is not the message that Vonnegut is trying to convey, but the opposite. “Billy Pilgrim’s attitudes are synonymous with Vonnegut’s; however, Vonnegut distances himself from Pilgrim by showing the hazards of Pilgrim’s philosophy and by presenting Pilgrim as a questionable, if not reliable, narrator” (Brown 52). Vonnegut’s moral message is not the belief of unquestionable acceptance for the things that are or will be, but to question actions and concepts that are humanly unjust.

The idea that every moment is set in a particular fashion to deny any human the ability to prevent destructive events lead to the idea that satire is indeed, linear. This implies that the satire in the text is driven merely by ridicule and aggression towards humanity because of a theory that occurs naturally. There is no humor in ruling out the concept of free-will or asking why things happen. “I am a a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is” (Vonnegut 85). Nevertheless, the premise is illustrated by aliens who make the corrective purpose satirical. The fact that an alien life-form was imagined to make sense of Billy Pilgrim’s life’s apparent randomness makes the reader question the author’s motives. Vonnegut makes it clear to the reader that the novel about the Dresden bombings was anti-was by swearing to Mary, wife of Vonnegut’s old war buddy Bernard V. O’Hare. Therefore, the idea of not having the ability to prevent an event, especially the bombings of Dresden, would be ludicrous.

Another way that satire is exemplified both in terms of moral message and thought provoking pleasure is through parallelism between the Tralfamadorians and the German soldiers. The fact that both the Tralfamadorians and the German soldier’s justification for the way things are are the same, satirically, discredits each other’s logic. When Billy Pilgrim is abducted and caged like an animal on which the Tralfamadoians dwell on, he asks the question, “Why me?” The aliens reply, “That is a very Earthling question to ask Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why Anything? Because the moment simply is” (Vonnegut 76). Consequently, an American solider makes a snide comment to a German solider and gets some of his teeth knocked out. The American solider ask, “Why me?” the German solider answers his question with, “Vy you? Vy anybody?” (Vonnegut 91). The parallelism between the Tralfamadoians and the German solider in the acceptance of their shared philosophy conveys the absurdity that the absence of free-will is an acceptable means of living. The fact that an alien and a violent soldier share the same view-point makes the reader question the credibility.

The most effective satire does not damage to the point where the reader refuses to be open-minded to the topic, but evokes a sensation of shock and disequilibrium. The motive is to achieve corrective purpose through wary yet, deliberate humor, aggressiveness, and ridicule. Only when the vices and follies of human nature are jostled, satire truly alter and expand the minds of readers through moral message and pleasure.

In September I got this tattoo on my wrist. It’s from the novel “Slaughterhouse-five” by Kurt Vonnegut. I got this to promote a sense of tranquility for myself. I wanted to be able to look down at my wrist and remember no matter what happens life goes on.
I’m an incredibly anxious person and I had hoped this would be a great source of comfort when the universe seemed to be collapsing…but so far it hasn’t. I think I forget it’s there. I need to live by this quote more and move away from the bad people I’m my life and move on. So it goes…

RED ALERT! The Frame Loop podcast returns in a blaze of glory as we discuss cultural tidbits relating to the theme of FIRE. Tune in to hear a long critique Truffaut’s classic Sci-Fi flick Fahrenheit 451, some readings of Raymond Carver poems, and we get down and smokey with some bloody brilliant music. What are you waiting for?

Our week in culture:

Rob waxes lyrical about his favourite Willy (Mason)

SONG: ‘I Got Gold’ by Willy Mason (Fiction Records, 2012)

Our theme this week is FIRE!

SONG: ‘Fire’ by The Ohio Players (Mercury, 1974)

BOOK CLUB: Our fiery favourites…

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (Vintage, orig. 1969)

Raymond Carver’s Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories (Vintage, orig. 1985) (inc. 2 poetry recitals!)

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (Flamingo Modern Classics, orig. 1951)

FILM: Fahrenheit 451 (dir: Francois Truffaut, 1966) (watch the whole thing here)

Next week’s shenanigans:

Circular Skys: Ten Minutes Older @ Shortwave Cinema (Sat 23rd March, more info here)

Mikkeller & Friends – The Grand Opening (Sat 16th March, mikkeller.dk)

-Toffee bonbons and bye byes! -

Don’t forget to check out our favourite FIRE films, music, and art, and subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and Soundcloud.

1. THIS NEW KAVINSKY ALBUM
Give this masterpiece a mere minute of your life and you’ll be more than convinced.

2. FINALLY SETTLING ON A HAIRSTYLE/COLOR
This is a pretty stupid and girly preoccupation, but it’s been bothering me nonetheless. I’m finally taking the plunge to get my first “adult” hair cut and color (i.e. an awesome boutique salon with a hefty–albeit justified–price tag), and I’ve been racking my brain on how to make the most of this indulgence. Do I stay conservative and just focus on fixing the terrible ombre dye job I’m attempting to rock now? Do I go with an totally new look altogether? These are the problems that plague my half-assed feminine existence. My guess is that I’ll still have no idea when I sit down in the styling chair and plague my stylist with the decision…

3. POETRY
If you’ve been following this blog at all, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of poetry gracing your RSS feeds. I’m currently taking a break from continuing my failed NaNoWriMo (two years later and I’ve finally hit 100 pages!) in favor of a poetry anthology, tentatively titled Breakneck Transplant. Whether or not this will become my first fully realized long-term writing project or just another draft sitting in my desktop folder, time will only tell. (This seems to be a recurring theme in my life…)

4. [I CARRY YOU HEART WITH ME (I CARRY IT IN] BY E.E. CUMMINGS
This goes back to the whole poetry obsession, but my passion for cummings has been reignited with one read of a favorite poem of mine, “[I carry your heart…” If you haven’t been fortunate enough to discover this piece, I encourage you to do so immediately. This has been a stalwart poem for me, even inspiring what will be my first tattoo (an anatomical heart with the opening stanza in memory of my mother). This poem is one of many that has managed to get me through some pretty rough times, along with reminding me that there’s nothing wrong with keeping a loose grip on the past.

5. MY NEW PHONE!
I hate to be one of those gals who drones on about how much she adores her latest purchase, but I’m going to devote just a few doting sentences to my iPhone 5. After lugging around an incredibly unreliable iPhone 3 for the past few years, I’ve been desperate for an upgrade and an introduction to the new frontier of phone-ownership, one lacking regular browser crashes and schizophrenic battery life. It’s safe to say that I’m now cruising through the honeymoon period with my new gadget.

6. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE BY KURT VONNEGUT
I guess I can’t justifiably call this an obsession quite yet since I still have about 50 pages to go in the book. I’ve always admired Vonnegut and his sardonic wit, but I hadn’t set out to tackle his most famous work until about a week ago for a variety of reasons (mostly my inability to find a copy available in any nearby library). It’s a wonderful and much-needed break from the stack of academic readings that seems to be piling high on my desk at the moment.

So now you’re enlightened on how I’ve been distracting myself from countless obligations in my life! If you have any recommendations on new obsessions to procure, feel free to comment and fuel the vicious cycle of procrastination that has become my life.

The story follows Oscar, whom everyone in the traveling Baum & Brothers circus just calls Oz. He’s a protégé of Tom Sawyer’s, a smooth talking, well not exactly smooth I should say, but a well-versed and manipulative con man who despite people’s distrust can still amaze them. Truth be told his life is kind of in the trash, with dwindling crowds and even more dwindling finances; he has nothing to show for really. He hasn’t even someone to share his life with. In a somewhat desperate act, after learning he’s in danger of being pulverized from a fellow circus employee, he runs and finds himself in a hot air balloon which apparently is half his. He escapes the clutches of the barbarian chasing him only to get sucked into a tornado, which after a while spews him out in the magical, and colorful, world of OZ.

So, falling out of the sky is irrevocably synonymous with the term prophecy. He is the great wizard, the ruler of Oz, and all the riches therein will be his, once he defeats the wicked witch, a task well beyond his illusions. With all this in mind, one has to remember that he or she who falls from the sky is always someone simple, someone who never knows what exactly they are truly capable of. It’s kind of like how you never know how strong you can be until strength is the only option you’re left with, and James Franco handles this philosophy surprisingly well. He’s highly egotistical and seemingly no matter how much people believe in and trust him, he still manages to put himself first. This is actually really nice because even though the great and powerful Oz comes off as a heartless jerk in The Wizard of Oz, underneath it all he’s a good man, and it’s nice to know he learned this after his initial arrival.

Still, the movie does move rather quickly, which actually does work because if not then it would just have a lot of fluff, but with that though it unfortunately sort of drags on in the middle, after Oz’s meeting with Theodora (Mila Kunis), and after his brief tour of the Emerald City. Granted it does bring new characters in, but at times it felt the characters weren’t given their dues when needed. It’s not that they just waltz right into the movie, but once they are in we don’t learn a whole about them. The only character whom we do learn enough about is Glinda (Michelle Williams). It will ultimately be her who is Oz’s greatest asset, and to be honest she’s really more important to the story than Oz himself. Luckily she was given ample screen time, and even with how incredibly versatile Williams is, she managed to just be so sweet she was like sugar. Let it be known though she’s not without her command.

Like I said, her role is integral. She’ll be the one who gives Oz the confidence he needs to rally his super nice troops together for the big battle. I won’t give away the rather cool twist that the movie has, so I’ll just say Oz has much more than he can handle by himself. So he will concoct what he will call his greatest trick yet, which actually after the drag the movie went on, is not only refreshing but even exciting. The movie ended on a great high note. It always kind of sucks when a movie, or book, or anything with structure has a good beginning and ending but bad middle. Still, it makes the ending all the sweeter, and this ending is fun for both ids and adults.

On that note, a lot of this movie was well-designed for both audiences. And just going hand in hand with Disney, it does have a good message, which I thought may have been slightly too overshadowed by Oz constantly reminding us of his ego, but all the same the characters make it possible for the kids in the audience to understand: if you believe, anything is possible. That’s pure Disney right there, and I was overly pleased when I heard all the kiddos around me laughing and just enjoying the movie. With both audiences though, like I said, it does work. I had a blast watching this movie, aside from the middle, but still, any parent who goes with their kids will be just fine. Plus I think a lot of them, including myself, were looking forward to witches…

This was actually a very fun movie, partly because it works for both audiences, and it knows how to make you laugh. So I guess it’s this generation’s The Wizard of Oz. Funny, the original had backdrop; this one has C.G.I. Ha, whoda thunk?

I guess you all know that I’ve recently started classes on my last semester on my second year at University. 
It’s no news that I’m studying British and North-American Literature and, this time, I’ve decided to try my luck with a North-American subject – I prefer the British part of my degree but since I can’t choose only one “language”, I’ve opted for North-American.

This new semester I’ll be studying Romantic British Literature and Contemporary North-American Literature. So, I’ve decided to show you the books I have to read for both subjects and, if you happen to have an opinion about the books, you’re welcome to share it below on the comments.

Though this post title is TBR | March, it doesn’t mean this books will all be read in March. Though I will try to at least read two and start a third but it will all depend on my pace while reading them – and I want to read other things between them.

Let’s beginning with the subject in which I only have to read one book since the rest are a compilation of poems: Romantic British Literature.

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley

 
Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.
Frankenstein, an instant bestseller and an important ancestor of both the horror and science fiction genres, not only tells a terrifying story, but also raises profound, disturbing questions about the very nature of life and the place of humankind within the cosmos: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to each other? How far can we go in tampering with Nature? In our age, filled with news of organ donation genetic engineering, and bio-terrorism, these questions are more relevant than ever.

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

 
Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger’s New Yorker stories ? particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme ? With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is fully of children. The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children’s voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden’s voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

This book arrived today and I immediately started reading it since in two weeks we’ll be talking about it in class. I’m only in the beginning but what I’ve read on the underground sounded interesting. And I trust my colleagues and friends’ judgements when it comes to books and they all say this is amazing. I don’t know, I’ve never been a Contemporary sort of person neither an American classic one but I admit being rather curious about this.

On The Road
Jack Kerouac

 

On the Road chronicles Jack Kerouac’s years traveling the North American continent with his friend Neal Cassady, “a sideburned hero of the snowy West.” As “Sal Paradise” and “Dean Moriarty,” the two roam the country in a quest for self-knowledge and experience. Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz combine to make On the Road an inspirational work of lasting importance.
Kerouac’s classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be “Beat” and has inspired every generation since its initial publication more than forty years ago.

This cover wasn’t the one I wanted but I found a copy on a bookstore and decided to buy it straight away instead of waiting for it to arrive after buying it online.
Again, a book I was not expecting to read, ever, but now I’m curious. Not only does it have a movie to accompanied it – and if it’s faithful enough I might even watch it – but my teacher already said several things about this book that made me wonder why people love it.

Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut

It took Vonnegut more than 20 years to put his Dresden experiences into words. He explained, “there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again.” Slaughterhouse Five is a powerful novel incorporating a number of genres. Only those who have fought in wars can say whether it represents the experience well. However, what the novel does do is invite the reader to look at the absurdity of war. Human versus human, hedonist politicians pressing buttons and ordering millions to their deaths all for ideologies many cannot even comprehend. Flicking between the US, 1940′s Germany and Tralfamadore, Vonnegut’s semi- autobiographical protagonist Billy Pilgrim finds himself very lost. One minute he is being viewed as a specimen in a Tralfamadorian Zoo, the next he is wandering a post-apocalyptic city looking for corpses. Slaughterhouse Five-Or The Children’s Crusade A Duty-Dance with Death is a remarkable blend of black humour, irony, the truth and the absurd. The author regards his work a “failure”, millions of readers do not. Released the same time bombs were falling on South East Asia, this title caused controversy and awakening. Essential reading for all. So it goes.

I’ve always heard the name Vonnegut and people saying amazing things about his work. But I’ve never been truly interesting in finding out who he was and what he wrote since he was labelled Contemporary. But when my teacher said his name and I had to face myself into buying this book, I became aware that I was being an idiot for not wanting to know more about this author. I mean, I’m studying Literature and I don’t want to read the greatest names in Literature history?! What the heck is wrong with me?!
So, I’ve just ordered this book and from the plot, it sounds pretty good – more interesting than what I initially thought it would sound.

Considering this was said by a best-selling, critically acclaimed author, I now feel a little more at home in my own floundering. (Especially since I’ve read Vonnegut’s opus, Slaughterhouse-Five, and it was rather amazing.)

Writing can sometimes feel like scrawling outside all the lines, carving blockish, childish print into worn-out, simplistic phrases. It can seem futile, immature, and amateur.

But the truth is, writers don’t always know exactly what words to write or where to explore next. If you keep at it with a childlike curiosity and determination, crayon writing can eventually become a masterpiece.

One of the most popular and successful of his works, Slaughterhouse-Five is widely considered one of the greatest American novels.

Vonnegut’s work is so insightful, humanist, and thought-provoking that he is probably the most read Sci-Fi Author outside of the genre, in fact he blends science fiction themes into his stories so effortlessly that it disappears into the story, and it can often be easy to forget you are reading Sci-Fi.

In his book Slaughterhouse-Five, one of the central characters Billy Pilgrim has become un-stuck in time and experiences and re-experiences pivotal moments in his life and the life of others. He experiences moments in the firebombing of Dresden (a somewhat autobiographical account of Vonnegut’s own experience as a POW in the Battle of the Bulge) and finds a relatively peaceful existence as a Zoo Exhibit on the Planet Tralfamador, where he is mated with a Porn Star, an event that all the Tralfamadorians routinely tune in to watch with great scientific interest. The book has a powerful anti-war theme, as would be expected from a Freethinker and Humanist. The theme of Time Shifting here foreshadows Vonnegut’s future work, the very excellent Timequake,

in which an unknown celestial event causes a ripple in space-time snapping everyone in the world (universe?) back in time ten years, but not their consciousness, so free will is temporarily revoked, and everyone must watch passively in horror as the universe replays itself, fully aware of the future they already knew, but trapped, unable to change the past, until they reach the moment of the original time-quake. The ten-year prison sentence affects people terribly, destroying their awareness of free-will to the point that when the universe snaps back into normal time it doesn’t make much difference, until the ever-present and un-affected character Kilgore Trout (who appears in many of Vonnegut’s novels and is an alternate persona of the author) re-awakens the world with his mantra ”You were sick, but now you are well again. And there’s work to be done.”

A mantra that works well in life even if their hasn’t been a celestial event.

I don’t know a single person who regretted reading a Vonnegut novel, pick up and read either slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, or Timequake, I can promise you won’t regret it.

“It is so short and jumbled and jangled, 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 very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. “

Those were vile people in both those cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them. And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.

-Vonnegut

In the shadow of the looming sequester, as elected government representatives, as they’re wont to do, argue about whether they should choose between cutting services that help the poor and general populace, or raising taxes on the wealthy, I was reminded of this excerpt from a Kurt Vonnegut book, that I think helps to point out just how long we’ve been having this exact same conversation:

Read More:…Daily Kos: This is why Kurt Vonnegut is underrated.

Related articles

• 15 things Kurt Vonnegut said better than anyone else ever has or will → (avclub.com)
• Like Kurt Vonnegut I survived the bombing of Dresden and continue to believe it was a war crime (secretsofthefed.com)

“To the guards who walked up and down outside, each car became a single organism which ate and drank and excreted through its ventilators. It talked or sometimes yelled through its ventilators, too. In went water and loaves of black bread and sausage and cheese, and out came shit and piss and language. Human beings in there were excreting into steel helmets which were passed to the people at the ventilators who dumped them. Billy was a dumper. The human beings also passed canteens which guards would fill with water. When food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared.”

A couple incarnations of a new tattoo design I’m working on.

This summer will be the tenth anniversary of the death of someone who was very dear to me, and who I grew up with. I wanted to get a tattoo as a memorial for her, and decided that the phrase “So it goes.” from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut was the simple and perfect choice. The daisy is because that was her favorite flower.