I've done it, I've come up with something to compare this book to: I am the Walrus, very old and famous song by the Beatles. Each verse is just a tangle of very far-fetched and weird ideas. For example,
"Semolina Pilchard, climbing up the eiffel tower. Elementary penguins, singing Hare Krishna. Man, you shouldda seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe. I am the eggman, they are the eggman. I am the walrus!"
Billy is in bed with his wife for a page or two, then he's in a garden with giraffes, then he's back in the war for about a paragraph, then he's getting sniped in Chicago before going to some alien world to impregnate Montana Wildhack.
At first, this non-linear story really confused and annoyed me. Now that all the broken-up little sub-stories are concluding and tying together, I'm starting to enjoy and understand this story more!
Singing Hare Krishna wow never heard of that before in a english song
ReplyDelete-Puja
And, to add to this idea, do we ever think in a linear way? My thoughts are often a collection of scattered ideas, semi-sentences and mixed feelings. It's interesting that Vonnegut's narrative is so scattered, but so is his main character's mind.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mr. Lynn, I think that arranging his story in the same way that Billy's mind (and life?) is arranged kinda helps to give me a better understanding of poor pitiful Billy.
ReplyDeleteI'm used to reading books where the characters spend a few chapters in one place, and they do something meaningful in that same place, not this Billy Pilgrim style. This dude could travel the world all in one chapter because he jumps around so much!
When I first started reading Slaughterhouse 5, I was so angry that it was nonlinear and all scattered, but now I understand that this nonlinear-ness has a purpose. It's different, and it was actually pretty fun!