This author used them to see how Kurt Vonnegut is post-modernist.
Barry begins in number one by asking how authors discover postmodernist themes and attitudes. In the observation, postmodernists foreground fiction which might be said to exemplify the notion of the 'disappearance of the real' in which shifting postmodern identities are seen. For number three, there is use of parody, pastiche and allusion. For number four, there is foreground irony for number five narcissism. For number six, the distinction between the high and low cultures is challenged and highlighted in the texts in which they work as hybrid blends of the two.
In other words, Barry maintains that taking the action out of the "real world" and into an imaginary one that creates and facilitates the postmodern. This would explain the convergence in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five of so many seemingly contradictory elements, from the violence of war to sexual subjects such as porn starlet Montana Wildhack, the time and dimensional travel of the alien Tralfamadorians and the allusions to sex and violence that morph and converge together. The sexual release is necessarily the most basic rebellion against war just as the 1960s sexual rebellion of the hippies. Sex and violence both provide a similar release and climax, especially when combined together in this postmodern construction of the world (Barry 91).
Surreal is definitely the type of world that Billy Pilgrim finds him self in. The images of meat and flesh are central to this surreal world. Even as a reconstructed city, Vonnegut describes the 1967 city that he visited on a Guggenheim fellowship as "looking a lot like Dayton, Ohio…there must be tons of human bone meal in the ground (Vonnegut 1)." Vonnegut has a very negative view of the American experience. Even relations with his wife are in this category. When he gets drunk he describes his breathe "like mustard gas and roses (ibid 4)." Interestingly enough, the real Vonnegut seems to be more comfortable with Montana Wildhack, just as Billy Pilgrim is. Bad breathe is not tolerated with porn starlets.
Kurt Vonnegut a.k.a., Billy Pilgrim and then indirectly...
A Vonnegut theme, however, is often hard to miss; especially since part of Vonnegut's style placed the author in a position where many readers could palpably feel him throughout the novel. Vonnegut seems to read alongside the reader and assist him; he seems to teach and guide -- gently -- as well as write. As such, Vonnegut helped re-define what high art, and the novel specifically, could be: Irving, who
I enjoyed Vonnegut's commentary on the strangeness of humankind's foibles and I was not shocked by some of his matter-of-fact depictions. Indeed, when Vonnegut draws on his own real-life experiences, the novel takes on an air of authenticity. This authenticity coupled with Vonnegut's wry, black humor makes the novel seem caustic and ironic, but at heart it is neither -- it is simply a record of things both real and
Anti-War Sentiments Vonnegut and Sassoon -- Anti-War Sentiments in Writing Kurt Vonnegut and Sigfried Sassoon are both war veterans turned writers who have writings that can be expressed as anti-war. With both men, their experiences in war left them very much opposed to it and with a sense of its futility. They chose to express these feelings in writing, but did so in very different ways. Vonnegut expressed his anti-war sentiments in
The author even inserts himself as a character throughout key events, such as the latrine at the POW camp and digging in the corpse mines in Dresden. The insertions serve to remind the reader that though fiction, the events described in the novel actually happened, to people like Billy Pilgrim/Kurt Vonnegut. However, Vonnegut also uses several techniques not found in the works of noted memoir writers such as Tobias Wolff
There is nothing laudable about young people leaving their homes in order to fight for their countries. Moreover, these young people are very different from how they are usually presented. They are frightened, horrified, and it would be absurd to call them war heroes, regardless of the role that they played in the war. Vonnegut's intention is to condemn war, and, thus, instead of providing his readers with a traditional
Through his experiences and adventures, Billy becomes a symbol more than a mere character. He obviously has more insight into how things truly are, than the rest of the characters in the book. Not accidentally, Billy becomes unstuck in time precisely during the Second World War, hinting thus at the need to escape the imminence of death as a constantly pending menace: "The Tralfamadorians didn't have anything to do
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