Well, what can I say? I have been a little late in posting recently. I have been on vacation. I have been reading Slaughterhouse-Five for the first time. It is an amazing book. At first, I thought the book was very strange and slow, but as time went on, I enjoyed the read more and more.
Slaughterhouse-Five may be one of the best books that I have ever read. So, it took me a few months to read because I was only reading it when I was waiting in line somewhere or at some office for an appointment or another, but I feel that the delay only built my adoration for the novel. I was dying to see what would come next, and who would die, and how many times I could read “so it goes.” And so, it does. What better way to show the depths and faults and horror of war than to live in the mind of the character(s)!?
While I was reading the work, it was interesting to me that so many people had already read the book, and that they all had some strong feeling for it one way or the other. A high school student told me that it was the most boring thing she had ever picked up. Could she have been too young to get it? If I had been a high school kid when I read the book, I may have just skimmed it and thought that Vonnegut was on heavy medication when he wrote it. I MUST watch the movie now!
An older man told me that is was a very strange book and that he didn’t really understand the point. I have to believe that he must have been a teenager when he read it, or at least young enough to think that Vonnegut was at least very, very tired when he wrote it.
Well, in any case, the dark humor, terrifying images, and wonderful disarray with witch Vonnegut uses to lead us through the war is important and relevant to every war and every age of human. If we don’t get what Vonnegut is trying to say maybe we haven’t felt the terror and insanity of war, or maybe we just do not understand what we do not want to understand!?
A pal once told me that focusing on the negative brings negative things into our lives, but if we ignore them, how can we ever move past them? How can we ever grow stronger or wiser if we ignore the vagrant on the corner, the graffiti on ancient roman buildings, or the war at our doorsteps? Sometimes the ugly things in this world need to be understood. Speaking of which, aren’t we nearing Banned Books Week?
Ah, yes, Banned Books Week is arriving soon! For more information: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.cfm
I am celebrating my freedom to read about war!!!
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