Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

turgon

LISTEN:
BILLY PILGRIM has become unstuck in time.

---

Of the limited amount of books I have read over the past year, I would rank Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut as one of the best. Never have I heard of such imaginative use of science fiction to convey the ideas that Vonnegut tries to portray - such as the insignificance of the individual in the past. The Tramfaldorians - aliens that come and communicate with Billy Pilgrim - provide us with an objective view point of mankind so as to remove us from the influence of our prejudices. In a similar vein as the animals and children in Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies respectively, perhaps.

The book is centered about the 1945 fire bombing of Dresden, Germany, and is in some ways about trying to come to terms with the past.

Has anyone here read it?

---

Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.
So it goes.

mrsdewinter

I have to say I haven't read Slaughterhouse 5. A few years ago I picked up Bluebeard in a friend's house, took it home and loved it. Expecting more of the same, I leafed through Slaughterhouse 5 in a bookshop one time but it didn't grab me in the same way. Perhaps it's time I went back to it.

Red Hand

Yep, read it a few years ago and loved it. I recently bought it again and read it a few times in the last few months. Brilliant book.

blubloblu

I preferred Cat's Cradle and Galápagos.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

was my first vonnegutt book, still my favourite although oddly enough not the one I enjoy reading the most. I don't know how that works either.

dr gonzo

Nah i didnt think Galapagos was a patch on SH5 but i have heard that cats cradle is great i just never get around to picking it up.

Shryke

Slaughterhouse 5 was great. Cat's Cradle wasn't so much my cup of tea. I thought Breakfast of Champions was excellent though. The desperation crawls off every page.

KevinH

I think Slaughterhouse 5 is a great book, to me the major theme is free will ..... the Tralfamadorians are a great creation used to examine free will; they live their life all at once outside of linear time and have no control over their actions but can choose what part of thier life they think about the most.
Also it is funny as hell. So it goes.

I bought Timequake because it deals with a similar theme to the Tralfamadorians but I haven't got around to reading it yet.

turgon

KevinH wrote: »

Also it is funny as hell.

Indeed - "they thought he was one of the most screamingly funniest things they had seen in all of World War Two" - as if the War was a joke to them. This particular scene, where Billy Pilgrim is wearing a collection of various tatters picked up along the way, was read by one of my friends to be a showcase of how ludicrous war is. The stories of brave men might be compelling, but when you take war as a whole it is thoroughly ridiculous.

The Tramafoldorians are a great literary invention, imo. I read a review of Slaughterhouse 5 in the New York Times (I think) where the reviewer said that those who dont like sci-fi wouldnt like the book. But to me that completely missed the point of the Tramfaldorians. They weren't some sci-fi geeks idea of literary masturbation, they served an essential component of this examination of war, human life and, as you said, free will.

There is also the issue that the Tramfaldorians may not be real, rather they are an psychological invention of the war veteran Billy Pilgrim. The third paragraph of the second chapter - it just reads "He says." - might indicate this.

I love the detached sense in which Vonnegut writes, such as using small paragraphs and the refrains "so it goes" and to a much lesser extent "and so on." He also seems to look down on himself ("[this book] was written by a pillar of salt") but in a funny way, as if he is looking down on himself because he thinks everyone else is. I dont know. I read the introduction of Breakfast of Champions and he does this again. He mentions that someone accuses him of being a certain author, then he signs the introduction with that authors name. Interesting.

Day Lewin

Actually Kurt Vonnegut wrote TWO books from his traumatic memory of the bombing of Dresden. The other one is called Mother Night.
Truly, it is a dark subject: but you know, Dresden was not the only or the worst bombibgof that war. It is famous largely because it is West European, pretty medieval architecture etc.
And because our Kurt was so shocked by it!
Most entertaining Vonnegut - I vote for "The Sirens of Titan" a weird faint prophecy of ET

BossArky

turgon wrote: »

Has anyone here read it?

Yes. This book is incredible. Read it.

There are some poignant moments broken up by laugh out loud scenes. One of my favourite:

Billy wandering around the rubble wearing the kiddie jacket.