Anyone ever read Slaughterhouse 5?

[Lrdmora]

A great book about a man who becomes unstuck in time and zips between moments including his own death. Since he can go from moment to moment he can never really die.

Review of Slaughterhouse 5

But since we are linear as far as I can tell, I am, but maybe you are not. I will die and that will be it. The only way to prepare for it is to enjoy the life you have. Very cliche I understand but could be true.

 

[Lrdmora]

Sorry!

This was supposed to go to the post about death! Hit the wrong button!

 

[Evo]

Mistake or not, Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut is a favorite of mine. (Actually, I watched the movie first, so I never read the book)

I rarely can read the book and watch the movie, the books are usually better, IMHO.

 

[Lrdmora]

There is a movie?

I didn't even know that there was a movie. I have pretty much given up on book to movie interpretations. How do you convey the thought and ideas expressed in writing into acting? It just never seems to work, either they don't get the idea across at all, or they make it so campy that it isn't worth watching at all.

By the way, who was in the movie?

 

[Tsu]

Originally posted by Lrdmora
This was supposed to go to the post about death! Hit the wrong button!

Yes, but Vonnegut is an excellent thread subject anyway! Maybe the mentor can move it to GD for us.

Almost ANYthing by Vonnegut is hysterically excellent. I am currently reading Timequake. What a riot! Saw Slaughter House 5 years ago and will be reading the book soon. (I'm on a Vonnegut craze right now). His writing hasn't changed much over the years. He still sounds youthful - foul language and all. He was in his late 70's when he wrote Timequake (born in 1922).
I started with Cat's Cradle back in the early 70's - would like to read it again while I'm on 'The Craze'. I'll probably enjoy it more now that I'm older.

Evo! You're a Vonnegut fan, too? WHAT A SURPRISE!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Kurt Vonnegut is a writer I suspect of having an undiagnosed case of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. I base this primarily on what he has said about the autobiographical elements of Slaughterhouse Five.

The experience of being shifting back and forth in time is sometimes reported by people with temporal lobe seizures, especially the phenomenon of flashbacks to the past. The sensory completeness of these episodes is apparently remarkable: some people don't just "see" scenes from the past, but experience them with every sence.

In Slaughterhouse Five the main character has a flash forward to his death, which is being shot by his old army nemesis while giving a public lecture. Vonnegut admitted a couple years ago that this was his own experience, this vision of his own death, but that the time and place he foresaw this happening has come and gone, and he didn't get shot.

I suspect all the "flash forwards" are part hallucination, part false memory. In other words, our lives are always linear, but in some case illusory trips to the past and future can be part of the line. I think Kurt Vonnegut will pass away eventually, and when that happens there will be no Vonnegut consciousness left flitting around from present to the past, from present to the future.

 

[Evo]

Originally posted by Tsunami
Evo! You're a Vonnegut fan, too? WHAT A SURPRISE!

I need a Rod Serling smilie face. AND you saw the movie! Yes, I thought this would be an excellent thread.

Lrdmora - The movie was very well done, but it is always difficult to see a movie, no matter how good, after you read the book because you have already created the scenes and characters in your mind and they will conflict with what is on the screen.

The stars were Michael Sacks as Billy Pilgrim, Valerie Perrine as Montana and I forget who Ron Liebman played.

The movie is available on VHS & DVD.