Literary Criticism of Slaughterhouse Five

in my entry titled "Vonnegut and Frankl," a fellow by the name of Chuckling and I had an interesting conversation about the differing reactions that Viktor Frankl and Kurt Vonnegut had to their experiences in World War II. Curious, they died roughly 10 years apart. A re-read of the conversation actually shows that Chuckling and I may have concluded that Frankl and Vonnegut may have agreed more than a surface of both their works may give.

I've just finished Slaughterhouse Five after having bought it yesterday. That's not typical of me, to read a 200 page book in probably really something like 6 or 7 hours. That's really all the time I had to read it. Finishing it this fast really comes as a surprise simply because I generally don't have the capability to fast as that. The wife can usually pull it off, but not so much me. So the book wins points from ease of reading that also allows for absorption of content.

It's not a spoiler that the book gets its name from the building that the main character was imprisoned in while captured by Nazis in Dresden. To some degree, however, Slaughterhouse Five reads like a more modern version of Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and poems by William Carlos Williams.

The main character, Billy Pilgrim, becomes unstuck in time and at some point, gets kidnapped by aliens, put in a zoo and provided enlightenment by them. These aliens aren't apparently unstuck in time like Billy, but they perceive reality in four dimensions. So, essentially, Billy jumps through snippets of time from a moment where he's in World War II until his death. Unlike The Time Traveler's Wife, whereas the main character bodily transports in time and space, Billy switches his consciousness from one of his perceptions in time to another, sometimes retaining and sometimes not remembering his memories. Even after he dies, he simply transports back to an earlier version of himself. Vonnegut doesn't really do much to explain or really to allude to the mechanics of Billy's consciousness time exchanging with himself throughout his lifetime.

As a story with a plot or with emotion, Slaughterhouse Five didn't really grab me. I don't think it's meant to do so. The Time Traveler's Wife actually accomplished that job much better. Where the story didn't grip me with drama and feeling, however, the style and form of the book brought me in, pleasing me more on the level of aesthetics, form and theme. If any novel clearly showed its modernistic credentials, Slaughterhouse Five would be it.

With the protagonist being more of an observer retired to his fate than a character trying to do the right thing or aiming for glory, Slaughterhouse Five communicates a stark message, similar to Frankl's search for meaning, that becomes so much more vivid than some hero's exploits. The narrator shows his understanding of his own and the reader's consciousness of World War II's atrocities mixed with the ignorance of the characters experiencing the War, the virtues and vices of humanity and the semi-detached yet opinionated, the ambiguity of this phenomena's real existence and the serene acceptance of the protagonist seemingly learned from aliens except for a couple random instances of obscure emotionalism.

All of this understanding combines to create a surreal smack in the face, at least to people who believe in the truth of World War II's atrocities. And from this harsh impact comes questions and an answer: What's the point of it all if it's fated? Why live if just to die? What's the meaning? If there's no inherent meaning to life, what's the meaning to war? Why go to war? Does the meaning come in the form of people, their life, the various expressions of humanity, from good to bad, from virtuous to filled with vice? If it all ends with an experiment into alternative fuel, isn't it just absurd? If it's so absurd, why war? Don't we just make the meaning of this multifarious existence of ours? If so, if we create this meaning and have this power, then we only fight and war because we want it, it has something to do with our meaning making and make life feeling worthwhile. . .but aren't there other ways to do so without killing each other? But at the same time, all this multifarious existence of ours is kind of beautiful, no matter how it turns out. Sometimes it's just worth it to watch and appreciate the good things, like Billy right before the Americans and the Allies bomb Dresden to hell (the book provides a most certainly interesting statistic that concludes that the Dresden bombing had more casualties than the Hiroshima atomic bombing. Hmmmmm. . .).

Personally, I wouldn't put Slaughterhouse Five up there as one of the best books I've ever read, like a lot of people out there. If I had the choice to read it or The Time Traveler's Wife again, I think I would pick the latter. Time Traveler's Wife, however, comes many years after
Slaughterhouse Five and puts a twist on the plot device, making it more positive and possibly even more bittersweet. The emotional depth and realism to it most definitely wins out for me. On the other hand, Slaughterhouse Five has originality on it's side, more believable characters in all their variety, more of a global and even "enlightened" theme, a different mood and, on some level, more graceful and pleasurable language. I guess it all rather depends on my mood.

PERSONAL BABBLING

I have a forgiving community of friends and family who say that I feel guilty too much. Nonetheless, my current busyness (reach really translates to actually focusing and performing my duties at work, even though I would rather be at home, writing, blogging, researching, marketing my work and reading all the interesting stuff people have to say on their blogs and articles) and semi-incommunicado status makes me feel like such a recluse.

Maybe it isn't guilt that I feel but rather a sense of loneliness and fear of loss. Yes, not so deep inside me resides a shaky, insecure fellow who fears that people will disappear because of his irrelevance. But alas, there's the mature, healthy Adult me to bully the insecure me into submission, so I can get stuff done and live.

And, thankfully, I've started actually making some progress with my project after a month or so of floundering after the wedding. Yes, I've only written consistently for two days in a row and plan on seeing a movie in Grant Park tomorrow, but it's a start. Rome wasn't built in a day. . .a child doesn't instantly walk. . .etc. etc.

Well, I had better get back to working on that project!

Vonnegut and Frankl

In response to my asking what attracted a good amount of attention to The Lextopia in the entry titled, "Random Notes and Yay for Writing Workshops", Chuckling wrote:

Since you asked, I did a google search on Frankl and Vonnegut and got your site high on the list.

First off, cool. I am pretty high up there on Google with a search for "Frankl" and "Vonnegut." Ninth, to be exact. Thank you for bringing that to my awareness. I regret that I couldn't provide any good insight into the topic at hand, though:

I picked up Man's Search for Meaning yesterday and read it pretty much straight through. I've read most everything by Vonnegut, but couldn't remember if he had written about Frankl. I'm thinking that he did, using him as an example of someone who had similar, albeit worse, experiences and came to opposite conclusions. Maybe not. The search shows I'm far from the only one to connect the two philosophically.

I have only read Man's Search for Meaning from Frankl's writing and the beginning of Galapagos for Vonnegut.

After scanning through the Wikipedia entries of Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse Five (sidenote: entertained by the fact that this book has elements of time unstuckness while I've been posting about The Time Traveler's Wife), though, I didn't pick up on anything contrary to Frankl's logotherapy. In fact, barring Wikipedia's level of possible accuracy, I would say that Vonnegut would even agree Frankl's main theories, just on a more humanistic and secular viewpoint.

Being something of an agnostic, myself, I'm very much a supporter of Frankl's logotherapy, as it provides meaning without the need to refer to a premiuse that may or may not exist.

You've struck my curiousity, though. Without spoiling any of Vonnegut's novels, is it possible for you to expand on your claim of "opposite conclusions"? Not trying to be negative, start an argument or anything of the sort. Not really knowing enough about either of these two fellows, I simply want to know more.

Thank you.

Random Notes and Yay for Writing Workshops!

Before I get onto the joys of last night's writing workshop, I want to know something: What attracted all the new, obscure people to the site? The Dark Knight or The Time Traveler's Wife?

Also, notice as we take another step closer to Orwell's 1984, 59 years after the year he satirizes and 23 years after the year his publisher wanted to predict: Student Arrested After Talking About [Virginia Tech] Gunman. I'm not a sympathizer of this gunman (as my upcoming short story will attest -- come on, Lex, finish it and get it published!), but neither do I agree with the government arresting someone exercising their First Amendment rights before investigating further. . .maybe someone's trying to making up for not looking into the VT gunman with all the telltale signs he had broadcast (come on, finish your story and publish it!).

And another stray thought: The death of Kurt Vonnegut pushed me to finally start reading some of his work. Picked up Galapagos the beginning of this week. Published in 1985, makes me think the writers of LOST were heavily influenced by Kurt Vonnegut and Galapagos. Hmmmmm. . .?

Writing Workshops

Last night, went to the monthly Chicago-SF writing workshop. So happy I went. This and the other workshops I've joined really have become the monthly event that I looked forward to. . .after spending time with the fiancee and family. This recent one really live up to the anticipation.

We had a lot of fun beyond just critiquing our works, too. Fun and stimulating conversation without things becoming argumentative or trying to force someone's world view on someone else, except for maybe a minor little thing when I confused details about an institution that two of us acquaint ourselves.

Other than that, good stuff. I think an easy chemistry with other members of a workshop becomes key. We, after all, expose ourselves to these people in ways that we don't to the rest of the world. Yes, some of us may have publishing as a goal, but we show the people in our group stuff in development, not publishing-quality. It takes some degree of courage to say, "Look at this incomplete thing that may suck. Tell me what you think, no matter how negative your thoughts." In a world that makes us feel that we have to do everything right the first time, this kind of workshop can take a lot courage. . .similar to the courage to get stuff on paper in the first place (in other words, the courage to possibly suck).

We also talked about some interesting technical matters when we got to the meet of the meeting, critiquing. I, for one, am immensely grateful for the other two people pointing out that one of the characters in my novel prologue didn't stand out as much as other characters. The ironic thing, he's supposed to stand out and tends to do so after this part. Will need to work on that.

The meeting also got me to re-read that section of the novel. I had a lot of the same feelings as my "associates" about the mechanics of the piece. For a piece written something like four or five years ago, it somewhat passes the test of time. It mixes a lot of bad writing style that I had back then trying to "write properly" (still working on that one) but had a great "innocence" that imparts a certain excitement that I don't seem to have in my current writing. I'd like to channel that energy while keeping the more recent enjoyability of the grammar and other technical matters.

I won't get into any detail about the other people's works, since they own them. Nonetheless, we got into some very interesting conversations about point of view, first- and third-person narratives (make sure to visit Tightrope Girl's blog for some great writing geek ruminations on that topic), how to transfer information about a world without overwhelming or boring the reader, the potential of flashbacks and starting a story earlier, later or on certain notes of tension or excitement and the artifices allowed in literature (narrator, characters only in there for commentary, events and social codes in there or not in there, etc.) but wouldn't happen so much in real life. Unfortunately, I can't really articulate much of the conversation or my thoughts, mainly because of my executive dysfunction.

The workshop experience last night really reminds me how much I'd like to express my process and craft geekiness rather than just talk about things in general or the "courage to create." The geek stuff of writing fascinates me, a ton, especially with how useful it becomes to make a good story.

I love Tightrope Girl's and Denis McGrath's blogs when they get deep into technical and craft topics of narrative. Even Alexander Epstein and Will Dixon can have some great stuff, even if they can get more involved in the movie/TV technology side of things. On that note, Denis McGrath's seems to be losing his emphasis on the narrative craft side of things and moving onto the Canadian TV business and more of an emotional response to his experiences in the biz. In the end, though, I enjoy the narrative/storytelling craft type stuff and would like to expound more on that stuff, if I can get inspired and have the chance.

Maybe if someone had any questions about narrative craft. . .?

EDIT: Jane Espenson also writes some great stuff about craft, just in a not so geeky way. She writes in much less technical terms. Quite a lady, with her great advice.

EDIT 2: Forgot to mention two other things for the workshop. I don't think there's necessarily enough discussion nor do I feel like my gets enough criticism. The latter issue could be that I simply have submitted some good stuff (see this discussion for my changed mind). In regards to the discussion matter, I think the low attendance contributes to it, but the newness to fiction writing and workshopping could be a matter for some of the people. Not trying to criticize. . .I just enjoy discussion of things. Could just be me.

And I do still receive a lot of value from the workshop.