"So he skips around in time and then gets put in an alien zoo..."
*head bobbing*
"And he's really pathetic so that the story doesn't seem like a traditional war story--doesn't glorify war."
*head bobbing*
"And whenever someone dies the narrator says 'so it goes'".
"OH! Right, that!"
I was amazed that that was just about the only thing she remembered: 'so it goes'. But it is one of the most distinctive parts of the narration, I think. It's explained at the beginning that it's a Tralfamadorian phrase--like "bless you", but for death.
By our standards, this is a very nonchalant way to address the end of a life. The whole narration is remarkably apathetic, but this little phrase takes it to an extreme, and I think that's the point. The Tralfamadorians don't care when people die, because they can still see the rest of their life-- it's simply the end of the millipede, which always has and always will exist in their own super-time*. "so it goes" is the perfect description for something inevitable and morally neutral.
I thought that Vonnegut was being really considerate by honoring a dog and the lice and other parasites that are steamed to death with the phrase. I was like, "wow, that's nice of him to consider them as important as people". But then he used it for an inanimate object (dead champaign) and I realized that it's not a really a matter of respect, it's just acknowledgement that something has come to an end.
Speaking of Tralfmadorian influences in the narration, I like how Vonnegut structures Slaughterhouse like a Tralfamadorian novel. He says he's done this explicitly early on, and then later we get to see what these novels actually look like: several short episodes, which together paint a picture of life. And they're read all at once, of course, so there's no plot or suspense; you know it all from the beginning just like we know about the climax of Slaughterhouse 5 from the beginning. Though we can't read the entire book at once, Vonnegut gives us the next best thing: an utterly mixed-up, disjointed, episodic timeline and summary of most of Billy's life in the first chapter. However, Slaughterhouse departs from theirs in that it definitely has a moral (or a couple).
*see my previous post if you dare
I think one more Tralfamadorianism (?) (there's got to be a better way to say that) of the novel is that it really holds up to rereads. It doesn't really matter whether you're reading the book for the first or hundredth time because there's always the same amount of inevitability and intentionally spoilery stuff scattered around the novel. Maybe the more you reread Slaughterhouse Five the more Tralfamadorian it gets??? Since you become so familiar with the plot through your memories of previous rereads that it's almost like experiencing the book all at once in the fourth dimension?
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has reread this novel a number of times now, I think you're right that it only becomes more "Tralfamadorian" the more we read it. This came up in 8th period the other day, and it occurred to me what a Tralfamadorian exercise teaching English is in general: I read these books again every time I go through them with a class, and the characters, events, plot, etc. all stay the same (although I often see them in a new light). Fiction really does present "bugs trapped in amber", moments that are "structured that way" and that we can do nothing to change.
DeleteSo Billy is more like a "reader" of his own story than a protagonist in it. Sort of an inverse "Choose Your Own Adventure"?
I didn't really notice that Vonnegut writes the novel in the style of a Tralfmadorian novel, but I think that's such a clever way to tell his story. I find it to be a very affective methods of almost avoiding the story of Dresden he wishing to eventually tell in fear of glorifying and promoting the horrors of war through the traditional methods of telling a story.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting how Vonnegut juxtaposes this nonchalant uncaring attitude to death with the story of Dresden, where he emphasizes the beauty of the city and the humanity of the Germans to add more impact to the bombing. I think on some level he's saying that while it's true that everything dies and we just have to accept it, we still can't really take that attitude when massacres/war crimes/etc are going on - saying, "eh, everybody dies anyway" doesn't justify anything.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the book, I did notice that the narrator (who's Billy for the purpose of this comment) did seem very unperturbed by the fact that time is actually nonlinear. The novel being Tramalfadorian supports that.
ReplyDeleteI think the Tralfamadorian "so it goes" really brings out the futility in death, and by extension, the bombing of Dresden. Since ancient times, people have written stories of heroes who give their lives in battle for the greater good, and these martyrs are revered almost as gods among their people. When one reduces that heroic action to a simple "so it goes," all of the romanticism is removed, and you are left with the simple fact that your life is now prematurely over. Indeed, this explains why Billy is such a seemingly weak and pathetic war hero - if you look at the universe from a bigger, Tralfamadorian perspective, bold acts of heroism simply seem pointless.
ReplyDeleteI think the Tralfamadorian "so it goes" really brings out the futility in death, and by extension, the bombing of Dresden. Since ancient times, people have written stories of heroes who give their lives in battle for the greater good, and these martyrs are revered almost as gods among their people. When one reduces that heroic action to a simple "so it goes," all of the romanticism is removed, and you are left with the simple fact that your life is now prematurely over. Indeed, this explains why Billy is such a seemingly weak and pathetic war hero - if you look at the universe from a bigger, Tralfamadorian perspective, bold acts of heroism simply seem pointless.
ReplyDeleteIt took me awhile to warm up to the "so it goes" within the book. At first it sorta annoyed me, it seemed to dismiss whatever impact that person had in the world and felt sorta like a "whatever" to me. As I started getting further into the book I started to accept it and just assumed it went with the carefree attitude of Billy. I guess I just missed the part about him saying it after things died. It felt like he said it after anything that would be a big deal to some people happened though.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think of the "so it goes" and how it related to trafalmadorians, but given their thoughts on the way life and things go in general, it makes perfect sense. It's obviously on the far extreme on how most humans would react, and go further than what many would deem acceptable. It is interesting that in a novel trying to push against war death is so played down.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think of the "so it goes" and how it related to trafalmadorians, but given their thoughts on the way life and things go in general, it makes perfect sense. It's obviously on the far extreme on how most humans would react, and go further than what many would deem acceptable. It is interesting that in a novel trying to push against war death is so played down.
ReplyDeleteThe "so it goes" line is definitely a distinctive part of the book. I heard someone say "so it goes" in another context a few weeks ago and immediately thought of Slaughterhouse-Five. I personally found the "so it goes" saying to be kind of annoying, overused and rude. Whenever someone passed away it was used which made me feel kind of weird. Like Lizzy said it's almost like saying "whatever" which is sort of a carefree attitude to death. I also kind of began to accept it later and it didn't bother me as much.
ReplyDeleteI also never considered the phrase in the context of Tralfamadorian philosophy. I thought maybe it was a coping method for Billy after all that he faced in the war. However, now that you bring it up, it does make sense. "So it goes" seems like someone who is almost uninterested and in the context of how the Tralfamadorians view time, the one moment of death may not be particularly important given all the other moments existing at the same time.
ReplyDelete