Slaughterhouse-Five
That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times and concentrate on the good ones.
-Kurt Vonnegut
I'm finally getting around to my Rory Gilmore reading challenge and first on my picks for 2019 was Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I must admit, there are plenty well-known classics that I've never read and this book was one of those for me. It's a pretty short and compact book that's easy to read in a single afternoon. Yet as short as it is, it does not lack in "pulp". The book is writen from the point of view of a WWII Vet named Billy Pilgrim about his experience of "the bombing of Dresden" while being kept in the basement of an old slaughterhouse. Yet very little of the story actually focuses on those events.
Our narrator "travels" through time and dimensions allowing us to explore other aspects of his life and experiences, such as his perfectly normal, cooky-cutter life afterwards and his (totally normal not at all random) capture by aliens. Each "travel" comes at seemingly random times in the narrative yet I can't help but think they come at the most opportune times.
While reading this book, the random side notes during Billy's captivity of his being "forward" in time to his normal post-war life and his weird comparisons to his alien abduction made me thing of one thing: ESCAPE. He seems to transport himself in his mind to escape the horrors of his life. When he's in the war it's more a reflection of memory, like a flashback or "flash forward" to a normal life. In some situations he escapes to a reality so impossible, the tragedy of his life cannot follow him. It was an interesting take on the aftermath of what he faced.
Another thing I found common in Billy's musings was the similarity between the aliens and the Germans. Strange how the alien species seemed to be "superior" and of a prime race. Strange how they found amusement in his imprisonment (who else imprisoned him?) and treated him like an animal to be observed. Billy speaks of both groups with such detachment that it's clear they frighten him even if he does not outright state it. He never delves too deeply into either subject.
One thing I noticed when Billy downplays and talks casually of awful things was the saying "So it goes". Everytime death was mentioned or even implied, the sentence or paragraph would end in the same phrase. This phrase, picked up from the Tralfmadorians, signifies that death is just a part of nature. It normalizes death. When this phrase is written after even the most horrific events, the words make it seem ok and all part of a grander plan. It's almost like a coping mechanism to make death seem less permanent and terrifying.
I'm sure there are tons of theories and hidden meanings I can continue to discuss but I don't want to ruin it for anyone who has not read it yet. This book is something you have to experience and think for yourself. Even though the subject was dark, there was humor laced into it. A heavy subject disguised as a light read.
For this book I have no rating, I'm still pondering exatly what I think about it. I'm glad I finally picked it up and started to make a miniscule dent in my reading challenge. This was a good place to start. Next up on the Rory Gilmore challenge: Farhenheit 451.