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"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."--Kurt Vonnegut
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3 comments:
Vonnegut surprises me every time i hear or read about him. Slaughterhouse 5 was a complete 180 of what I thought it would be. As he is one of the great writers of the century, it is so strange to hear him say things about oral sex in the oval office. He has the poise and presentation of an older prominent writer, but when he opens his mouth or puts a pen to paper, something completely unexpected comes out. I watched an interview with him and John Stewart about how he believes evolution is controlled by divine power. He says that is "why we have giraffes, Hippopotami and the Clap." Im not sure about the logic there.....
It makes me wonder if he has always thought about these weird things or is he just kind of senile.
He does make up a bunch of good points about democracy and misantropy. I kind of have to agree with the misanthropy part, not because I necessarely dislike people, but I dislike the majority of what we do on a bigger scale.
This interview was interesting (we got to see him play ping pong) so all and all, Im content.
Do you think his wife might of gotten sick of hearing "so it goes". Because he seems to apply 9t not only to this book but to everything....... (going to a funeral with Vonnegut may get a little redundant)......Just a thought.
Hearing Vonnegut talk about his experience in Dresden reminds me that this novel consists of things that happened to him. Because of the science fiction aspect, I forget that while I'm reading. It starts to feel more like a fantasy, but I do think it was a good decision on his part to include the Tralfamadorians.
After I watched this video though, I remembered some parts in the novel where he actualls inserts himelf. There are two instances I can think of. The first one happens when Billy is speaking with Valencia, and an odd thought occurs to him and Vonnegut writes, "it would make a good epitaph for Billy Pilgrim" but then adds, "-and for me to" (121).
At first this startled me, because I dont usually feel like the narrator, Vonnegut, is that intrusive. Yet I liked it, and I liked it when it happened again.
It happens again when Billy is at the latrine and overhears an American soldier puking and the soldier says, "there they go, there they go," (125) referring to how he is puking his brains out. Then Vonnegut writes, "That was I. That was the author of this book" (125). I really liked this, because it helped me place Kurt Vonnegut in this war, and I like the idea of an artist mingling with his art on a higher level.
As to what Vonnegut said about the war being fought by children, I completely agree and see that his novel is very successful in translating this. It's odd to me, to think that he began writing novels with roles suitable for Frank Sinatra. There is definitely no one in this book that could be Frank, and that's a good thing.
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