Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut
Within one of Billy's "instances," he is located in a veteran's hospital, and the reader meets Eliot Rosewater. Both men suffer some mental ailments, but they are normal enough to carry on thoughtful conversation. The interesting thing about Rosewater is that he is interested in Science Fiction, more specifically things dealing with aliens and the unexplainable. The meeting of Rosewater happens to Billy chronologically before meeting the Tralfamadorians, but since Billy has already lived many moments of his life, Billy knows all about the aliens. What is a coincidence is that Rosewater explains that life is mostly in the fourth dimension, much like how the Tralfamadorians lived their lives. Rosewater said "that there really were werewolves and goblins and angels and so on, but that they were in the fourth dimension" (Vonnegut 104). Now maybe it is the author who has met the Tralfamadorians and is relaying his knowledge through these books, but, despite Rosewater's attempts, the author doesn't seem to exist. Rosewater believes he is the only person to hear about his favorite author, yet has no idea how to reach him in order to thank him. Either the author has a similar life to Billy, or Billy never really met the Tralfamadorians Instead, Billy got all of his notions of 4th dimensional life from the books and Rosewater, and explains it all by saying aliens abducted him.
No comments:
Post a Comment