What's you guys' opinion on Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse

It's alright for a starter book and has a few good messages about fate, but as far as war goes Nietzsche said it better when he said war brings us closer to nature and every once in a while we need to be awaken from our hibernation.

Interesting you mention Forrest Gump because I recently re-watched that (haven't watched a lot of movies lately) and I thought Zemeckis did a beautiful job with the idea of fate. It's painted everywhere in that movie.

>>9735320
that's the point tho
I think after Dresden is bombed he even says that you can't put these experience in words / can't find the expression to describe this catastrophe so he uses this detached/black humor style to cope

>>9735358
I get that was the point, but I feel like the tone completely subverts that.

Like, I don't think it's fair to write an entire book in a very specific tone, then at the end say "oh that tone that you became invested in? I actually meant the opposite ;)"

Like I said, I know I missed the point, but I feel like missing it was a bit justified.

>>9735378
it's not a trick, I think you should rather see it as just a response. He's not trying to pull one over on you, but show you what is necessary in order to live with it or even talk about it. I don't think you are justified in this, it's a very simple book and you'd probably have understood it if you considered the author (which is very easy with Kurt Vonnegut as he butts in so much) and take in the tone and the cognitive dissonance it creates.

>>9736010
to add to this, the dissonance you notice isn't addressed only at the end of the book. It's clearly intentional, and with you noticing it, the author didn't do anything wrong. You just misinterpret it as a trick, or an error which seems to me to be a naiive reader mistake.

>>9736018
I didn't really mean to say it was a "trick", but I can understand why you got that from my comment which was overly-sarcastic.

I'm just not too big a fan of avant-garde stuff, which I'd say this book represents at least partially. I understand the conventions you're talking about, but in my opinion they just don't work well in this book. I think too much of it is embedded in Pilgrim's happy-go-lucky point of view, to the point where irony is lost. That's just me though, and again, I know I missed the point.

When he repeats "so it goes", is it in the depressing "these things happen" kind of way, or the "or so they say" in reference to how nobody is really dead in the time-focused universe of the book?

>>9736044
yes

>>9736044
it is the former, I don't think it practically has anything to do with any concept about time. You could argue that it does have to do with time, but I think it's other interpretation, where it's expressing resignation, is more apt and relevant than whatever way it may reference to the plot's concept of time.

I just reread and finished this today as well. Vonnegut even blatantly points out the main points of the book in chapter 9:
>"The listlessness concealed a mind which was fizzing and flashing thrillingly. It was preparing letters and lectures about the flying saucers, the negligibility of death, and the true nature of time."

>>9735320
Hated it, don't like his actual writing and it was very heavy handed thematically.

>>9735320
>"Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt"

People completely miss the point of this phrase and the illustration. It's not meant to be happy and optimistic.
It's about becoming so numb and feelingless that "everything is beautiful" and "nothing hurts" in life, rather than experience feelings.

People who get this shit tattoo'd make me cringe.

I'm interested on what /it/ has to say about Galapagos

can somebody explain what it is exactly that makes this book a classic? the writing wasn't really much to celebrate in itself, and the whole non-linear timeline kind of threw me for a loop. did i miss something?

>>9736640
It is my least favorite by far, and probably the worst written if I recall correctly. The gimmicks were interesting for their novelty, but the back and forth referencing of the plot's events made me pay more attention to a lame gimmick than whatever Vonnegut was trying to convey with it.

>>9736804
It is a unique take on a global event, with clever Grandpa Vonnegut giving us a bed time story about the world's worst parts of itself so that the nightmare to come when we sleep isn't so harsh and it has become funny and sad in addition to terrifying. He just wrote a clever WW2 novel in a noteworthy style.