https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz A dissertation on the semi-autobiographical and satirical historical science-fiction novel written in 1969 by esteemed author Kurt Vonnegut. en-us 2017-01-25 00:25:30 UTC 2017-01-26 02:27:17 UTC hello@padlet.com jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149203725 Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the
Promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue
Sky?]]> 2017-01-25 00:57:07 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149203725 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207256 2017-01-25 01:45:12 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207256 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207339 2017-01-25 01:46:23 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207339 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207462 2017-01-25 01:47:50 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207462 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207737 2017-01-25 01:51:40 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149207737 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149210097 What Billy says to his daughter when asked what it was like to be in the war. Of course, ironic, as a way of dealing with his PTSD. Using large generalizations is also a way to shy away from detail- a technique Vonnegut uses here to relay just how unspeakable the horrors of war really are.]]> 2017-01-25 02:19:56 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149210097 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149303734 The last words of the book are spoken by a bird Billy encounters, "Poo-tee-weet?" is a senseless phrase that symbolizes the senselessness of war itself, and namely the 4,000 bombs dropped on Dresden. Considering the absolute madness that the book goes over in just around 200 or more pages (give or take depending on the edition read) with the narrative springing all over time with no linear timeline, what else could be a more fitting response than, "Poo-tee-weet?"]]> 2017-01-25 13:48:51 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149303734 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149476554 Edgar Derby is a middle aged school teacher who becomes a soldier in the war, and then becomes a POW with Billy. He is introduced at the beginning of the book, but only action is getting executed near the end simply for stealing a teapot from the rubble of Dresden. The point being that his death is so anticlimactic that Billy's only reaction is, "So it goes," a remark on the passivity of fate. Since the protagonist Billy Pilgrim is 'unstuck in time', he sees all time all at once. The future cannot be changed and so then free will is nonexistent. Things just happen, and that's life. So it goes.]]> 2017-01-25 21:55:27 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149476554 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149485236 ...it's fascinating to me that Kurt Vonnegut wrote this book with himself inside the book. Firstly, he is the narrator, and in the first chapter speaks from first person as himself before we go on to the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. What's fascinating to me is that for one, what I think is the idea, is that Kurt is playing with the idea of traditional story structure. Kurt recognizes many times within the book that it is just a book, and on top of that the book begins with the lines, "All of this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true."  Slaughterhouse-Five is semi-autobiographical, as Kurt Vonnegut himself was there in WW2 and was a survivor of the Dresden bombings. Chapter 1 is literally his account of the actual events that occurred. Kurt also interrupts the story in some moments to interject that he was there. By literally putting himself inside the book, recognizing it is just a story, and telling the story completely out of order, he tears down all writing conventions to create something wholly new and uniquely cerebral.]]> 2017-01-25 23:12:55 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149485236 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149490664 I was unable to record myself talking about this amazing book, but I will still try to formulate my feelings on it in writing. Starting with the summary, Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who suffers from PTSD from being a POW in WW2, but postieriers an ability to be 'unstuck in time' which is the theory of being able to see his life all at one time. He travels back and forth between his life as a war prisoner, to being kept in an alien zoo and learning about time. It's a ride. Slaughterhouse-Five was one of the most entertaining, cerebral and thoroughly rewarding books I have ever read. It is so boundless and so ambitious it blows my mind how this was even created. It has so much nuance and wit. I haven't been able to take it off my mind. It's funny, heartbreaking, challenging and it flipped my thoughts of everyday reality and I saw the world in a slightly different way after reading it. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely recommended.]]> 2017-01-26 00:46:45 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149490664 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149490828 Below a pile of bodies await cremation after the firebombing.]]> 2017-01-26 00:49:41 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149490828 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149491722 The storytelling mechanism at play here is that Billy is 'unstuck at time', in which he can hop from any point in his life whenever he wants. This is further explained with Tralfamadorian philosophy- yep, there are aliens in Slaugherhouse-Five, but that's for you to discover within the book- but this article more or less covers this 'unstuck in time' theory in a reality based element.]]> 2017-01-26 01:04:19 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149491722 jacobkw10 https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149497248 A nice little musical number capturing the essence of time not as a passing, but as a collection of endless, seemingly meaningless moments.]]> 2017-01-26 02:18:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jacobkw10/p6cxxwtfxqgz/wish/149497248