Slaughter-My-Mind-Five-Times, Vonnegut

Currently Reading: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Even after having a few weeks to mull over Slaughterhouse Five, I’m still not sure what my opinion of the book is. 

Again, this could be in part because back to back Vonnegut books is a lot to take if you’re not big on books with little plot or character development, which I'm not. And I think I was extra frustrated with this aspect of Vonnegut’s writing because this seemed like such a rich area of history for a compelling story. I’d never heard of the bombing of Dresden before despite having studied World War II rather extensively and I was pretty excited to read an inside perspective on the event. Instead, I got jostled and thrown around different eras at random - with an alien kidnapping and zoo thrown in for good measure - like someone riding a particularly bumpy, upsetting roller coaster. Much like at the end of such a roller coaster, I’m not sure how I feel at the end of this novel. Did I actually enjoy that? Or am I just proud that I survived it?

I believe I found Slaughterhouse Five unsatisfying because I hate finishing a book and thinking, “What?!” and that’s exactly what I did. As a point of pride, I like when I understand whatever the author was hoping to convey in his novel by the time I finish it. After all, I’m an English major. I should have the skills to do just that. So when I turn the last page of a novel and find myself wondering what the hell the author was trying to do, it upsets me on two levels. One: I have no closure and two: my English major pride has been hurt. Damn you, Vonnegut.

Because I don’t get it. Seriously, I really don’t.

Well… Strike that. I somewhat get it. I understand the message he’s trying to convey. Partly because it’s essentially the same one presented in The Sirens of Titan and partly because he practically beats you over the head with it in the dozens of repetitions of the phrase, “So it goes.” Again, the message is that it’s pointless to try to control and understand the world around you so instead of getting upset, you should simply take things as they come.

But I want to vent about what I didn’t understand. The basic foundation for the plot. Why did Vonnegut introduce the idea of time travel and aliens into this story? Was it really necessary to introduce this concept of everything in life being in a state of past, present, and future at one time (Hello chrono-synclastic infundibula concept from Sirens! Nice to see you again you confusing fictional, physics theory.)? Why on Earth did Vonnegut feel it was useful to have his character kidnapped by aliens and thrown into an alien zoo? How was that relevant at all?

What was even more confusing to me was the time traveling aspect of the novel. All I wanted to know the whole book was whether or not the time travel was legit. Was the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, actually traveling through time? Or was this simply a way for Vonnegut to highlight another part of his theme? After all, if everything is happening both in the past and the present, then you can simply focus on the better parts of your life to allow you to accept the bad parts since they are all happening at one time anyways… if that makes any sense. What better way to emphasize focusing on other parts of your life than to have the protagonist literally travel to those parts of life periodically? If Billy Pilgrim actually is traveling through time, not just looking back or forward, I have one burning question: how did he get the ability to travel through time???

I know that this shouldn’t be what’s bugging me weeks later, but come on! How does he not explain this? I’m just supposed to accept that this guy happens to have the ability to time travel and just coincidentally is chosen to be a specimen in an alien zoo?

Or is Billy Pilgrim just crazy and none of the alien stuff actually happened?

To me, this feels like when I finished The Sun Also Rises and was utterly confused about why the main character didn’t just sleep with the love of his life… until about a month later my English teacher just dropped in randomly that the main character was impotent. Light bulb switched on and suddenly everything clicked. I’d really like the missing piece of information for Slaughterhouse Five that will have the same effect. Anyone have it for me? Please?

The Sirens of Titan-ic Concepts for a Blog Post

Currently (Re-) Reading: The Giver by Lois Lowry

Warning: This post is really long... I tried to shorten it I swear.

Could it be? Is it true? Yes. It is the long-promised The Sirens of Titan post!

Please, try to contain your excitement.

First, allow me to give a brief synopsis of the novel for all interested parties.

Essentially, the plot revolves around two characters: Winston Niles Rumfoord and Malachi Constant.

The former is a space/time traveler stuck in a phenomenon called the chronosynclastic infundibula, which causes him to periodically materialize on Earth, Mars, Mercury, and Titan. Despite having read and re-read the explanation of this phenomenon numerous times, the best I can understand it is that it allows those caught in it to be in multiple places both periodically and at one time. This means that the traveler simultaneously knows what has happened, what is currently happening, and what will happen. Again, this is the best explanation I can offer. In my defense, I’m not a science major and it’s a fictional space phenomenon!

The latter character, Malachi Constant, is the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune – created through sheer dumb luck – who gets swept up into an elaborate scheme Rumfoord has concocted involving a Martian army and a new world “religion.”

Intrigued and confused yet?

Although this may seem like an impossibly hard plot, don’t let this deter you from picking up this book! The chronosynclastic infundibula is pretty much the hardest plot point to understand, I promise. And as it turns out, Vonnegut is not a hard read when you take the novel at face value.

Honestly, this was one of the most shocking parts of this reading experience for me. I was expecting Joseph Heller levels of pretentious, challenging writing in which you literally have to look up at least one word every three pages. What I found was something completely different. Compared to Heller, Vonnegut’s writing is like a giant, welcoming hug, even cleverly spelling out the most complicated concepts through quoting chunks of fictitious children’s novels in order to use the simplest language in his explanation. How inviting and easy it all seems…

However, it turns out that Vonnegut is simply showing his readers there’s nothing up his sleeves before performing Houdini or David Blaine levels of mind-blowing magic.

Because, holy crap is there a lot more to this book than the simple writing and characters let on. Guess that makes sense since the book is not really about the characters or plot. Rather it’s a novel dedicated to exploring an idea and oh hey! That idea? Oh, it’s just, “What is the meaning of human life?” So this should be a breeze to discuss and analyze, right?

Bahahahahahahahaha!

Well done, Meredith! Way to take on the colossus of idea books as your first analytical blog piece. Kudos on your pick, you moron!

Before I continue this post any further, I want to say this up front and in the most obvious, clear way I can:

THIS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

So if you have any intention of reading this novel – which I thoroughly recommend! – you may want to turn around now and come back when it’s safe to read.

…

Everyone leave who needs to leave? Yes? OK, then let’s move on.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel for me was the stark contrast between Rumfoord and Constant’s levels of control in their lives.

As mentioned earlier, Rumfoord has the advantage of knowledge throughout the novel. He is constantly living his life both in the moment and in the past, which means he already knows what will happen while it’s happening. In other words, Rumfoord can essentially predict the future. This power helps him to achieve a god-like status among his peers, allowing him to control hundreds of humans' lives, including Constant's. In fact, his level of control over everyone’s lives is so intense that he can orchestrate large, public ceremonies and a war between Earth and Mars.

And then there’s Constant, whose life functions in pretty much the polar opposite way. Even before he becomes a pawn in Rumfoord’s chess game, Constant’s success in life is created entirely out of luck and his level of control only decreases. He’s dragged all over the universe through Rumfoord’s manipulations with so little control he barely even controls his identity, as his name changes from Constant to Unk to Space Wanderer throughout the novel. In fact, his journey reads a lot like someone who is caught in a crowd and keeps moving with the force to avoid being trampled, but with no idea where everyone’s going.

The reader thinks he has it all figured out. Rumfoord is using his knowledge from his space/time travel to twist everyone’s Fates, including Constant’s, to fit his plans to create a worldwide religion with Rumfoord at the center. Hooray! The book is wrapped into a nice package of a power-hungry, all-knowing dictator!

… And then Vonnegut throws the twist at you.

As the quote from Esquire magazine says on the cover of my copy of the book: Vonnegut “dares not only to ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it.”

Yup. You can stop looking for answers now, because Vonnegut has them! Aren’t you glad you’re reading my blog?

According to Vonnegut, everything humans have done since 203,117 B.C. has been to deliver a spaceship part to an alien named Salo from the planet Tralfamadore whose ship broke down on Titan so that he can continue his mission to carry a message from “One Rim of the Universe to the Other” (Vonnegut 274).

And when I say everything humans have done, I mean everything. Every giant structure, including Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China, was a message to Salo that the part was on its way. Every great civilization was created to make those structures/messages. And everything Rumfoord manipulated everyone on Earth, including Malachi Constant, to do was to get Constant’s son, Chrono, to Titan with his “good luck” piece…which is the part of the ship Salo needs.

So in reality, no one has been in control of his life, including Rumfoord. Everyone has been used as a means to an end for the Tralfamadorians’ plan for thousands of years.

The kicker? The oh-so-important message that Salo has been carrying? It turns out it simply says, “Greetings.”

It may be kind of bleak, but I actually kind of like the message Vonnegut is trying to convey. Essentially the novel is pointing out that humans are just tiny specks in the universe so to think we are here to serve some special purpose is pretty conceited. Even if we are here to serve a purpose, the universe is so expansive and our perspectives are so limited, there’s no way we could possibly understand what that purpose is.

So maybe there is a plan, maybe there is Fate, but really? We should stop worrying about it and just live our lives.