Billy, you're a princess!!!

So Prince Williams is really marrying Kate Middleton? The royal engagement picture that I randomly came across on the internet answered my question a few weeks ago. The fairy godmother once again, not often enough though, worked her magic on a middle-class girl. Kate is now the Princess-to-be, the REAL Cinderella.

With a not-so-kind personality like the stepsisters’, characters like Cinderella would always arose a few smoke of envy in me. Truly, with guilt, I will admit that I have many shallow dreams. I want Paris Hilton’s closet, Bill Gates’ money, Albert Einstein’s IQ, Victoria Beckham’s style, Warren Baffett’s insight in the stock market, Joan Ginther’s luck in winning four lotteries…the list goes on. And yes, Kate Middleton would be on that list too, and so would be Billy Pilgrim.

BILLY PILGRIM’S LIFE IS A TOTAL FAIRYTALE!!!!!!!!!! It’s true that he had a tough childhood and that he had to clean up after the war, but Cinderella scrubbed the floor too! Billy eventually became an optometrist and married a rich wife at the end. The Tralfamaldorians took important, mythical roles in Billy’s life just like the fairy godmother and the little animals did in Cinderella’s life. He is a Cinderella; he even got the silver shoes!

If only Vonnegut focused more on the happily-ever-after part of Billy’s life, this novel could possibly turn into an interesting, classic love story like Jane Eyre. But then again, the more a character suffers, the more sympathy the character receives, and the sweeter the afterlife would seem to be. A good writer like Vonnegut wouldn’t miss the chance to make someone plain as Billy ironic, Slaughterhouse-Five buttresses that!

Throughout the whole novel, not one chapter hesitated to seek out symapathy on Billy, on soldiers who fought in the war. The anti-war message had its finger print all over the pages! I most definitly felt it was deserving, with a hint of jealousy lingering in my mind, that Billy deserved the better life as an optometist.

After all, he really did live like Cinderella.

Poo-tee-wee

Nancy



So it goes...needs to go

Like many of the books I read after entering high school, Slaughterhouse Five was confusing at times. So in the beginning of the novel, I thought it was a very creative way for Vonnegut to use "So it goes" as a way to hint to the readers that someone in the book had died. However, this admiration slowly became annoying as I continued my reading.

As I read on, I found that "So it goes" would come after every mention of an ended life. No matter if they were human or not. The hint I enjoyed catching in the beginning then slowly turned to something confusing that I dread reading every time I pick up the book. And when you pick up the book to read, there will surely be at least 5 "so it goes" in one reading.

A fictional novel by Kilgore Trout who wrote about a money tree that "attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots" (p.167), used the same careless tone of "So it goes" as after Billy's wife died. This makes me think that the life of a family would have the same value in comparison to a fictional character's death.

As much as I enjoy this book and love reading about the fascinating adventures of Billy Pilgrim's "Time Travel",
So it goes...NEEDS TO GO!!!

poo-tee-weet

                                                               - Yuemin

Appreciate the favor

Protective as banning a well written novel with sexual and racial contents is, I don’t see the point. The truth is, protecting an innocent mind will only make it more fragile. If banning proceeds, and works, our society will eventually turn into something close to what Vonnegut described in Harrison Bergeron.

Just imagine yourself living in a fair world where no one is better than you. One day, you decided to read an old book that you found buried in your back yard. You flipped through the first few pages and got hooked. At first you felt sorry for Weary for not looking as good as the others, then you started to pity this really pathetic character called Billy. Suddenly, you got to the part where Vonnegut described Billy during the war and had a heart attack. You died, mainly because you can’t accept the fact that everyone’s different.

Perhaps it’s time to tell governments to stop deciding what their populace can read and what they can’t. I believe we that we are all mature enough to decide what we want to read. If one can’t handle Vonnegut’s humor, he or she can decide to put the book down, not the government. Even if a little kid flip through Slaughterhouse-Five, his/her mind is likely to be too innocent to comprehend such materials. Perhaps we should take our own immune system for example so I can buttress my point a bit more. Half dead swine flu cells are injected into our bodies so our immunity can defend the disease. Children are allowed to play with sand so germs can get into them and their white blood cells can produce anti-bodies. Normal parents wouldn’t tell their kids to stay away from the sand so the germs won’t get into them, would they? So, why Slaughterhouse-Five would be banned?

A novel like Slaughterhouse-Five is likely not going to offend a sensible reader. It is an anti-war book where the American writer occasionally throws in a few racial pieces on Americans. I admitted that the sexual content might provoke some actions among parents, but sex-ed starts around grade 2 in most schools and that’s at least a year or two before the kids can fully grasp the details in Slaughterhouse-Five.

If Slaughterhouse-Five ever provokes a young, delicate mind, it is doing the mind a favor.

Nancy

Poo-tee-wee

Censorship: Is it worth the trouble?

Many books and films were censored because they were afraid to insult the readers. But why would one feel insulted if they are willing to face the truth? I think that only those who cannot accept the fact that everyone is entitled to their own opinions would be the reason a book is censored.

Therefore, I do not think that books should be censored merely because some find it offensive. One of the  reasons that Slaughterhouse Five was censored was  because of it's sexism. However, why should anyone be offended by the lack of mention of women in the war, when in truth, women really didn't do anything in the battle field? If people can accept that the real battlefield belonged to men, then no one would find it offensive.

Brave New World was also censored at a certain time because of the " references of sexual promiscuity" (Wikipedia). This might offend those who believe that one should be dedicated to only one other. However, if these people were to accept the fact that some in our world act like those in the book, that they will choose to have sex with random people picked up from a bar, I do not think this book would offense anyone. I think that this is only offense to those who believe that everyone should believe in the same thing as themselves. 

Although censorship is kept so that there would not be conflict because of offensive subjects, I do not think this is right. I think that in order to keep peace, people would need time to accept others' opinions and for who they are.

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                                                                                 - Yuemin

Laugh it off...

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

It is obvious that Vonnegut has been through a lot from what we read in Slaughterhouse-Five. He made his fortune from being an optometrist and married a rich girl. He had his downs during the war, where people saw him as a burden and avoided him whenever possible.  There really aren’t much left on earth that he hasn’t experienced. On page 116, he wrote:

“As you know, I am from a planet that has been engaged in senseless slaughter since the beginning of time. I myself have seen the bodies of schoolgirls who were boiled alive in a water tower by my own countrymen…and I have lit my way in a prison at night with candles from the fat of human beings who were butchered by the brothers and fathers of those schoolgirls who were boiled.”

Probably the cruelty of war numbed him. He grew insusceptible to death and simply didn’t bother sympathizing oppressed characters such as the guy who got killed in the elevator. All he would ever say about "plain old death" is “so it goes” like his Tralfamadorian friends … and maybe even laugh it off with some dry humor of his. Anyways, tearing is really not his way of responding to frustration and exhaustion. He has seen way too much during the war to care. If he sheds a few drops of tear every time he sees a catastrophe, I bet there won’t ever be an end to the crying.


Another reason why Vonnegut prefers laugh over tears is probably because one of his main tasks during the war was to gather corpses after the war. I can imagine how tedious always having to do the cleaning job after war can be, especially when realizing that most of the dead soldiers had the face of a teen. The image of picking bodies up could have caused him to loath cleaning, and prefer laugh over tear since there’s less cleaning to do afterward.

Nancy
Poo-tee-wee

"How nice- to feel nothing, and still get the full credit for being alive."

Roland Weary viewed war as a badge of honor and glory. He wanted to be heroic so he could retell many dangerous adventures when he returns home. He wanted the credit of being a war hero.(How he came to an abrupt end  is another story. So it goes.)

I believe this is what Vonnegut was trying to say. In my opinion, he expressed both sides of war. The soldiers do not want to suffer the mental consequences of shooting another, and do not want to suffer the physical consequences of being shot. Therefore, to some, having to feel nothing would be the greatest gift for them. However, if they are lucky enough to endure the entire war, then they would get the "credit" of freeing their country, and be viewed as a hero.Having the advantage of feeling nothing and be viewed as a hero at the same time would be a bonus. This is what I thought the soldier meant when he told Derby this line.

Other than the immediate, I believe that this quote can also be related to the childhood Billy Pilgrim. The young Billy experienced a mental shock when he was pushed into the pool by his father, and also when he viewed down the Grand Canyon. I think at that time, Billy would have liked to feel none of that fright, but also to not embarrass his parents by getting hurt and making a fool out of himself.

However, not the entire book has been read, and this quote can have a deeper meaning. Who knows.

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                                                                                                                             - Yuemin