"This is a very great book by an American genius. I have worked so hard on this masterpiece for the past six years. I have groaned and banged my head on radiators. I have walked through every hotel lobby in New York, thinking about this book and weeping, and driving my fist into the guts of grandfather clocks."
— Kurt Vonnegut introduces his Palm Sunday.
I do love how 3 people actually commented on that last Vonnegut quote I posted (‘cause really, it’s the last in my queue, so not to worry), saying it wasn’t what Vonnegut would’ve believed in or had even written or whatever (which makes absolutely no difference for my quoting it, by the way). It’s actually my first encounter with asshats on Tumblr. But it’s nice to see, because it’s a prime example of how literature is turned into some elitist form of art, which I loath so much. Why can’t you all just shut your haughty mouths and let everyone interpret and appreciate books as they please? No matter what you say about Vonnegut’s ideals or beliefs or whatever he wanted Slaughterhouse-Five to mean, it’s literature, and literature is art, and art is subjective and it always will be. There is no one right way to interpret it. I never study a book after I’ve read it to find out its true and objective meaning, because there isn’t one. I simply take from it what I like, and post whatever fucking quotes on my Tumblr I wish.
And yes, I actually did read the book.
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"Actually, Billy’s outward listlessness was a screen. The listlessness concealed a mind which was fizzing and flashing thrillingly. It was preparing letters and lectures about the flying saucers, the negligibility of death, and the true nature of time."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.
So it goes."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"The cattle are lowing,
The Baby awakes.
But the little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"The city was blacked out because bombers might come, so Billy didn’t get to see Dresden do one of the most cheerful things a city is capable of doing when the sun goes down, which is to wink its lights on one by one."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"In the next moment, Billy Pilgrim is dead. So it goes.
So Billy experiences death for a while. It is simply violet light and a hum. There isn’t anybody else there. Not even Billy Pilgrim is there."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"‘So-’ said Billy gropingly, ‘I suppose that the idea of preventing war on Earth is stupid, too.’
‘Of course.’
‘But you do have a peaceful planet here.’
‘Today we do. On other days we have wars as horrible as any you’ve ever seen or read about. There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments - like today at the zoo. Isn’t this a nice moment?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.’
‘Um,’ said Billy Pilgrim."
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
"He changed the subject now, congratulated Valencia on her engagement ring.
‘Thank you,’ she said, and held it out so Rosewater could get a close look. ‘Billy got that diamond in the war.’
‘That’s the attractive thing about war,’ said Rosewater. ‘Absolutely everybody gets a little something.’"
— Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
