"Slaughterhouse-Five": Initial Reflections

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (image from here)

When I first took a look at this book, I thought it pretty strange. First off, the book has two titles- the one described above as well as an alternative title, The Children's Crusade (Vonnegut promised a woman that he'd name a book of his after that title). The title page also includes a lengthy, bizarre, and part-fictitious self-description of the author. The back cover alerted me to massacres, aliens abductions, poignant profundity, and tragic humor. As I flipped through the pages, I saw random allusions to historical figures, seemingly apathetic descriptions of violence, and plenty of profanity. What was I getting myself into? 

Well, I made it through. This book has made me think, and I am still thinking. 

Vonnegut's writing style is so interesting. The prologue is supposedly written in his own authorial identity, but the rest of the book is seen through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim, an (speculatively fictitious) acquaintance of Vonnegut's. Both men were POW's in Dresden during WWII. Dresden was bombed by the U.S., wiping out the entire city of 130,000 (more deaths than from the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Vonnegut begins by explaining the complexities of writing an "anti-war" book, including someone's comment that that was like trying to write an "anti-iceberg" book; there's no use; it's inevitable. Throughout the novel, Billy Pilgrim's wartime experiences are written about with an air of apathy. But it's not clear-cut apathy. Readers can safely assume that the apathy is satirical; that suffering DOES matter and human life IS of value. But the authorial voice remains curiously aloof on the subject, offering the reader hints about the ultimate "moral" of the book, but nothing too definitive (at least in my reading of the novel).

Here are just a few issues/themes presented in the book, with potential digital culture connections in {brackets}.

• It is unclear just how autobiographical this book is, since it is written from the perspective of a fictional character who has some shared experiences with the author. {The flexibility and many possibilities of self-representation online. Blogging personalities as true-to-life, simply catering-to-readers, or straight-up contrived. Separating fact from fiction/hoax/misrepresentation in online, democratic journalism.}
• The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, time travels frequently in this book - about every 2-3 pages or so. He moves backwards and forwards, forwards and backwards through time. And according to the Tralfamadorians (Billy's alien friends), he is inhabiting all of these moments in time at once, since individual moments in time do not exist. {The infinite mobility of hypertext. The ability for Internet users to have multiple tabs open at once, to be interacting with several people at the same time via video chatting, email, text messaging, etc.}
•  It could be argued that Vonnegut is utilizing a number of genres in his book - autobiography, historical fiction, and science fiction, to name a few. He weaves into his plot a number of seemingly unrelated characters and concepts, bringing in soldiers and aliens and movie stars and optometrists and Jesus. {Mixed/multi-media. Collaboration between very different Internet users with common interests. The Internet as a unifier of peoples and cultures. The complexity of individuals trying to represent their complete selves online. The compartmentalization of aspects of our lives- including a virtual vs. "real" life- as problematic.}

Does any of this look promising?