Slaughterhouse-Five 2 (Quarter 3)

            I decided to continue reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In this section of the book, the readers are introduced to the Tralfamadorians, an alien race that abducts Billy. They teach him about time’s relation to the world, which can also be understood as the fourth dimension. These aliens describe time as looking at a mountain range because they can see all of it simultaneously. One interesting part of the story is when Billy asks if the people of Tralfamadore fear the humans or deem them unwise due to the horrible wars on earth. The Tralfamadorians reply that even an advanced civilization like theirs has had excessive amounts of violence. Billy also inquires whether or not the universe is destroyed by violence. It is revealed to him that, in fact, a Tralfamadorian test pilot experimenting with a new kind of fuel creates an explosion that wipes out everything in existence. There was an allusion in this part of the book to a novel called Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann. The plot has to do with maltreatment of women and substance abuse. Even after looking it up, I am not sure why Vonnegut chose this exact book to include, but I believe that there must have been a good reason. He then compares it to Tralfamadorian novels that have small clumps of words that represent events. All of the words are meant to be read at the same time to produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep. Slaughterhouse-Five is definitely becoming more interesting to read. I am looking forward to finishing it.

Slaughterhouse-Five (Quarter 3)

            Over Christmas break, I started to read Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I was inspired to read it after reading his Cat’s Cradle. This book is about a man named Billy Pilgrim, who becomes “unstuck in time”, which means that he uncontrollably travels to different times in his life. Though the book is fiction, it is based off the author’s experience during World War II. The book can be seen as anti-war because Vonnegut spends a lot of time talking about the horrors of war. The first chapter of the book is not part of the story. It is actually how Vonnegut’s research and inspiration for writing the book. The story of Billy Pilgrim is very nonlinear as the events occur at random periods of the man’s life as opposed to chronological order. I was confused in the beginning of the story because of the structure of the plot. Also, the transitions between different times were unclear. One interesting quote from this section is when Billy says “When a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral.” Taken literally, this quote is about Billy Pilgrim’s time travelling and abduction by aliens. However, I believe that this quote is supposed to mean that even after people die, they can still be “alive” in the memories of the living. Vonnegut is basically trying to tell his readers that as long as they remember loved ones who have passed away, they are technically not “dead”. This book is not yet as interesting as Cat’s Cradle, but I still cannot wait to read the rest of it and to find out about the man shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that was not his, who was foreshadowed in the beginning.

A Momentary Longing To Hear Sad Advice from One Long Dead (Quarter 3)

            For our poetry essay, I decided to read the works of Kenneth Koch. One poem of his is titled “A Momentary Longing To Hear Sad Advice from One Long Dead”. It is about the author’s reflection of his time spent with his former teacher, Delmore, who has passed away. Though his full name is never mentioned, this is an allusion to Delmore Schwartz, a twentieth century American poet and short story writer. Koch also makes allusions to Finnegans Wake, James Joyce’s final novel, and Pogo, a comic strip created by Walt Kelly. The poem includes unusual sentence structure. This makes it feel awkward to read, but the structure makes the reader focus on exactly what Koch is trying to say. It seems to me that the theme of this poem has to do with the desire for the unobtainable from the past. The theme becomes apparent in line nineteen where Koch writes: “I want to hear him tell me something sad but however true.” Koch wishes that he could have Delmore give him advice, but this is impossible due to Delmore’s death. The ending of the poem confused me. Koch writes: “But here read this happy book on the subject. Not Delmore. Not that rueful man.” I am not sure whether this is supposed to mean that the subject of the happy book is not Delmore because he is rueful or that Delmore could not read the book because he is dead. I suppose that the ending is up to the audience’s interpretation. That may actually be true for the entire poem as its meaning is rather vague. After reading this poem, I feared that the rest of Koch’s works would have a similar sentence structure. However, this is not the case. I am looking forward to reading more of Kenneth Koch’s poems.

Kenneth Koch Personal Reflection

            I have been reading poems by Kenneth Koch recently. At first, I thought that his writing style was bizarre and confusing, especially in “A Momentary Longing To Hear Sad Advice from One Long Dead”. Koch’s writing initially made me think that he was alive in the nineteenth century, but in fact, he passed away in 2002. After reading some more of his poems, I started to like what he was doing with the structure. Several of his works that I have read are not on topics that the regular poet writes about. For example, in “Talking To Patrizia”, Koch just complains about his ex-girlfriend and expresses why he kicked her out of his house. Though this poem’s meaning can be taken literally, Koch manages to add his own style to it. While I would not necessarily say that I enjoy reading Koch’s poetry, it is definitely starting to grow on me.