I just finished reading this in a quick two day stretch. Absolutely loved every word of it. I can't think of one negative thing to say.
What are some other /lit/ approved books that can be read over the expanse of a few days?
I read this book because I had heard so many good things about it, but at the end I found myself saying "that's it?". It felt like a whole bunch of not much in particular going on. What am I supposed to get out of it? If anyone can tell me, I'd genuinely appreciate it.
>>7796032
poor b8
Pretty sure you'll do great with this
>>7796037
For Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five was as much about the war as it was about mortality, morality, and the deep dark parts of human nature that can be tough to comes to grips with. Unlike most writers of the era, Vonnegut manages to remain humorous and playful in tone while simultaneously taking us to places not often spoken about in tones above a whisper. While others were writing terribly serious stories about the war, Vonnegut decided to write something purposefully silly and futile to show readers just how purposefully silly and futile war (and life, in a grander sense) really was.
You left thinking "That's it?" Well, that's what you're going to leave your life thinking, and Vonnegut wanted you to know it.
>>7796056
You know, I was thinking of ways to articulate exactly why I loved that book.
You, my friend, have done just that. That was a splendid description, indeed.
I didn't think I could love a book more than Orwell's 1984 until I read Slaughterhouse Five. It's a beautiful book. There are so many quotes that perfectly describe certain aspects of humanity, but these three always stood out to me:
- “I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living.”
- "The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low. But the Gospels actually taught this: Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes."
- "She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone through so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn't really like life at all."
>>7796032
Stoner
Notes from underground