Second Selves

As I was reading chapter eight of Slaughterhouse-Five I began to think maybe Kurt Vonnegut doesn’t just appear as himself in the story. Kilgore Trout is a science fiction writer, who became Billy Pilgrim’s friend when he was in his 18^th marriage anniversary. Before meeting the writer, Billy had read many of his books while he was at a hospital and really enjoyed them. Trout believes no one reads his books and in his books he wrote about time travelling and thought Billy had seen through a time window. “He suddenly saw the past or the future.” Said trout, when Billy had a physical breakdown. I have a feeling Trout is somewhat based on Vonnegut himself (more likely Billy too). In the first chapter of the book Vonnegut wrote this book was a failure. “This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt.” Vonnegut wrote this in his first chapter, when he referred to his book. Trout’s books were failures and his first fan was Billy Pilgrim. I just googled “Kilgore Trout” and he is actually based on another author, but it is said some critics view him as Vonnegut’s alter ego. It is much more likely that many aspects of Billy Pilgrim are based on Kurt Vonnegut, but maybe he is not the only one.

Chapter eight was a little disappointing for me. The bombing of Dresden was barely described. I hoped it would craft images of destruction and what it was for the POWs to be there in my head, but Vonnegut went straight to the point. “Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes.” That was part of what Vonnegut wrote to describe how it was when it was safe to get out of the shelters. I may be disappointed, but I understand Vonnegut’s writing. And he also warned his readers things like this would be in his book. Billy is emotionless and that’s why we don’t get any more from Dresden, but Vonnegut felt he shouldn’t look back any more after writing this book and that’s why he probably gives only the essential information needed to understand what he lived. ”Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals.” The book certainly doesn’t disappoint me and I am very anxious to see how it ends. Even though I already know how Billy’s life ended, how the war ended, and that Vonnegut was part of the war, I am sure what is left of the book will be mind-blowing, as Billy’s adventures have been.

Click here for Dresden footage

Insanity a New Reality

I was reading Pedro Thomas’s blog and he caught my attention with one of his entries, in which he compares Friedrich Nietzsche’s writing in The Gay Science to Kurt Vonnegut’s writing in Slaughterhouse-Five because he says both tell their stories or ideas through the eyes of a crazy man. I also read part of The Gay Science and now that I see it this way, people pay more attention to people with some kind of deficit or incapacity, than to people that look “normal”. In Nietzsche’s text we know he believes God was killed because throughout his story, he states his point of view regarding religion. And in Vonnegut’s book he tells us what happened to one POW that was with him in Dresden. When Billy was unconscious in Vermont after surviving a plane crash, he dreamt part of what he lived in his past, which Vonnegut declares was true. “The true things where time-travel.” In the eyes of a crazy American soldier Vonnegut depicts how Dresden and some of his experiences in WWII where. Again, Nietzsche scripts his non-religious beliefs in the eyes of a crazy man. Probably if we saw these stories in the perspective of more normal people, they wouldn’t be as appealing as they are because they show us something unexpected, that in a parallel way, shows us and idea (in Nietzsche’s case) or part of an autobiography (in Vonnegut’s case). Pedro says in his blog very strong claims like “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him” create a lot of polemic and give much to talk about due to the fact that these claims are very controversial ideas.

Rather than talking about God, Vonnegut writes, “All the real soldiers are dead”. A woman who was in Dresden too said that, but then Vonnegut’s narrator affirmed, “It was true. So it goes.” Chapter 7 isn’t very long, but it sure gives a controversial thought when it gives Vonnegut’s point of view regarding real soldiers. I actually don’t know what a real soldier, but I am sure a real soldier is different for Vonnegut to what a real soldier would be for me.

Thou will die, have died, and always will die

As I continue reading about Billy Pilgrim’s life, I get more and more surprised and Billy travels more and more. As I asked myself in one of my previous blogs, which other curious characters where coming, a new character has surprised me in chapter six. I also asked when would Billy’s death come, and it came, will come and always will come. Paul Lazzaro is another POW, and the one who promised Ronald Wary to avenge him. This man is an extremely violent man, angry and revengeful. For example he says to Billy “If the President of the United States fucked around with me, I’d fix him good. You should have seen what I did to a dog one time.” Billy, Lazzaro and Derby had this conversation when Lazarro said he was going to have his revenge with one German and he then told his story with the dog. He was horrible, ruthless, wrath full. Lazarro reminds me a lot to Brian De Palma’s Scarface main character, Antonio Montana. “Tony” was a Cuban immigrant in Miami that accomplished “The American Dream” and became the head of the drug cartel. Lazzaro reminds me of Tony because he was a revengeful, dirty talking criminal, but mostly because of their way of talking. “Anybody touches me, he better kill me, or I’m gonna have him killed” said Lazzaro to a German whom he wanted to kill. “Go ahead! I take your fucking bullets! You think you kill me with bullets? I take your fucking bullets! Go ahead!” Tony would say as he was being killed.

In chapter six we get to know Billy is aware of how, when, and why he will be killed. It’s going to be 1976, Billy will be giving a speech about flying saucers to a crowd of people, and he will be assassinated. Pilgrim’s assassin will be Paul Lazzaro, the man who promised to avenge his war friend (Ronald Weary). It’s remarkable how Billy has accepted his fate. He would perfectly fit to be a Tralfamadorian since he acts just like them regarding his death, and how the Tralfamadorians cause the destruction of the world. As Billy said they will be “dead for a little while-and then live again.”

The prisoners of war go to Dresden, a beautiful city, which has not been affected much by the war, where they are kept at “Schlachthol-funf” which traduces to Slaughterhouse-five. I feel Kurt Vonnegut is somewhat ironic in this chapter when Edgar Derby writes a letter to his wife. “We are leaving for Dresden today. Don’t worry. It will never be bombed.” Wrote Derby in his letter. Since the beginning of the book we know Dresden was bombed, but Vonnegut doesn’t interfere with this. He doesn’t even state how he feels about the bombing (he did in chapter 1, which talks about how the book came to be), so this makes me think the story is more Billy Pilgrim centered, rather than Kurt Vonnegut centered or maybe Billy represents him in many ways because they are alike in many ways. In the last five chapters I have read both Vonnegut and Billy have showed no emotion and no patriotism, which I feel are also ironic. War is full of these, even though it may be best if soldiers are emotionless. All of these inferences and deductions make me eager to keep on reading because I want to know how all these POW survived the bombing of Dresden, and how Billy Pilgrim came to be.

Vy Billy? Vy not Me?

After reading the first chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five I imagined I was only going to read about battles, massacres, violence and Billy Pilgrim’s adventures in the battlefield. Something similar to Saving Private Ryan or that type of story. After reading the fifth chapter I can assure Kurt Vonnegut has surprised me and I’ve actually have been reading about the war, but also a pre-post-and during-war story about Billy Pilgrim. I use the terms “pre-post-and during-war story” because at the same time, I have been reading about all that jumping in time and space through the past, present, and future. If a Tralfamadorian had read this book, it had read all at the same time and pictured one overall story. That’s how Tralfamadorians read, but instead of using words they have a system similar to the ones for blind people. This chapter takes us all over Billy’s life, beginning in his first trip to Tralfamadore and then going to his childhood, his honeymoon, another trip to Tralfamadore, the war and what not. Kurt Vonnegut isn’t just telling Billy’s adventure in the war, but expanding Billy’s world and excels at it by creating a whole new level of science fiction parallel to an American soldier in World War II. This type of fiction is new to me, but it reminds me of the T.V show the Big Bang Theory, in which I recall Sheldon Cooper talking about parallel worlds and theories about this. In Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut doesn’t talk about parallel universes, but of the events in life (in Tralfamadore) happing parallel to each other at the same time. For example, a Tralfamadorian explained to Pilgrim “We know how the Universe ends”, explaining him the end of existence and their conversation happened at the same time and that there is no way of evading war or anything that happens. It will always happen as it should, with no other variable or different events.

Finally Kurt Vonnegut has appeared in World War II. He is another American soldier and is at the hospital from the prisoner camp, where Billy is too. “There they go, there they go.” Vonnegut said meaning he was excreting even his brains. It’s al we get to know from him for now. With what I now know, I speculate that Kurt Vonnegut wrote about Billy’s life with what he learned from him those days and maybe in the following ones, and then wrote a backstory to all the craziness and insanity. I am eager to keep reading and not just because of Billy’s capture, but also because I want to know how Vonnegut got to know everything (non fiction parts) he wrote.

Billy’s Longest, Darkest, Blackest Evening

Why Billy? Still emotionless and weird as always, Billy has been kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians for the first time and he doesn’t understand why. I don’t understand either. One of the aliens said, “Only on Earth is there any talk of free will” and he tells Billy he is with them because that’s his fate. Like predestination maybe. I think what the alien said to Billy is very ironic because even though Billy has freedom of will he is careless about it. Another example of irony is a prayer that Billy has framed in his office:

“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”.

That was Pilgrim’s method to keep going, but again, he seems to be thinking on his aliens or his accidents or maybe he simply doesn’t think, just goes on.

The fourth chapter of Slaughterhouse-Five brought Weary’s life an end but possibly we can still get to know him in what’s left of the story with Kurt Vonnegut’s pacing or Billy’s time traveling. As crazy as always, Weary argued that he was dying because of Billy Pilgrim’s fault. He had gangrene. Weary didn’t just argue. He wanted the other prisoners to avenge him. As the story progresses it has presented very interesting characters and I hope this keeps happening. First came Billy, then Ronald Weary, then the aliens, so who’s coming up next? It would be hilarious reading about Weary’s supposed avenger actually trying to kill Billy, who is almost defenseless.

When Billy was in the showers of the prisoner camp the narrator says “Reproduction was not the main business of the evening.” I think that doesn’t only apply to the showers where men where only tired, hurt, sick, and without females, but to all the war. The long evening that went from 1939 to 1945 was not meant for reproduction. It was quite the other way around. In Pilgrim’s episode we have already witnessed at least three deaths. Valencia’s (Billy’s wife) death, Wild Bob’s (a colonel in the train), and Weary’s death. So when will Billy’s death come? How will it be? Or will Vonnegut leave him alive since maybe he was alive when he wrote the book?

I was just inventing my tittle for this entry and remembered Green Lantern. Probably World War II was Billy’s blackest night and his voyages with the Tralfamadorians where his brightest day. My oath for Billy is this one:

“In Tralfamadore, In World War II,

No emotion shall wonder through my mind

Let those emotion-full thoughts,

Beware my power… Tralfamadore’s 4-D sight!”

Sins of Thought

Winston Smith is an intellectual who lives in Airstrip One, Oceania. He works in the Minister of Truth and hates his leader Big Brother with passion. Smith is a sinner in many ways and he is punished for his crimes. His major crimes were having an illicit romance with Julia and rebelling against the government. Smith’s revolution began when he wrote “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”, which would entitle him death because it was thoughtcrime. The Thought Police captured Winston, tortured him, re-educated him, and then reintegrated him to society. This man was kept alive (until he was shot and killed), but the rebellious Winston Smith died since he then loved Big Brother. If Winston Smith were in Dante’s Inferno he would be punished in the second ring of the ninth circle. This is Antenora, an ice city.

In Antenora reside the traitors to their homeland or their party. Instead of loving and admiring Big Brother’s totalitarian government, Smith rebelled against it. Smith would be frozen in ice in Anthenora for his eternity. His punishment would be very different from what he actually received in Oceania since there he was tortured and brainwashed. Hell would remind Winston of his sins every second of his eternity in hell. Brainwash and torture seem less harsh consequences because in Hell he had to be dead and Smith wasn’t killed for that. He was then assassinated, but after justice was made.

Crimes weren’t always discovered in Oceania, but in Hell there’s no escape. Inferno is a utopia because there’s no way of evading justice. Even though Winston Smith was killed, he paid for his thoughtcrimes and was not killed for them. Thoughtcrime was death but Smith was killed after he reestablished his life, while his ideology was killed in his re-education. Oceania was a dystopia were tyranny and fear where implemented by the government, but sometimes they were not enough to make them successful. Inferno proved me success.

Powerless Emotion

Chapter three of Vonnegut’s novel narrates how the Germans have captured Billy Pilgrim, but so it goes. Without any emotion or thought of escape, pain, love or anything, Billy Pilgrim simply goes with the rest of prisoners of war. Today hundreds of people are sequestered by terrorist groups, guerrillas, and criminals or captured by the authorities and I guess everyone or almost everyone at least thinks of freedom. Pilgrim looks like he feels life is meaningless, but maybe this could be because of one of the following options: 1. That’s how he sees life 2. Because the war has “deteriorated” him in every possible way 3.It was just Billy was like that. I feel a little pity for Pilgrim because of all his disgrace. He is in war, after being sick his enemies capture him, then aliens, after he reestablished his life after the war he was lonely and senile. Probably he feels like the most fortunate and happy man but I don’t see him like that. As I said I feel pity. In Spanish, some people say “cada loco en su cuento” which translates to “Every crazy one is in their own story”. Maybe its true that everyone has his or her own personal and maybe weird way of being happy and Billy Pilgrim is just an example of an insane person who is only understood by himself.

Billie’s way of not feeling reminds of Dr. Manhattan, a character from “Watchmen” (the original comic) written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Dr. Manhattan is some atomically powerful blue man that can see the future and could have prevented a man of trying to make a utopia after he killed millions of people but he decided he would rather leave Earth. Emotionless he left all his life in the past and disappeared. Pilgrim is careless and simply survives (because probably he isn’t an atomically powerful blue man), and the Tralfamadorians then kidnapped him. For me Dr. Manhattan and Vonnegut’s soldier are certainly similar in one way or another. I never got to know what happened to Dr. Manhattan after he left for another Galaxy because that was the end of the comic, but fortunately I will know what happened to Billy when he went for a ride in outer space in the next chapter.

4-D War in Tralfamadore

Kurt Vonnegut introduced a World War II that had time travelers in chapter two of "Slaughter-House five". Or at least one. Billy Pilgrim is a senile man who claims being kidnapped by aliens in a flying saucer from a planet called "Tralfamadore". This man admired them because of the way they saw life and death and because they saw in four dimensions. He lives his life jumping through time and he acts in different times of his life or simply time traveling. Pilgrim went senile in a plane accident he had in which he hurt his head pretty badly and since then he began to divulge his story of the aliens everywhere. Long before Tralfamadorians appeared in Billy Pilgrim"s life he fought for the American army in World War II in December of 1944, near the end of the war. After the Battle of Bulge Billy found himself with three other survivors, one of them was Roland Weary. Weary was somewhat schizophrenic or insane and enjoyed beating up people after making them believe he was nice. During the cold winter Weary and Pilgrim where ditched by the other scouts because Pilgrim was ill and had been left behind and as the crazy soldier beat Billy because of his rage, they where captured by some Germans. So it goes.

The adventure of Billy Pilgrim is a very curious one, even without the aliens its full of adventures and stories to tell. The way Billie's life and/or the way Vonnegut changes the story through "time traveling", give the story a unique pacing and a very interesting character. If everything were chronological probably it wouldn't be as interesting as it is and it would change the character completely. I don't have very clear if these characters are based on people Kurt Vonnegut met during war or if he invented these stories to complement his over all story but they are weird in one way or another. For example, Ronald Weary was mad at Billy because he never told him anything interesting while Weary would talk to him about torturing devices and his father's collection of them. I am not sure if I have met a senile person or not, but a friend once told me a woman I had met was senile. This woman was hysterical with my friends and me and said she threatened us to call the police because supposedly we where in her house and that we weren't letting her grandsons sleep. It wasn't her house, her grandsons where sleeping fine, and one of the persons I was with, was the son of the owner of the house. People can get mad or other people can get them mad but this was something different, like Tralfamadorian style. I really don't think Billy Pilgrim or Ronald Weary are based on Kurt Vonnegut so where does he fit into this story?

Sky-High Fires

The first chapter of Slaughterhouse-5 from Kurt Vonnegut introduces, from his perspective, what his book will be about and how it came to be the way it is. The way Vonnegut narrates this chapter is very confusing because you don’t actually know if it is him or his character who is talking. It works in a similar way to Dante’s Inferno how there was Dante the poet and Dante the character. The book tells the story of an American private in Dresden, Germany, in World War II. In order to write his book, Vonnegut went back to Germany while it was under the communist regime and visited Berlin, Dresden, Helsinki and other cities. He asked his war “buddy” as he called him, to help him remember Dresden because he wanted to write his book, and he did. He even went with him back to Germany. The coming chapters (and the book itself) will probably be about a massacre during World War II because besides what is told about Dresden, the author claims his book is short because there’s nothing intelligent to say about a massacre.

I don’t really know much about Dresden and its bombings but I infer one of the reasons Vonnegut writes the book is to make the world know about this terrible things. When the air force told him or the narrator that the stories he wanted to know about the war were “top secret” and he sarcastically asked his wife that from whom, leads me to my inference beforehand. I want to keep on reading Vonnegut’s book because this first chapter really gripped my attention and I want to see what comes up next. The book seems to have an astonishing story from WWII coming and the way this is told to the readers is great. “The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot for taking a teapot that wasn’t his” are just some words from the narrator that make me think of the bloodbath that is coming. Besides from how the plot has “called” me, I really like the history behind it. Its great reading a book about World War II when you just arrived one month ago from Germany. I hope recently learning about it and everything that happened in World War II up to the nineties’ help me understand better the story that is coming.

“The Perfect Life” by John Koethe

“The Perfect Life” from John Koethe narrates the story of someone’s life. In the beginning this person’s life everything seems to be joyful, comfortable, and calm. Suddenly it seemed like everything changed in a flash. What once was fun and curious became dull and cold. His or her days have passed and nothing is the same as before. This person seems disappointed and sad because their life was just another one soon to be forgotten. I believe this poem can be seen in many different ways. It reminds me of the movie “Gran Torino”, in which the main character is in his final days and he is careless for his life and feels what he does is meaningless. I see the last two lines “A blank space, like a hole left in the wake Of a perfect life, which closes over” as if the speaker was saying all his/her life marked was almost nothing and that it was just a life. For me the poem wasn’t very clear in certain part, but I found it very interesting how a life can be seen in many different ways, it all depends on the context and “the eye of the beholder”.