Themes/Styles warranting criticism:
-Non normal structure
-Humanist ideas reflected VIA books
-Use of same characters throughout numerous books
-Cynical outlook on nearly EVERYTHING
Possible Sources:
-http://www.vonnegutweb.com/vonnegutia/crtical/index.html
-http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=alamco_main&tabID=T001&searchId=R3&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=4&contentSet=GALE|H1420022951&&docId=GALE|H1420022951&docType=GALE&role=LitRC
-http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=alamco_main&tabID=T001&searchId=R4&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=10&contentSet=GALE|H1100000834&&docId=GALE|H1100000834&docType=GALE&role=LitRC
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Kurt Vonnegut: The Man Behind the Books
From his birth in Indianapolis to his death in New York, his life was one horror story to another, but he managed to always turn his cynicism into amazing literature. Many people know, read, and love the books that Kurt Vonnegut writes, but few know about Kurt Vonnegut, his life, and his origins.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11th 1922, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was already on the right track for success: His parents, Kurt Vonnegut Sr. and Edith Lieber, attended MIT and were architects for a local firm. After graduating high school he was accepted to Cornell, where he edited for a school paper and majored in Chemistry. It was at Cornell where he enlisted into the US Army.
His time in the Army had a huge influence on who he would become for a few reasons: Before he left, his mother committed suicide on Mother's Day in 1944 by way of sleeping pills, and he was captured by Germans in late 1944, and was held in Dresden.
His mother's suicide was a major contributor to his cynical view on society, but personally, it didn't affect him much.
His time as a POW, however, had quite possibly the biggest influence on his writing of anything he experienced. His story, Slaughterhouse Five, was very autobiographical in the sense that most of the things that happened to Billy Pilgrim in the book(in War), happened to Kurt Vonnegut(in War).
After the war, he attended University of Chicago, where he studied Anthropology. Although he was a self-admitted poor anthropology student, and only in 1963 U of Chicago accepted Cat's Cradle as Vonnegut's thesis and gave him his master's. Cat's Cradle is one of Vonnegut's first big-selling books, one of his most memorable, and one of his favorites.
(Kurt assessed all of his own books and gave them letter grades:
[Cat's Cradle: A+
Slaughterhouse-Five:A+
The Sirens of Titan:A
Breakfast of Champions:C])
In 1973, when Vonnegut published Breakfast of Champions, people began to see that, aside from being an enthralling writer, he was also able to create stories that weren't written with a basic structure, yet were still followed fairly easily. Vonnegut included a kind of autobiography mixed with first/third person writing by including himself, as the Creator of the Universe, in Breakfast.
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 11th 1922, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was already on the right track for success: His parents, Kurt Vonnegut Sr. and Edith Lieber, attended MIT and were architects for a local firm. After graduating high school he was accepted to Cornell, where he edited for a school paper and majored in Chemistry. It was at Cornell where he enlisted into the US Army.
His time in the Army had a huge influence on who he would become for a few reasons: Before he left, his mother committed suicide on Mother's Day in 1944 by way of sleeping pills, and he was captured by Germans in late 1944, and was held in Dresden.
His mother's suicide was a major contributor to his cynical view on society, but personally, it didn't affect him much.
His time as a POW, however, had quite possibly the biggest influence on his writing of anything he experienced. His story, Slaughterhouse Five, was very autobiographical in the sense that most of the things that happened to Billy Pilgrim in the book(in War), happened to Kurt Vonnegut(in War).
After the war, he attended University of Chicago, where he studied Anthropology. Although he was a self-admitted poor anthropology student, and only in 1963 U of Chicago accepted Cat's Cradle as Vonnegut's thesis and gave him his master's. Cat's Cradle is one of Vonnegut's first big-selling books, one of his most memorable, and one of his favorites.
(Kurt assessed all of his own books and gave them letter grades:
[Cat's Cradle: A+
Slaughterhouse-Five:A+
The Sirens of Titan:A
Breakfast of Champions:C])
In 1973, when Vonnegut published Breakfast of Champions, people began to see that, aside from being an enthralling writer, he was also able to create stories that weren't written with a basic structure, yet were still followed fairly easily. Vonnegut included a kind of autobiography mixed with first/third person writing by including himself, as the Creator of the Universe, in Breakfast.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Comparing the Two Selections (Blog #3)
Breakfast of Champions, my second selection by Kurt Vonnegut, was written roughly 10 years after Sirens of Titan[1959], but Vonnegut's books still retain much of the same style and syntax of his early works.
And although the writing styles are similar, the books themselves seem worlds apart for a few reasons:
And although the writing styles are similar, the books themselves seem worlds apart for a few reasons:
- Vonnegut chooses to write Breakfast in a narrator style like his other books, but he mixes in a prologue, written in an autobiographical way, and often inserts something about himself or an opinion of his into the book along way. This makes you think that what you are reading is meant specifically for you, and it draws the reader much closer to the book. "This book is my fiftieth-birthday present to myself. I feel as though I am crossing the spine of a roof-having ascended one slope"(3).
- The whole 'writing specifically to the reader' method ties into the next unique thing about Breakfast, which is that the book is written as though for someone(something) that is familiar with Earth, but not anything about Earth: Al throughout the book, Vonnegut stops his paragraph in the middle to explain something he just referenced, like what a cow was, the American National Anthem, what America is, etc. "Trout and Hoover were citizens of the United States of America, a country which was called America for short. This was their national anthem, which was pure balderdash, like so much they were expected to take seriously"(7).
- In most books you read, the plot is built up from the beginning until the climax, but Vonnegut chooses to throw away that idea by explaining the plot in the first few pages of the book. Now, you would think that this would ruin the book, but there is still so much to understand about the characters, the setting, and the lead-up to the big story event that you are kept drawn into this book about a Sci-Fi writer who meets a car dealer in Midland City. "This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast"(7).
- There is also the matter of Kilgore Trout, the widely-distributed, but not very well known science fiction writer, who is believed to be Kurt Vonnegut's alter ego. A good quarter of the book is just Vonnegut telling you about the books that Trout has written, and somehow tying them into Breakfast. The only reason that I mention this is because this is the first book where he decides to not use the same names for all of his characters, and actually branch out from his popular writing style.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Characters in Sirens
Character(ization) is a very big part of The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut, so I will provide a quote from the book that states each main character's purpose, and then elaborate on that character's purpose.
-Malachi Constant/Unk/The Space Wanderer
"...No longer can a fool like Malachi Constant point to a ridiculous accidnet and say, 'someone up there likes me'..." (218)
This quote is said by a Reverend C. Horner Redwine, a priest for the Church of God, the Utterly Indifferent, which is a religion based on god's apathy.
This explains Malachi's purpose by showing that he was just the scapegoat for all of the events in the story: He starts out as a shallow, wealthy socialite living in Hollywood who doesn't know happiness and is approached by Winston Niles Rumfoord.
Later, he is 'recruited' for the Martian army, he rapes a woman on his flight to Mars. They find out, though, and he is brainwashed and demoted the private, "Unk'.
Later, he returns (after four years on Mercury) to Earth, as the savior of humanity and poster child for this new church and religion, where he is ridiculed for his past lives and exiled to Titan.
-Winston Niles Rumfoord
"It has been said that Earthling civilization, so far, has created ten thousand wars, but only three intelligent commentaries on war-the commentaries of Thucydides, of Julius Ceaser, and of Winston Niles Rumfoord." (167)
This quote not only beings to show Rumfoord's purpose in the book, but also his standing with other great men in history. The Church of God, the Utterly Indifferent was started by Rumfoord after Mars' invasion of Earth, in hopes that it would unify all the countries, races, religions, etc. and create a Utopia of sorts.
After Mars invaded Earth, Rumfoord, who disobeyed an order and flew his private spaceship into a wormhole(and now travels freely between time and space), rose up with this brand new idea on a religion where God doesn't care about anyone or anything, and everyone is 'victim of a series of accidents'. It wasn't just his status that allowed him to convert all of humanity, but he also kidnapped Earthlings for the Mars Army, trained them, and orchestrated the attack on Earth in order to form his new religion.
-Salo/Tralfamadorians
"Once upon a time on Tralfamadore there were creatures that weren't anything like machines...These poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to a have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others...Every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame. And, rather than serve such a low purpose, the creatures would make a machine to serve it."(279-280)
The place in Sirens that the Tralfamadorians serve is almost like a cautionary tale about human intrigue. The tale continues on to say that eventually the machines were doing almost everything for the creatures, and the creatures realized that they no longer had purpose, so they decided to kill each other. Unfortunately, they couldn't even do this, so they built machines to kill them. Now the machines rebuild themselves and have evolved an artificial intelligence.
As well as Tralfamadorians' purpose in the book, one particular Tralfamadorian, Salo, is of extreme importance the plot of the book. He was stranded on Titan by a faulty ship, and met with Rumfoord, who is constantly on Titan, unlike other places in the galaxy. After their meeting, they become friends of sorts and Salo gives Rumfoord technology for the Mars army, which allows the book to unfold and every event to happen.
-Bee
"Unk--You know why you keep on going? You keep going because you have a mate and a child. Almost nobody on Mars has either one. Your mate's name is Bee...Like everybody else on Mars, Bee and Chrono have learned to get along all alone. They don't miss you. They never think of you. But you have to prove to them that they need you in the biggest way possible"(131).
This is written in a sort of instructional letter, much like one you would leave to someone house-sitting while you're on vacation, that Malachi Constant leaves for Unk to find on Mars. It explains why Bee, although not that big of a character, is still as important as she is. Her purpose in Sirens, in part, is a motivator to convince Unk to gather his family and get off of Mars before the invasion of Earth starts.
-Chrono
Chrono is Bee and Unk's child that they had on the spaceship to Mars. He lives in the school on Mars. There is no summarizing quote for Chrono, but it is obvious why he is there.
On an obvious level, he's there as a sort of courier of the replacement piece that will repair Salo's ship and allow him to continue on his mission, but Chrono also has a much more significant purpose for Unk: Along with Bee, Chrono, without even knowing it, urges Unk to leave Mars just by being there. After reading his letter to himself, Unk goes to visit both Chrono and Bee in their respective residences. Afterward, he realizes that he must escape.
-Malachi Constant/Unk/The Space Wanderer
"...No longer can a fool like Malachi Constant point to a ridiculous accidnet and say, 'someone up there likes me'..." (218)
This quote is said by a Reverend C. Horner Redwine, a priest for the Church of God, the Utterly Indifferent, which is a religion based on god's apathy.
This explains Malachi's purpose by showing that he was just the scapegoat for all of the events in the story: He starts out as a shallow, wealthy socialite living in Hollywood who doesn't know happiness and is approached by Winston Niles Rumfoord.
Later, he is 'recruited' for the Martian army, he rapes a woman on his flight to Mars. They find out, though, and he is brainwashed and demoted the private, "Unk'.
Later, he returns (after four years on Mercury) to Earth, as the savior of humanity and poster child for this new church and religion, where he is ridiculed for his past lives and exiled to Titan.
-Winston Niles Rumfoord
"It has been said that Earthling civilization, so far, has created ten thousand wars, but only three intelligent commentaries on war-the commentaries of Thucydides, of Julius Ceaser, and of Winston Niles Rumfoord." (167)
This quote not only beings to show Rumfoord's purpose in the book, but also his standing with other great men in history. The Church of God, the Utterly Indifferent was started by Rumfoord after Mars' invasion of Earth, in hopes that it would unify all the countries, races, religions, etc. and create a Utopia of sorts.
After Mars invaded Earth, Rumfoord, who disobeyed an order and flew his private spaceship into a wormhole(and now travels freely between time and space), rose up with this brand new idea on a religion where God doesn't care about anyone or anything, and everyone is 'victim of a series of accidents'. It wasn't just his status that allowed him to convert all of humanity, but he also kidnapped Earthlings for the Mars Army, trained them, and orchestrated the attack on Earth in order to form his new religion.
-Salo/Tralfamadorians
"Once upon a time on Tralfamadore there were creatures that weren't anything like machines...These poor creatures were obsessed by the idea that everything that existed had to a have a purpose, and that some purposes were higher than others...Every time they found out what seemed to be a purpose of themselves, the purpose seemed so low that the creatures were filled with disgust and shame. And, rather than serve such a low purpose, the creatures would make a machine to serve it."(279-280)
The place in Sirens that the Tralfamadorians serve is almost like a cautionary tale about human intrigue. The tale continues on to say that eventually the machines were doing almost everything for the creatures, and the creatures realized that they no longer had purpose, so they decided to kill each other. Unfortunately, they couldn't even do this, so they built machines to kill them. Now the machines rebuild themselves and have evolved an artificial intelligence.
As well as Tralfamadorians' purpose in the book, one particular Tralfamadorian, Salo, is of extreme importance the plot of the book. He was stranded on Titan by a faulty ship, and met with Rumfoord, who is constantly on Titan, unlike other places in the galaxy. After their meeting, they become friends of sorts and Salo gives Rumfoord technology for the Mars army, which allows the book to unfold and every event to happen.
-Bee
"Unk--You know why you keep on going? You keep going because you have a mate and a child. Almost nobody on Mars has either one. Your mate's name is Bee...Like everybody else on Mars, Bee and Chrono have learned to get along all alone. They don't miss you. They never think of you. But you have to prove to them that they need you in the biggest way possible"(131).
This is written in a sort of instructional letter, much like one you would leave to someone house-sitting while you're on vacation, that Malachi Constant leaves for Unk to find on Mars. It explains why Bee, although not that big of a character, is still as important as she is. Her purpose in Sirens, in part, is a motivator to convince Unk to gather his family and get off of Mars before the invasion of Earth starts.
-Chrono
Chrono is Bee and Unk's child that they had on the spaceship to Mars. He lives in the school on Mars. There is no summarizing quote for Chrono, but it is obvious why he is there.
On an obvious level, he's there as a sort of courier of the replacement piece that will repair Salo's ship and allow him to continue on his mission, but Chrono also has a much more significant purpose for Unk: Along with Bee, Chrono, without even knowing it, urges Unk to leave Mars just by being there. After reading his letter to himself, Unk goes to visit both Chrono and Bee in their respective residences. Afterward, he realizes that he must escape.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Q3/Q4 Outside Reading-Blog #1
The first selection by Vonnegut that I chose is The Sirens of Titan. This was only his second book, but my favorite and is considered by many his best book for it's simple complexity.
In Sirens, all of the characters have a specific purpose or two that falls perfectly into place with the other characters' respective purposes to crate this book. For example, Malachi Constant, the main character, always wanted to live up to his name (faithful messenger) and do something with his life, but always led a hollow, lonely life as a socialite. It is only after he meets a wealthy, space-traveling man from Newport, RI that he is truly given the opportunity to do so.
Winston Niles Rumfoord is written to be the main attraction the to the story-A rich man who traveled into space, entering a wormhole that allows him to pass through different points in the solar system at any time. Vonnegut uses his characters wisely, seeing as there are only about ten that directly influence Malachi.
As well as his wise use of characters, Vonnegut also uses a slightly Hemingway-esque writing style to really get the theme of purposefulness across. He tells you in plain English what he wants to, and allows you to conclude the rest, and what isn't plain Englsih, he elaborates on in a way that is comical, informative, and cynical.
In Sirens, all of the characters have a specific purpose or two that falls perfectly into place with the other characters' respective purposes to crate this book. For example, Malachi Constant, the main character, always wanted to live up to his name (faithful messenger) and do something with his life, but always led a hollow, lonely life as a socialite. It is only after he meets a wealthy, space-traveling man from Newport, RI that he is truly given the opportunity to do so.
Winston Niles Rumfoord is written to be the main attraction the to the story-A rich man who traveled into space, entering a wormhole that allows him to pass through different points in the solar system at any time. Vonnegut uses his characters wisely, seeing as there are only about ten that directly influence Malachi.
As well as his wise use of characters, Vonnegut also uses a slightly Hemingway-esque writing style to really get the theme of purposefulness across. He tells you in plain English what he wants to, and allows you to conclude the rest, and what isn't plain Englsih, he elaborates on in a way that is comical, informative, and cynical.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Vonnegut Resource
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=alamco_main&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=2&contentSet=GALE|H1420008321&&docId=GALE|H1420008321&docType=GALE&role=LitRC
Sunday, January 31, 2010
'Books Briefly Noted'- Cat's Cradle
Cat's Cradle can most readily be described as a book about the end of the world, and Vonnegut tells this by using his cynical, yet comical ways.
Cat's Cradle revolves around the narrator, 'Jonah', and his adventures with his attempt to write a book about some Americans' reactions to the bombing of Hiroshima. Of course, things do not turn out the way he had expected they would, on account of his encounter with a small Caribbean island called San Lorenzo, and its inhabitants.Though its chapters are mostly only a page long, this doesn't break the flow, and leaves constant cliffhangers that are complimented by the utterly genius delivery.
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