About+Slaughterhouse+Five

=Kurt Vonnegut - //Slaughterhouse Five// - About the Book (Brian)=

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Notes and Comment
The most interesting thing about this novel for me is that it combines so many elements that aren't usually allowed to be in a //literary// work. The book includes science fiction, history, a lot of comedy, and absurdity. This leaves me, as a reader, thinking not just about the story and ideas of the book, but also about the surrounding world of //important books// in literature. A novel like John Steinbeck's //Of Mice and Men// that captures a world and talks so clearly about the necessity of connections between people, and a memoir such as Elie Wiesel's //Night// which horrifies me over the course of just over one hundred pages as to the nature of human beings are both such different books from //Slaughterhouse Five//. It's easy to see why those two books are taught in school, referred to in discussion, and remembered long after they had been written. But Vonnegut's book is more puzzling.

I solve the puzzle in this way: comedy and humor are devastating weapons in the progress of humanity. Sure, Vonnegut makes us laugh, but I keep grimacing as I laugh, realizing that I'm laughing at me, that I'm both amused and horrified. Oops, we bombed a city for no reason. Whoop, that's a lot of dead Germans. So it goes. I think that war is too difficult an idea to imagine without a host of perspectives. War is noble, war is cowardly. War keeps us safe, war kills us. War is good, war is bad, war just is. It takes books such as Tim O'Brien's //The Things They Carried//, Tobias Wolff's //In Pharaoh's Army//, and hundreds of others that come at the idea from more perspectives in order to understand it. And if war is absurd, then what we most need to understand it is an absurd comedy. Something absurd--and apt--like //Slaughterhouse Five//.

Quotations
//Slaughterhouse Five// is a book that is regularly banned. Below are two quotes from banned books listings:
 * //Slaughterhouse-Five.// Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dell; Dial. Burned in Drake, N. Dak. (1973). Banned in Rochester Mich. because the novel "contains and makes references to religious matters" and thus fell within the ban of the establishment clause. Challenged at the Owensboro, Ky. high School library (1985) because of "foul language, a reference to 'Magic Fingers' attached to the protagonist's bed to help him sleep, and the sentence: 'The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the fly of God Almighty.' " Challenged, but retained on the Round Rock, Tex. Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent. This particular novel is the recipient of a very cool plug in the movie, //Footloose,// starring Kevin Bacon . (from [|The Forbidden Library])
 * Challenged in many communities, but burned in Drake, N. Dak (1973). Banned in Rochester, Mich. because the novel "contains and makes references to religious matters" and thus fell within the ban of the establishment clause. An appellate court upheld its usage in the school in Todd v Rochester Community Schools, 41 Mich. App. 320, 200 N. W 2d 90 (I 972). Banned in Levittown, N.Y (1975), North Jackson, Ohio (1979), and Lakeland, Fla. (1982) because of the "book's explicit sexual scenes, violence, and obscene language." Barred from purchase at the Washington Park High School in Racine, Wis. (I 984) by the district administrative assistant for instructional services. Challenged at the Owensboro, Ky. High School library (1985) because of "foul language, a section depicting a picture of an act of bestiality, a reference to 'Magic Fingers' attached to the protagonist's bed to help him sleep, and the sentence: 'The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the fly of God Almighty."' Restricted to students who have parental permission at the four Racine, Wis. Unified District high school libraries (1986) because of "language used in the book depictions of torture, ethnic slurs, and negative portrayals of women:' Challenged at the LaRue County, Ky. High School library (1987) because "the book contains foul language and promotes deviant sexual behavior' Banned from the Fitzgerald, Ga. schools (I 987) because A was filled with profanity and full of explicit sexual references:' Challenged in the Baton Rouge, La. public high school libraries ( 1988) because the book is "vulgar and offensive:' Challenged in the Monroe, Mich. public schools (I 989) as required reading in a modem novel course for high school juniors and senior because of the book's language and the way women are portrayed. Retained on the Round Rock, Tex. Independent High School reading list (1996) after a challenge that the book was too violent. Challenged as an eleventh grade summer reading option in Prince William County, Va ( 1998) because the book "was rife with profanity and explicit sex:" Source: 5, pp. I 37 42; 8, Jan. 1974, p. 4; May 1980, p. 5 I ; Sept. 1982, p. 155; Nov. 1982, p. 197; Sept. 1984, p. 158; Jan. 1986, pp. 9 10; Mar. 1986, p. 57; Mar. 1987, p. 5 I ; July 1987, p. 147; Sept. 1987, pp. 174 75; Nov. 1987, p. 224; May 1988, p. 86; July 1988, pp. I 39 40; July 1989, p. 144, May 1996, p. 99; 9, pp. 78 79; Nov. 1998, p. 183. (from [|The American Library Association])

Links

 * [|Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse Five] (Indiana Historical Society)
 * [|The Themes of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five] (a term paper of sorts)
 * [|from The Vonnegut Web] (with many links to other resources)
 * [|IMDB.com page about the film based on the novel]