Last Post, Last Thought, Last Word

This is Yuemin and Nancy, here to say goodbye. Blogging about Slaughterhouse-Five has been a enjopable and unique experience. From first trying to wrack our brains out to get something in print to pouring thoughts out into posts naturally, we had good times. We'd like to thank everyone for taking your time to read, and we hope that we had provoked something deeper within everyone.

Poo-tee-wee
Yuemin and Nancy

Farewell

This could potentially be my last blog entry on this site. A little sad actually, I enjoyed blogging. So....feel free to look through my posts. =D
Hello, Mr.Lynn. This is the official welcome from this blog to you!!!!!!!!

Poo-Tee-Wee
Nancy

oh, I forgot, below is a random comic that I can across while researching.

Vonnegut was over critisized...thank god that he doesn't look like the guy above in picture though.

Blog review!!!=D

After nibbling through some of the posts that my classmates wrote for this English blogging project, I have decided to review Alicia’s blog basically because we had different opinions on many topics. There are many posts that I want to comment on, so I will just start with her first official post so it’s easy for you to track.

The post, “I believe in fate.” is an illuminating addition to my one-sided perspective. Believing in fate has always seemed too risky to me. To me, believing in fate is like assuming a power without proof that it is omnipotent or that it even exist in real life. It is true, that: “One’s fate might not be set in stone, but there is a plan out there for all of us.” Certain things in our life are possibly destined, like true love and career. She mentioned that although we can change fate (which I strongly believe in, by pure hard work and belief of the indubitable free will, of course), we can’t change the bigger picture. Maybe putting the extra effort into studying for a test might resulting in a better mark in contrast to not studying, it is not going to change who we are fated to become and the important people that we are meant to meet. Alicia also made connection to Billy Pilgrim believing in fate. She mentioned that Billy was told about his “death, birth, and everything in between” by the Tralfamadorians. Billy truly accepted what he was told. He knew that he was going to die before his speech in New York but confided the guards to stay away from him without second thoughts because he thinks that the moment, his death, was structure that way. (If I were him, I’d be hysterically gnashing about the grisly event that is to be happening soon.) Clearly, he is enthralled by fate and the Tralfalfamadorian advocates. Another point that Alicia brought up was that fate will always be there. Well, since our lives are intended to be a certain way, I suppose that fate won’t go away right?

Ok, on to the next post. “Don’t censor me, bro!” is another post that caught my attention. I agree whole heartily that good literatures should provoke big reaction. Often a piece of art work is only controversial when it is well created just like the naked Venus, Mona Lisa with her mysterious smile, and…yes, Twilight. Remember two years back when every single girl who had access to media was either on Team Edward or on Team Jacob, and there are endless critiques on how crappy the movie/story line/actors was? If Twilight wasn’t famous, people wouldn’t be squabbling all over it until now, little eight-years old wouldn’t be begging their parents for permission to watch it. Slaughterhouse-Five too, attracted a crowd. What’s different is that the crowd consists of a group of reprehending parents who repudiate their children reading a novel with racial and sexual contents, a recoiling government which recks every opinion on the country, and lastly, a writer forced into quandary – Vonnegut himself. Without further ado, Slaughterhouse-Five got banned. My opinion is the same as Alicia’s on this; “I definitely don’t think that books should be cencered if they’re controversial or whatever society deems them. It’s good to make people think once in a while.” If we hide the harsh realities in life, in war, what good will it do? Numb all? Let’s reference to the almost closedown of Whitehouse for example. Maybe the truth is the key to waking up the aggravating U.S. economy. If only the banks were warned, exposed to what’s to come, they will be better equipped against bankruptcy. If only they had foreseen the jeopardy that comes along with offering loans on real-estates when the land price is decreasing, they could have possibly saved their company and the government wouldn’t be in as much debt as it is in right now.  (No offense to the amazing country that I love shopping in; putting it on the spot just for an example.)  Similarly, just like what Alicia wrote, “Vonnegut was just being brutally honest. He took away the glorified image of an American solider that the society had and replaced it with the harsh reality that war isn’t pretty.” Vonnegut wrote what he saw, he told the truth, and anyone who reads, shouldn’t be hide away from it.

Alicia’s ninth post was about Valencia. Throughout Slaughterhouse-Five, the only image I ever had about Valencia was an over-weight woman holding a chocolate bar in her hand. I never actually paid attention to her like Alicia did. So here goes my apology to the dear, commonly forgotten Valencia. I agree with Alicia that Valencia was overlooked in many sections of Slaughterhouse-Five. (Sympathy is simmering in my heart as I am typing this right now.) Valencia is possibly the kindest person in the whole novel. She was the perfect wife: cared about Billy, visited him in hospital, and offered him chocolate bar…the list goes on. As Alicia mentioned in her post, “To me, she is that overweight, quieter girl who just wants to be liked, but isn’t necessarily attention seeking.” Valencia did have a subtle, affable character. It is almost heartbreaking to see her trying to please the insensate Billy. If only the poor girl was treated better...wait, did Vonnegut plan this on purpose? I suppose it doesn’t matter since the novel is published already. Anyways, I’m going call it a day and end this post soon. So, to conclude, I really liked how she focuses on many small details of the book that I overlooked while reading. Her opinion on many subjects such as Fate/Free Will is very inspiring and it allowed me to see the other side of the argument. Even though my comment of the post about Valencia is short since Valencia didn’t have many parts in the novel that post is my favorite out of all. I actually got a little emotional and really felt sorry for her. I felt that she was abused by Vonnegut for comic relief and defenseless as she is, she was still mocked.

For some random reason I was listening to Heart Breaker by G-dragon while typing the Valencia paragraph. Valencia needs to sing this to Billy someday....well, if she can. Here's an english cover for it....

Poo-Tee-Wee

Nancy

That was I. That was me. That was the author of this post.

The school library had about thirty computers in total. In front of one of them, the corner near the entrance to be specific, sat Nancy Li. Nancy planned to finish her fourth writing assignment before the class ends, but fifteen minutes passed and nothing adequate came out of her limited imagination. Writing assignments like this one has always baffled Nancy. She glanced around aimlessly and found nothing intriguing. Then she closed her eyes and tried to focus on her task. She nibbled through the countless childhood memories that she could recall and was soon distracted by the sound caused by hundreds of fingers frantically poking the keyboards. The tapping sound reminded her of her mother’s presence. Her mother was an elegant woman who insisted on wearing high heels wherever she goes. Her heels would clank against the surface of the ground and always made the same pattering sound that Nancy was hearing. Nancy opened her eyes and saw her mother walking abruptly by her, heading to the door with the car key in her hand.

She was only four then. Little as she is, she did not forget what her mother promised her last week: “I will only take you to the art show next weekend if you go to the daycare today.” As much as Nancy loathed playing with kids that she didn’t know, she went, just for the sake of attending the art show so she can meet her favorite artist. There wasn’t anything wrong about what Nancy just saw, except the fact that Nancy wasn’t leaving with her mom. Nancy was still in her pajamas.

Clearly, her mother forgot about her and the art show; she had plans for the day already – SHOPPING! Poor little Nancy went back to her bed and started crying. She was left alone in a house that was surly too empty for a timid, four years old girl. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her vision blurred. The world seemed to be rotating around her, the dim ceiling lights twirled above her head. Her body started trembling, shaking harder as she breathed.

Her vision started to clear, the light went on spinning. She was ridding the Merry Go Round with her little cousin, Shirley. She didn’t want to go on a kid ride in front of others. For goodness sake, she’s eleven years old already. Her mother had forced her to ride to Marry Go Round with a little three years old! She argued, of course. Her mother won though. She cried in defense but her mother didn’t care. Tear didn't stop streaming down her cheeks, the golden lights didn’t stop gyrating…

Poo-Tee-Wee
Nancy

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center"

I believe that Vonnegut is trying to convey his fear in this quote.

From the center, one could only see the platform surrounding them. However, out on the edge, one could also see the platform along with those things over the edge. I think that Vonnegut is curious, but fears the unknown. We can see this because in the novel, Vonnegut discusses a forth dimension. He says that everything that is unexplained by humans is in the forth dimension.Isn't that just making up a reason to explain what we (humans) cannot understand yet?

Tralfamadorians were viewed as wise beings, known to be able to see the past, present, and future all at once. They know when a life is born, what they do in between, and how or when they died.
Isn't this sort of like the quote? The center is the present, and we, humans, are standing there. The edge is where the Tralfamadorians are, where they can see everything we can and beyond, they can see the fourth dimension. 

This idea, however, contradicts one of his own points. If Vonnegut is trying to tell us to focus on the present, why should we fear the unknown? We would take each step at a time without any rush, embrace what is to come. Why should there be fear?

Quite opposite to Vonnegut, I want to stay in the center. I would want to focus on what is important in front of me without the need to worry how far I go, whether I'm far enough from the edge so that I don't fall over.

Throughout this project, I realized that I have many contradicting ideas to Vonnegut. But all the same, I have learned a lot from him, and is now able to appreciate everything around me more. Also to be thankful that I do not have a war bombing as a movie replying in my mind all the time. 

poo-tee-wee
                                                                      - Yuemin 

Fate again...

Since I just finished a post on fate/free will, I remembered a movie called Knowing.(Above is the trailer) In the movie, a boy pulled out a sheet of paper with seemingly random numbers written all over it from a time capsule. Coincidentally, the boy’s dad, a MIT professor, found out that those numbers recorded the date, location, and the number of death of every major disaster on earth, even the ones that didn’t happen yet. I tried to imagine myself as that dad, being foretold about all the catastrophic events and not being able to stop them. Life would be miserable if I have to watch fate toy with the world helplessly; Wouldn't it for anyone with a heart and some pity to spare?

If fate really planned everything out for us, let's hope that we'll never get our finger prints on that schedule. Personally, I think it is easier to live our life the way we want to rather than what's destined to come. People are not meant to know the date of their own death, nor to count how many days they have left on earth. Truly, not many people can be as calm as Billy: knowing that he's going to die in New York and still give to speech, seeing deaths of family before it happens and say "So it goes."

If fate ever gives me my schedule, I will burn it.

Poo-Tee-Wee

Nancy

Fate/Free Will

Believing in fate or free will is another commonly argued topic. I personally believe in both (maybe a bit more in free will if I have to choose).


Some people think that money is the root to all solutions. With money, possibly every existing door in the society can be open. With money, there comes power, the power to control things; Yes, money can control fate as well. In fact, fate often plays in favor of money. Children who are born in an aristocratic families are generally exposed to better education and better chances in life. With better foundation, it is easier to exert further. But for every advantage there are drawbacks. Lord Acton once said, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Money can be the root of evils, and the riches are more exposed to the lure. When the riches are prejudiced by the poor, there are no jealousy.

Fate is often unpredictable and unruly, just like the money example that I gave above. Other than money, there are many talents, characteristics that we are to born with; Those, too, are controlled by fate. In contrast to believing in fate, believing in free will offers the adherent more control over the situation. The adherent can decide how much effort to put into a task, rather than obeying what fate decides. (Although both ways, fate decides the amount of output you are to receive.)

Being a slightly meticulous person who doesn't like taking risks, I would say I believe in free will 95% of the time. Free will allows me to work for what I want and watch where my path is heading rather than being blindfolded and lead. To me, believing in free will offers more assurance and stability. (So far, not studying for tests has never granted me a good mark no matter what kind of prayers I say or how much I donate...fate's not on my side if it exists.)

There's still 5% of me that believe in fate though. To me, there are only a few occasions that it's ok to believe in fate:
1.When buying lottery
2.When facing unavoidable, unalterable obstacles
3. When it comes to death of family members/friend, but only if medication fails
4. After math contest, before seeing the score

For all those "keener" out there, do believe in fate only when the situation is mentioned in the list above.


And for those who are unsure, ask yourself those questions. (I stole them from http://lifelessonshome.com)

- How much power do the so-called agents of fate control your life?
      My Opinion: A lot actually, but there's no need to worry about it since we can't control it.
- If omnipotent and omniscient God controls everything that happens in the world, then what is the role of our own decisions?
    My Opinion: Our own decision won't matter that much is everything was just meant to be the way it is. If 
                        every situation is just like a bug trapped in amber, why do we even go to school? We'll end
                        being where we are destined to be anyways.

- Is our free will actually a free choice, or is it an orchestrated action?
   My Opinion: I really have no input on this one. The more I think about it, the more confusing it gets.
- Can our free will decision win over fate?
   My Opinion: Oh, definitely. Ever seen a successful person with poor family background? He surely worked
                       hard for it. But then again, we can argue that he was meant to be impeded when he was
                       young....




Poo-Tee-Wee
Nancy