Part 1: Chapters 1-5

[Sam]

Discussion for the first half of Slaughterhouse five

This is an optional read for the group. There has been some trouble finding copies of Oryx and Crake, so in the meantime, you're welcome to read this.

[David]

Slaughterhouse-Five is my favourite book. I am a huge KV fan. Anyone who is reading Oryx and Crake should find time for this one later.

[Sam]

I've made it this far, and I'm quite liking it so far. I took me until the second chapter to get into it though.

The time travel element is a cool. I really liked the description of the war documentary that Billy watched backwards.

The aliens are interesting. I like their view on death, that it's not a big deal because the person is still alive at some point in time.

The device that the author uses after the mention of any death is neat to see. I like how it reminds me that a life has ended.

[Cory]

I really love this book.

The first time I read it I was so confused during the first chapter. I couldn't tell if it was about the book, or if it was the book. Vonnegut's choices to start the book about writing the book and to break from the narrative to say that he was in places just astounds me. It's something I never would have thought could be in a fiction book, yet it works so well.

Vonnegut's writing is a breath of fresh air. The wit is impeccable, the humour dark, the sentiment real. He masterfully sets up an idea, diverges naturally and then returns to the idea to smack the reader with great effect.

I too love the "So it goes." device. It always draws attention to a death. But it's more than that, it's a shoulder shrug. It's the centrepiece of the book's larger resignment about death and war and the past and the future.

You couldn't have a weaker war character than Billy Pilgrim. He, with slumped shoulders bumbles along and somehow survives. He's powerless to do anything; in any aspect of his life. He simply watches. So it goes.

I can imagine this resigned feeling would be natural for someone who lived through the war and the bombings. The atrocities are all so bad that they're funny. You just have to take them on the chin and move on. This book becomes all the more harrowing when you consider that Vonnegut lived through all of this and this novel somewhat serves as his retelling of the war and the events in Dresden.

I also really liked the backwards take on the war video. It highlights the nature of human conflict. As you read it you want to applaud the healing planes and the workers who safely dismantle the bombs, giving the constituents away to be buried safely in the ground. You want to cheer it all on, but all you're left with is the reality of how it all really happened. So it goes.