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April 27, 2004 In the Paderborn Library
I love this author. Completely and devotedly.
I only read a few sections of this, sitting in the Paderborn Library. It was highly thought provoking, in the following ways:
-Utopia. In a world with immortality. we'd want to live very long... but we'd also want children. World resources, however, are finite.
-Gender rolls. In our (still to a degree,) male dominated society, Every woman should have a right to follow any career of choice, This includes "housewife." But does the standard "Housewife" have freedom to define her place, and change this roll to her suitability. (Plus, now that I think of it, a reiteration of this idea that there needs to be much more communication within couples, and less action "Because I love him/her.")
-A purpose of writing. (BOTHERATION! What was the perfect line he ended a bit of this with? It was inspirational.) To explore one's own being. And -yeah. like a personal discovery. But there was something else...
21.07.04 From my dear, dear Yonja, (from Turkey).
Oh my word, I love this author. I have read most of his books, but this is one that I've missed for quite a while. And I had one of the best opportunity to read it: 17 hours or so of traveling. So I read the whole thing at one go. And I really felt the positive side of that; All the nuances were kept in my head, and let me have a more complete... understanding of what was being said.
The book it's self was a masterpiece in Vonnegut's dark, dark humor. The best expression of which I found to be the little cover-blurb, "Laughing all the way to the apocalypse." I personally found this book to be even more severe than his others though; it is dealing with the typical theme of how pitiful and terrible humanity is, but has more to do with violence. The Vietnam war, and how killing and death were a totally normal part of their lives, was difficult to handle at times. Especially because he never hides anything, or gives petty little excuses for his actions. He gives a full, clear picture, with all faults in full light.
I do not know what else to say. There is war, and killing, and humanity ... in the raw. But more than that, there is just the human nature, inherent in all. There was sublimity, and shocks. There were moments that I simply had to stop, and look out the airplane window, and breath. I suppose that I was overwhelmed at the time... by emotion, and, well, thought. Vonnegut’s works are nothing, if not thought provoking.
It was a little more violent than I prefer, but one of the best books I've read all the same.
What a way to pass 17 hours.
I can't wait to do that again.
November, first week, 2005 From Dear old Yonja
Both this book and hocus Pocus were brought back to me by Yonja when she went to Turkey in the spring of 2004. (They were possibly birthday gifts for me, though I don't remember that detail now.) I took so long to get around to reading this one because I've read it before. And that meant that I leant it to a friend, telling her that it's a great book, and she should read it. And then I nearly never ever saw this friend any more. But at long length, I got my books back from her, and she got her book back from me. (It was
Jurassic Park. )
But, One evening last week, I felt like indulging in pure pleasure, so I picked this one off the shelf, (and proceeded to stay up a little bit to late.)
Like many of Vonnegut's works, this is also a bit dark, and shows in some detail the class separation in America, between the rich and the poor. And then there's the one totally virtuous, or perhaps just totally demented man in the middle. He may not touch the principle, the huge mass of money which he owns, but he can do as he pleases with the thousands he earns daily from it as interest. But, he refuses the "Normal" path of self indulgence, and tries to make a difference in the world. That's hopeless though, isn't it? So he settles for only one lower class, depressing, deteriorating town. This was the town of Rosewater.
What can I say about it all? It's depressing. It's inspiring. It's tragic, and it's comical.
The depressing side, would be the greed, and heartlessness of the people. More accurately, it's the way that the rich are shown as completely regular, standard rich, and the reader doesn't notice a single thing about them. They are UTTERLY unexceptional. -And then it is made clear that they are petty, greedy, and unjust. And we are forced to see that we're desensitized to that fact. The rich are greedy, and the country is set up so that they will be able to protect their wealth from ever Ever getting into the hands of people who need it? "Well, of course." we find ourselves thinking. This book reminds me of how depressing it is that this is simply accepted as fact, and the way things are.
Continuing on that theme, I'd say that one of the thoughts which has lodged it's self in my brain, and pricks at my thoughts, was this: That it's pure madness that babies come into this world so unequal. Some come into the world, and with their first breath, they inherit millions. Others draw their first breath, and have their lungs filled with cigarette smoke,and will be encouraged to expect nothing from any one, at any time in their life. But shouldn't all babies be born equal? Aren't they all equally innocent, and deserving of good things?
It is also inspiring. (Though I don't know if I can remember why, right now.) Hmmm... because... because... The central character was so clearly made out, an so very believable, that I really felt that there might be hope in humanity after all. I can see no reason what so ever that ... I... could not carry myself with such virtue as him. That's what I mean by inspiring: inspiring the self to be a better person.
The Tragedy then, is the fact that we see, quite clearly, that he is insane. "NO! How can a man so good, so thoughtful be insane?!?!" Well, it's just that sanity is always relative. We, (westerners,) think that foot-binding in old china, which so mutilated the feet that women couln't stand up on their own, was Insane. But at the time, in that place, it was accepted by most of the people. So, it was, therefore, Not Insane. But for people to practice it now, in our culture, it Would be insane. What's the difference? That the majority of people do, or don't accept it.
It's exactly so with the central character. Being charitable, and living in filthy poverty, while giving your money, your time, and your life to the poor, the pathetic, and the lowest, most idiotic, most uncultured, most unclean scum of the earth... Is clearly insane. Undeniably so, because most people would see it as insane, and that's the very definition of what insanity is. So, the tragedy, is that the one True, Beautiful, Good person, is Insane. Precisely because of his goodness.
And the comedy? The comedy is everywhere. It's just the way he writes. (Although it's often of the darkest type of humor, to be certain.) One of my favorite little scenes, is when Eliot, (the central character,) gets a call from a man near suicide. And Eliot doesn't do anything at first, except joke with him. To Joke with a man near taking his own life. And why?To put that man at his ease. -Well, not exactly that either. I can't figure why. Well, part of my confusion in considering it, is that it wasn't truly joking. It's just the responses that he'd come up with, to try to show people the truth about himself. (Such as saying that he's "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptist", as a way of getting those people who insist on believing he has a religious motive to see him in a different way.) And then the climax of this scene comes when he says,
"Are you about to [commit suicide]?"
"And what if I was?"
"I wouldn't tell you the gorgeous reasons I have discovered for going on living."
"What would you do?"
"I'd ask you to name the rock-bottom price you'd charge to go on living for just one more week."
-and so on.(I must try not to read the whole thing again now.) FIRST of all, I turn over in my mind the psychological results of telling someone who's suicidally depressed, what You see as great about life. Really, is it imaginable that someone who's so miserable hasn't Tried to think of the things that they like? Can one really expect them to go "Oh! I'd never thought about how much I like that too. I guess life isn't so bad." And then, the worst thing, would be to tell them the great things that you see in life, without knowing that they are all horrible to the person you're trying to cheer up. This would only make them more certain that there IS nothing for them to live for. (Even on the most general feel-good subjects: Beautiful sunsets, -but he remembers when his mother died, in the evening. Rainbows -which seem to be god's gift to Other people; the one's he Hasn't forsaken. Cuddly kittens -Just like the one he used to have, which was run over by a car.)
SECOND thing that I turn over in my mind, is the last line I wrote down. Would that actually work? And what twisted things does it tell about our psychology? I imagine that it Would work, -but can't see any reason why. Logically, if someone is so depressed, (and not just feeling hopeless, because they have no money,) money can not give them a reason to live. We're not all that greedy are we? That we would delay killing our selves, because we'd get a better bargain. Isn't one of the central axioms about being dead that money won't matter to us any more? Is worrying about money, and acquiring it whenever possible so deeply ingrained in us that we would keep trying to make more money until the very end? That's a bit like carefully cleaning and disinfecting the needle for a lethal injection.
The other possibility that comes to mind, is that the way this would work, is by giving a feeling of Purpose. That if a life was meaningless, than... if you're being Paid, then you must be paid For something, right? And if you're being paid to Live, then... your life can't be meaningless, can it? It's important enough, that someone will Pay you for it. Will Pay you to continue doing it. That Has to mean something, doesn't it?.
There are too many other things to say about this book. It's because Vonnegut makes my mind... tingle. I am led to so, So many thoughts. But now, I should try to get ready for bed, and not let this book keep me up late for Another night.