Slaughter House 5

[causalitycalls]

Has anyone read this book? I read it back in high school and utterly hated it. I recently read it again and found it to be very profound in some places. I was reading some of ForHonors posts and it made me think of it-I had to start a new thread though, even I don't have the patience to look through 26 pages. It's a weird book, but the overall idea is that shit happens-"so it goes" (okay-there's more to it than that, but read the book yourself if you want to know). I hate that idea, it seems so much like apathy to me. But at the same time I'm drawn towards it-it just makes life easier sometimes. People are murdered, robbed, die of old age or in car accidents everyday. It's no one's fault really, it just happens. But is it really the right thing to do, to just sit back and go "so it goes"-even the things you can't change, shouldn't you atleast try and take glory in the attempt or defeat? I dunno-I really should so be studing biochem right now, but this really requires WAY less effort and it much more interesting.



So what's everyone else's opinion?

 

[For Honor]

I am unclear as to what you want an opinion on......


You mean like.......... "everyone minds their own business/things just happen" vs. "Let's try to make the world a better place via compassion/things happen for a reason" ?


I've never read the book, but I've seen it, and I'm sure it's somewhere in my room. Someone brought it to me once, but I never bothered to open the covers.

(I don't like reading "books" very much... but maybe I'll check it out to see what you're getting at)

 

[causalitycalls]

Maybe both, maybe neither-I'm not sure how to explain it. One of the characters in the book was described in great detail, how he joined the army, his family sent him warm clothes, he had a special knife from his father, etc...then he died. There's no emotion to it-he just died, it was what he was suppose to do at that certian time and place. I suppose it's like things happen, whether there's a reason or not, that you simply can't do anything about. How are you suppose to react to that? In the serinity prayer it says "give me the grace to accept the things I can't change"-so is that what you should do? Just smile at war, cancer, death, etc...and say so it goes? Maybe it's that to some things there seems to be no reason and that if you just say "so it goes" it explains it away. Things with reason are easy-he died because he was driving drunk-it's nice, tidy and it fits. It can be understood, filed away and forgotten. But he was so healthy then one day he died it a little harder to swallow. Maybe it just reveals the uncertainty in the world and it makes me angry. Or it could just be that I'm sleepy and none of this will make sense tommorrow.

 

[For Honor]

(Check out the philosophy thread in FYM )


Attaching reason to things is an individual, personal choice.

In reality, it doesn't matter one bit. Whether it is by god's plan, or you're a nihilist, that makes no difference. People die all the time. But us, as humans, tend to perceive things that relate to death as "bad", or negative emotions, and the opposte as "good" or positive emotions.

A lot of things are simple.

A lot of things are complicated.

Like I said before, it's two sides of the same coin.
Maybe what you have hear is a conflict between your compassionate moral side, and your harsh, realistic side.

Heh.....

Happens to me all the time; I believe I am actually a manifestation of such a conflict, such an internal conflict as that.



But that's how it goes.


Also, as you mature and grow older, and gain more experience, your perception of things change - because you change.

However, I am a firm believe in that the world does not change. It always stays the same. (as in, the external reality, "just the facts") What can change, and always does, is individual perception.


And a lot of life is how you react to things that happen around you.




sorry if I sound redundant. I feel redundant, a little.....

 

[Lancemc]

I read this for the first time a couple weeks ago. Great book!

I don't really buy into most of the philosophical ideas in the book. I did however, greatly appreciate Vonnegut's awesome use of satire.

 

[impy13]

KV

 

[elevation2u]

I have yet to read this one but I have read & own:

Breakfast of Champions

&

Hocus Pocue