Response Post

This is a response to julia's blog <http://night0before0eternity.wordpress.com/>

Julia's blog posts were really entertaining, and some of them really grabbed my attention. Here's three posts that I interested me most.
1) Lazarro, the ugly, revengeful man interested in torture.
Although he didn’t appear very much in Billy’s lifestory, he was a prominent figure because of his vengence. He was strong and, in his own way, moral. His show of affection for a dying friend (AKA Weary) was to stay with him in the last moments. He sat with Weary’s head in his lap and listened to his dying moans. That was a great show of loyalty. He keeps true to his words and does not harm anyone until he forewarns them and give them an approximate time. He’s the most honest character in SH5 and I feel like I can trust his words, despite his personality is likely to curse me.
Like I mentioned in one of my posts, Im not crazy about Lazzaro either. But you brought up a good point by saying that he is loyal and that he is true to his words. He is honest but at the same time his personality is very disfavoured. I guess that it is a good thing that he warns people before he kills them, but I really didn't want
him to kill Billy at the end if the novel (as I mentioned before, thant's the only thing I would change about the novel.) I felt that he was a psychopath though and that he had no real reason to kill anyone. He believes that revenge is the sweetest thing and therefore seeks revenge against anyone who shows the slightest disrespect for him. Those people don't deserve to be killed, but that is Lazzaro's excuse for killing people.


2) There were many times when I disliked this book because I couldn’t understand it. Vonnegut seemed like an awful person for writing a story (that I had no connection to whatsoever) and not following the logical process most writers go through. But really, Vonnegut was doing exactly what he preached. He presented the entire plot at the very beginning of the book and told the readers that there would be no surprises in his book.
Vonnegut's focus was to confuse the reader to try and show how war is like. I didn't understand the reason at the beginning either, and that bothered me. But just like you said, Vonnegut mentions that the book is going to be very choitic as there is "nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." But later, I discovered that Vonnegut was merely trying to get his point across. I wouldn't exactly say that I disliked the book (it's a great book), but I didn't enjoy reading it either.


3) First, Billy learned to survive in the war from Weary. This is proven… well, fine it’s not proven. But Weary died and Billy made it all the way to his senior years. Now some students may argue that Billy survived because of his own strength, and look at how he was bullied by American AND German soldiers alike! Although that’s true, I reject the idea that Billy had any strength in him. To me, Billy is a Dementor (the ones from Harry Potter. The ones that suck joy from the air and leave others in despire.) He’s a subspecies in the Dementor class. He sucks intelligence and survival skills from his surrounding. And luck. (Tangent: That sounds like he’s a natural genius, but please go along with my idea.)
It's ironic how the weakling survived the war, while the stronger "hero" living in his own fantasy died. I completly agree that Billy had absolutely no strength in him. The reason he survived the war is pure luck. I also like how you related him to a Dementor as he sucks the survival skills form others. To me, this true, but I don't think he really intented to. He was really accepting of the idea that he was going to die during the war, as he didn't try to survive or save his own life once. He kept asking the "Three Musketeers" if they could leave him alone as he was so tired, death looked very appealing to him. And the way you described Billy did in fact make sound like a natural genius, but just like I said, he acted like a Dementor unintentionally.
It also seems ironic how the person who least mind death was the one who survived.

Movie Scene

A scene that would lend itself well for the movie would be Dresden (before, during and after the bombing)

As Vonnegut mentioned, he is not trying to stop wars with his book, he is only trying to raise awareness.  This would be done by showing a beautiful scene of Dresden, who Vonnegut himself described as Oz, then a scene where Dresden is getting bombed, followed by a scene of ruined Dresden. This illustrates how horribly war can be by presenting how the contrast between the before and after of a beautiful city and how many innocent lives were taken away during the bombing.

Another scene I think would be ideal for the movie would be when the Americans are captured and sent to prison with the Englishmen. At that point when they shower and shave, their faces show how they are, in fact, very young. This would help prove Vonnegut’s point about how the war the “children’s crusade.”

What I would change about Slaughterhouse Five

"It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be quiet after a massacre, and it always is except for the birds."

I think everything in the book is great. The way it was written and Billy’s pitiable life explicitly convey Vonnegut’s message about war. Just like what this quote states, everybody at the end of the war is going to die, and that is exactly what happed. Billy died and it was expected.

 However, I really didn’t like the way he died. He was killed by Lazzaro, a filthy car thief fizzing with rabies, who believes that it was Billy’s fault that Weary died of gangrene. This guy believes that revenge is the sweetest thing and enjoys keeping a mental list of the people he is going to get killed after the war. When I first read about his disgusting physical condition and how he killed a dog, I disliked him a lot. Later, when he said that he was going to get Billy killed, I didn’t think that he would actually make it till after the war. Afterwards, when I realised that Billy gets killed by that psychopath, I was dissatisfied. It wouldn’t really change the major message of this book if Billy had died from natural causes.

Other than that I thought everything else was fine, and that it really gets Vonnegut’s point across to the reader.

The Prayer

                                               

“Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.”

This looks very weird to me: the fact that Billy would have such a prayer framed on his office door. This is a very optimistic prayer, compared to Billy’s attitude throughout the book. I believe that Billy is such a pessemistic character becuase he can change the past, present and the future by just saying something (for example, telling Edgar Derby not to steal the teapot and therefore he wont get shot) but he just believes otherwise. The reason for that is becuase of what the tralfamodorians had told him. They are the ones that convinced him that the past, the present, and the future can not be changed no matter what and since he had accepted this thought, he does not even try to change anything.

His gloomy and nonchalant attitude is the result of his time travelling. He knows what is going to happen as he had lived (many times) every single event of his life. He believes that he has no control over nor can he change anything in his life. For that reason, life is rather meaningless for him.

Nevertheless, he had been told by his patients that this prayer had given them the strength to go on with life. This might be a reason to why he still has that prayer hanging on his door.

Warped Narrative

All the noise from the living room woke up the seven year old Raya from her afternoon nap. She felt really happy and excited, but couldn’t remember why. She crawled out of her bed and as soon as she stepped out of her room, she remembered the cause of her joy. Blue decorations and balloons with “It’s a Boy” written all over them filled the house. The little brother she always wanted to have was finally born. She inched her way sleepily to the living room hoping to see the little newborn.

Despite the entire racket made by the adults as they blabbed on and on to Raya’s exhausted mother, they baby lay sound asleep in his mother’s warm arms. Raya ascended the big blue chair next to her mother, and sat staring at her brother. Soon enough, from all the noise, the little baby woke up. Raya’s Grandmother noticed and quickly zipped her massive hand bag open, grabbing her camera. She walked over and stood directly in front of Raya’s mother and said to Raya “Smile”. She pressed the small button and a bright white light appeared blinding Raya’s little eyes.

                                                    

From there Raya travelled in time to 2010. She was fifteen years and was hovering over Niagara Falls in a helicopter with her family. Her brother was sitting right in front of her holding the Stone Aged camera (the one his grandmother uses) with the blinding flash. He had just taken a picture of her while she was gazing out the window at the magnificent falls.

Raya kept staring out the window as the helicopter made a couple of turns over the falls.
“The view is absolutely beautiful!” said someone sitting next to Raya. That was I. That was me. That was the author of this blog. The helicopter started descending and as the bottom of the helicopter hit the ground, the seat Raya was sitting in jerked and caused her head against the window she was leaning on. She closed her eyes for a bit.

Raya heard something zap by her ear, she flinched and quickly woke up, realizing that she had dosed off while watching a movie in History class. The fact that she had pulled an all-nighter made her very sleepy. She tried her best to keep her eyes open;the lights being switched off were not helping her stay awake. She tried to take interest in the movie, but history never  interested her. She took a refreshing sip of water from her water bottle and finally gave up. She crossed her arms together, placed them on her desk, and placed her head on top. In a matter of seconds, she was back asleep to wake up again at the sound of the bell indicating lunch time.

Germans and Americans during World War II

Throughout the war parts of the book, I felt like Vonnegut neither attacked defended the Germans. They are the reason Weary died (they took his boots in exchange of clogs) and many other American soldiers (boxcar ride), but that’s war, and that’s what any soldier (American or German) are supposed to do. On the other hand, although Vonnegut was an American soldier, he apparently insulted the Americans by the way he described the soldiers during the war.  And for this reason, I feel that Vonnegut actually defended the Germans. Even though he somewhat praised the English soldiers.

I don’t believe that culture conformity is ever correct. Every person can embrace any culture but still should be proud of their own background and heritage. On the contrary, in Vonnegut’s family’s time, multiculturalism was not prevalent and Germans did were not necessarily liked by the Americans. They tried to assimilate into the American culture and suceeded, however, just as mentioned in the question, Vonegut felt sad about it. I am sure it is not easy growing up thinking that you should be ashamed of your own culture.

My Book

If I were to write a book, I would write something completely fictional. I wouldn’t write about myself or any of my life experiences, as I don’t have anything worth sharing with the world anyway. I doubt that I will actually ever write a book, but if I did, here’s what it would be about:

The main character of the book would be a successful, yet a very busy woman, who loves her job dearly. She has no intentions of getting married or starting a family. All she cares about: her job and her social status. She doesn’t have many friends, apart from her acquaintances form work. Her life is so and organised and consistent, and her days are very routinely and barely anything exciting happens in her life. Her parents had passed away when she was 18, just when she started university. That would be the reason why she’s exceptionally independent.

However, one day on a business trip, she gets into a ghastly car accident. She survives but with severe amnesia that causes her to forget almost every single detail of her life. Doctors say that it would take her at least 8 or 9 months for her to start remembering who she is.  After her long stay in the hospital, she goes on to live with her sister, who she hasn’t spoken to since high school. Her sister would be almost the complete opposite of her. She (the sister) lives a simple, yet a really happy life with her husband and children.

Due to a series of incidents, main character realises how lonely her life is (when she starts to slowly regain her memory), and how important family life actually is. She also realises that life isn’t just about money and work, but having friends and little fun would also make life worthwhile. Most importantly she finds out that throughout the toughest times in your life; your friends might out leave you to drown in your problems, and the only people that would actually take the time to help you out would be your family.

What I would also like the book to say is that, one day, everyone will grow old. And then, it would be nice if you have family (children and grandchildren) that would take care of you or visit you every now and then. Also, when you look back at your life, you would regret not having fun and enjoyable experiences when you had the chance to.

When I read reading a book, I like it when there is something that at least bring a smile to my face so whil writing the novel, I would try to throw something funny in there every now and then.

I believe this novel would classified under the realistic/ fiction / slightly comedy genre.