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/lit/ - Literature

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996942 No.996942 [Reply] [Original]

Hey /lit/ I just finished Slaughterhouse 5 today, and I'm really having a hard time figuring out why this is a classic. I don't even clearly understand Vonnegut's message, is it anti-war or does he use to Tralfamadores to mock the way humans perceive time? What do you guys think?

>> No.996950

by reading the back flap you can figure out it's supposed to be an anti-war novel
but a lot of people haven't seen the difference between slaughterhouse five and good

>> No.996955

It's been a while since I read through his catalogue, so I might have it mixed up. Is that the one where a congenial hack wrote a novel filled with vague unspecified "profundity," and a bunch of edgy teenagers heralded it as the best thing ever written?

>> No.996956

Things die. So it goes.

>> No.996960

>>996955
maybe

>> No.996962

> I don't even clearly understand Vonnegut's message
So it goes.

>> No.996965

>>996955
cannabis guy i thought we were literary friends, and then you go on and insult vonnegut.

>>996942
>implying it's bad science fiction

>> No.996969

>>996965
>implying there is good science-fiction

>> No.996979

>>996942
then I think he did a shitty job, it doesn't even relate the horrors of war much at all, seems like he was much more focused on the aliens and Billy being a dumbfuck

>> No.997008

>>996979
Welcome to PTSD disassociation.

>> No.997011

i liked it in terms of it being the modern extension of satire. it's a time piece. compared to the frilliness and absurdism of Candide, and the emotionally middle-of-the-road of dickens, it's very stark and blunt. the humor is existential and black, while the proposed ideas for improving our situation are better defined than in earlier pop satire.

but it's just not for everyone.

>> No.997020

>>997011

No, they suck. Vonnegut was just mediocre any way you slice it.

>> No.997028

>>997011
>compared to the frilliness and absurdism of Candide

I think we can still be literary friends. :3

ps candide is a strawman fallacy masquerading as a novella

>> No.997044

>>997011
I mean I got into it but it just seemed like there wasn't any point to all the jumping around he did, it just seemed pointless

>> No.997047
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997047

>>997028
;-)

>> No.997067

>>997044

It was an attempt to disguise standard-issue genre stuff. Vonnegut whipped his war guilt like James Ellroy whips his dead mom - shamelessly and without ceasing.

>> No.997082

>>996969
OH YOU

>> No.997103

Vonnegut's interesting, because his appeal dated - few authors live through so total a loss of reputation.