First of all, let me just say that I'm glad I'm not teaching this book in a high school classroom, what with the limericks, words that are still a novelty to people in 1944, and examples of early photography. More power to those brave teachers who do include this as part of their curriculum and those who make it part of a summer reading assignment (some do...seriously).
I'm curious as to what things stand out to you most from this sections. I love the line "Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." It's just cool and cool sounding...like it should be set to music. And I love how the "listen" is the equivalent of some Old English "Hwaet!" like at the beginning of Beowulf. The Lot's wife image at the end of Chapter 1 is also really interesting, and I feel will result in some great pondering.
Unlike Cat's Cradle (the comparisons are inevitable) I feel like S5 is building its commentary much more subtly and slowly in many ways--I really only feel like we're beginning to scratch the surface with analytical import (and FYI, I haven't read ahead yet).
So, I guess I'll talk a little about one thing (out of many) that is similar so far to S5 and CC...
1. Elevator operator/Vonnegut novel ratio: 2 for 2:
I'm really impressed that Vonnegut has included yet another elevator operator in his novel--this time with a more tragic ending-being squished because his wedding ring got caught--oh the humanity! So I asked myself, "Why is Vonnegut apparently fixated on elevator operators? Did this one also grab his behind and say 'yes, yes'"? Then I thought maybe it's the ultimate existential character: up, down, back, up, down, back...no progress, perceived but no authentic choice... a real Sisyphus kind of a guy. Yet despite this entrapment, Lyman Enders Knowles was one of the more wise characters in the Cat's Cradle, and able to perceive what others couldn't ("babies full of rabies"). Maybe Vonnegut is drawn to these characters that spend their time so isolated their bound to achieve some sort of enlightenment. Or maybe it's just some sort of weird fetish.
Other similarities that you noticed and or other interesting things for you?
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Just some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to wonder if all his main characters are aspiring authors who get extremely sidetracked but end up writing a book anyway.
Barbara reminds me of Angela. The narrator reminds me of Jonah.
Though it still maintains that "Vonnegut feel," it's certainly different when the story is being told in the 3rd person. I'm loving some of the images, though- like the "zipper of the fly of God himself" image. Oh goodness...
I feel like once again Vonnegut is sort of putting the human race in their proper place, (that was an unintentional rhyme which I will now continue intentionally), with Billy breaking the barriers of time and space, alongside Weary and his undistinguishable face. Anyway, he has that way of making you feel foolish for being human. The most memorable example I can think of is when he was explaining the aliens and their ability to see in four dimensions, and how the aliens pitied humans because we can only see in three. And of course the fact that it centers around the Second World War is also effective in bringing out the worst in our species. Nothing points out the most primitive animalistic instincts in people like war.
I was thinking about the phrase "Billy became unstuck in time." I guess this would imply that the rest of us- the non time-travelling folk- are indeed stuck in time. Very cool phrase.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, translation (If it is significant) ?: 'Von der Kuppel der Frauenkirche sah ich these leidigen Trümmer zwischen die schone stddtische Ordnung hineingesät; da rühmte mir der Kiister die Kunst des Baumeisters, welcher Kirche und Kuppel auf einen so unerüinschten Fall schon eingeyichtet und bombenfest erbaut hatte. Der gute Sakristan deutete mir alsdann auf Ruinen nach allen Seiten und sagte bedenklich lakonisch: Das hat her Feind Gethan!'
ReplyDelete(And no, I didn't type that up. I copy/pasted from the online version.)
I like it so far, I guess. He says "so it goes" and "and so on" way too much. Significant, perhaps?
It's more difficult to follow than Cat's Cradle, in my opinion. I'm not quite sure what else to say. I liked Weary and thought he was a really comical character until the very end of chapter 2. I don't like him anymore. Before, I pictured him (like they mentioned) as one of the little chubby guys from Alice in Wonderland, bouncing around, trying to include himself in everything (ooo perhaps a granfalloon?), and more bark than bite. Not so much at the end.
I liked the sentence "...saw what the past had been like, according to the Ford Motor Car Company and Walt Disney, saw what the future would be like, according to General Motors". That's all.
I think "so it goes"/"and so on" statements are definately significant. Of course, it's hard to say how they're significant, because I'm still not sure what this book is actually about.
ReplyDeleteI notice it's often used after someone dies, or something really important happens in someones life. This ties in with the way the aliens view time. To them, death is not such a big deal because they see the past, present, and future all at once. In the fourth dimension, the past is just as alive and real as the present. Strange.
"So it goes" could also be used to illustrate the detached attitude toward death that you are forced to adapt during war.
Excellent insight, Margaret :)
ReplyDelete...Well, that was an epic discussion... between me and Margaret...
Yes, if anyone else wants to chime in, go right ahead.
ReplyDeleteYou know, "chime" is a funny word, now that I think about it. Don't you agree, Margaret?
ReplyDeleteOooh, I want to "chime" too! No fun just letting you two play.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I think that's a great observation about how we don't see Weary's face. Not only does he lose his identity, but the image reminds me of that of an executioner who keeps his face covered, which given Weary's propensity to torture, seems just about right. Nice rhyming, by the way. Definitely bonus points.
Emily, I think the German is something like this: "From the dome of the church of our lady I saw these sad ruins in the middle of the beautiful ordered city; then the sexton talked to me about the art of the architect, whose church and dome had remained strong and bomb-proof even for such an un-wished for event. Then the good sexton gestured to the ruins all around and thoughtfully and laconically, 'The enemy did this.'"
Even if I'm not exactly right, I think the passage has a great irony; some things survive man's attempts at destruction in light of man's apparent twin needs to create and to destroy. Secondly, the cyclical nature of destruction, since we know that Dresden has been (during Goethe's time) and will be (during Billy Pilgrim's time)pretty devastated by war. Moving through the cycle of time...how Tralfamadorian!
Let's keep this up and maybe you guys can make contact with some of our other members through other means of the internets.
Let's discuss through chapter 5 starting on Monday.
I think that I may have a hard time staying current with you guys. I just got back from camp for my first day off, already I'm behind... For this first entry, I'll try to cover some of what I found interesting in the first two chapters.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that struck me as a similarity was the city's name: Ilium. I haven't looked it up to double check, but wasn't there a city called Ilium in Cat's Cradle as well? When I initially read the name, I wasn't sure if Vonnegut was alluding to Cat's Cradle (which came first?) or to the epic poem. I'm leaning more towards the Trojan War parallel at this point, but I think it's interesting that he would use the same name twice (if he actually did, again I didn't take the time to check).
Another parallel I see is the old Billy's similarities with Dr. Hoenniker. Both figures experience life very differently from those around them, and this diversion from the consensus viewpoint prevents other characters from relating with/understanding them.
I found the segment about Lot's wife to be very interesting. Going along with the story's time-travel theme, 'looking back', according to the narrator is a natural flaw, but he also describes it as being "so human," as opposed to the alien Tralfamadorians who remain present in time at every instant. I can't help thinking that the Tralfamadorians are just another (Vonnegutted) version of the space baby from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
However, if we decide not to take the main character's experiences with aliens too literally, I think that it is entirely possible that he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, and the events he describes (as he becomes "unstuck in time") are really flashbacks from his traumatic wartime experiences. Like PTSD sufferers, he seems to have no control over the flashes he experiences, and the alien stories could be a likely delusion to help give meaning to his confusing and trauma-filled life.
One of my favorite lines from the first section: "She did develop a hankering for a crucifix though... Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."