love it

I love Voltaire use of satire against the baron and his family. By giving these nobles a title by the name of “Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh” (19) Voltaire is using satire in a simple and funny way to ridicule the belief of aristocracy, that they being nobles are superior even from birth. Take for example Candied mothers attitude, “he was the son of the Baron’s sister by a worthy gentleman of the neighbourhood, whom the young lady would never marry because he could only claim seventy-one quarterings” (19). How pathetic can you get? Voltaire makes a complete mockery of the life of these nobles because surly they were pathetic enough to act in these manner, and surly enough some still do. This is completely dim. The only thing they are completely worthy of: is mockery.

Robert Frost:
Robert you need to read my book, the New York Times best seller: Handbook of Epictetus. I saw in your poem that you hesitating too much on which way to chose: "two roads diverge in a yellow wood" (line 1). Of what I can see you were having problems on which road (life style) you were going to chose, no worries the Handbook will help you when making decisions. You might get a little confused between lines, but life will also get confusing at times.
Best wishes,
Epictetus
P.S tell me how it turns out

Courage and Solidarity

It is very different when we suffer from something then when someone else suffers, “But we should have remembered how we feel when we hear of the same things about others” (19.26). We must be conscious and put ourselves in the person shoes. We must be prepared to console them in what just happened, for when something happens to get in our way of what we had planned they are there to console us. It doesn’t matter if they are not your friends, because they have feelings just like you. If it’s something big like them having cancer or a family member dying, we must show the courage and solidarity to stand beside that person, because that’s what god intended us to do as: brothers and sisters.

Coming Together

People are accustomed to judge people since the moment they see them, even though we are told since we are young to “never judge a book by its cover”. I sympathies new students who go into a new school, especially mine. Customs in my school are very different than other: we tend to judge others by their appearance and nationality. You can see a clear line between those who speak Spanish as their native tongue and those who have English as their native tongue. This is something that is very remorseful, because as you get to know these other students you see how nice and how unique they are, in the sense they are not Colombian and hold other traditions and ideas, which we could all learn and accept. Still Colombian students still have difficulties incorporating foreigners into their groups, drawing a line between each other. I can’t hold only the Colombian students responsible for the line drawn between Colombians and foreigners, normally the kids that are coming into the school don’t want to be here in the first place. Which is reasonable, they want to be with their friends in their old city, this is a big issue because they limit themselves to socializing with others. After they know it they’re in one side of the line. As said in the Handbook of Epictetus: “Most importantly, therefore, try not to be carried away by appearance” (16.21). It’s normal to hang out with a group of friends, but to become a true school community we need to learn to accept others and integrate with each other, even though they might be different than ourselves.

Limits

If in life there are things that are up to us and things that are not up to us, what makes a person think he has control over another person’s life? Since the beginning of time people have chosen to believe that they have a special don to control life. Take slavery for example, the slave owners thought that they were in conditions of taking over another human being life. They had it under control but what they didn’t seem to grasp is that the small control one has over life, has it under his life, and only his life no one else’s. As said by Epictetus but with another example:

“You are foolish if you want your children and your wife and friends to live forever, since you are wanting things to be up to you that are not up to you, and things to be yours that are not yours. [. . .] but wanting not to fail to get what you desire-this you are capable of.” (15.14)

People have to understand there are limits in which, if they pass they become Gods, something they are not meant to be, (even though they think they should) because they lack wisdom and tolerance, and above all they do not and are not capable of understanding the meaning of life. Human beings need to understand that there is a line they cannot cross, and as long as they try to God, or the universe if you don’t believe in him, will teach each and every one of them a lesson. Eventually they will come to understand their limits and place on earth.

6 Feet Under

Death is something I believe, most people don’t look forward to. They don’t know what’s next, not wanting to leave their cherished ones behind, nor their whole life, most of all they are afraid of being forgotten and leaving their loved ones sullen. What can they do if “ some things are up to us and some are not up to us” things that are not up to us, which includes our death, “ are weak, enslaved, hindered, not our own” (11.1). Most people do everything to keep death away, they take all types of precaution, but what they don’t understand is that they are acting dead before their time: they are forgetting to live life to its fullest and truly be alive. As said in the Handbook of Epictetus, “[. . .] if the captain calls, let all those things go and run to the boat without turning back” (13.7). There is a difference between living one’s life and being alive, those who understand this are those who are ready to die, and do not fear death nor the aftermath, nor do they hold any class of regret. These are the people holding the key to life: Carpe Diem.

Mad^2

It is often said that a soldier can come back in two ways: in a body bag or a changed man forever. Being a war veteran himself Kurt Vonnegut want to show how war affected him and other veterans, showing how a war is not worth life lost nor the lives changed. Kurt Vonnegut uses the idea of time travel frequently throughout the novel. As the Tralfamadorians would advise “Billy to concentrate on the happy moments of his life, and to ignore the unhappy ones-to stare only at the pretty things as eternity failed to go by” (194) what we must recognize is that Billy had no free will, choosing where to travel to. He may have well be in the Trafamadorian zoo and go right to his childhood. Particularly striking is that with his time traveling he can also see the future. Billy knows exactly what his fate holds for him and yet he does nothing to alter it. Seeing this I want to answer a question frequently asked: Is Billy Pilgrim Crazy? Yes, without a doubt Billy is crazy Kurt Vonnegut not only does he shows us this thought the novel with Billy’s actions, but he uses time traveling to prove how war drives people crazy, in this case Billy. As we are reading Slaughter’ House-Five we are thinking, “All this happened, more or less” (1). What I’m seeing now at the end of the book is what Kurt Vonnegut real message behind the book, behind all these aliens, and time traveling is what happens to soldiers after they have lived through a war: they become mad.

The Scar of War

“Billy sat in the back of the jiggling coffin. His head was tilted back and his nostrils were flaring. He was happy...” (SH5pg194) He’s not actually in a coffin, Kurt Vonnegut just wants to show a symbol of death, all the soldiers have had to live through this death during the war. Killing others is not an easy thing to do and seeing death beside you is less, all these men had to live through that left each with a unique scar. The Scar of War. Each handled their Scar of War in a different way Billy chooses science-fiction and even possibly invents the Trafamadorians and Montana Wildhack. “What really became of Montana Wildhack? So Billy read it. He knew where Montana Wildhack really was, of course...but the magazine...promised that she was wearing a cement overcoat under thirty fathoms of saltwater in San Pedro Bay.”(SH5pg204) We never considered Billy so crazy (he was reading sci-fi, and had been scared by war after all) but all this, the Trafamadorians and Montana Wildhack could well be Billy’s imagination of an alternative utopia were he would escape. Running off in times when he really didn’t want to be there and this may explain why he ‘time travels’. Maybe he just remembering all his life from his deathbed, and jumps from one event to the other we never know because he so unpredictable.

Mr. Lonely

I can’t believe Billy has a relationship with Humans no wonder they took him to Tralfamador. “Billy liked him, but didn’t know a lot about Robert” (SH5pg176). How is that possible? It’s his own son for crying out loud what type of man is he if he doesn’t know his 17 year old son. You can see why the song of “the Febs” bothered him. He never cared for anything or anyone in his life so there for “He had never had an old gang, old sweethearts and pals, but he missed one anyway…” (SH5pg172) He had had people around him all his life but still was lonely. And worse than being alone, is being in a room filled with people and still feel alone.

Thank You

I’m sick with Laryngitis, it’s a Friday and I’m in the mood to go out but, no luck there. I’ve been trapped in my house for the last week, and I’m about to become insane. I need to get out of these four walls and the only thing that gets me partly out of here is "Slaughterhouse Five". As I’m reading Billy has gotten some laughs out of me he’s just too innocently comical. The best part is that he’s not trying to be, people who try to be never are: they try too hard. The first time I’ve laughed was when Weary is kicking Billy is laughing and the Germans can’t understand why. The one that definitely won was the last chapter, I even laughed out loud. A lady asked Billy “What he was supposed to be” (SH5pg159). Obviously the widow is seeing in his new uniform: Blue cape, silver boots, and a muff. The best part is when the lady says “ All the real soldiers are dead(SH5pg159) I just couldn’t hold it in, maybe because I wasn’t expecting it or I was just too into the book to notice, whatever it was thank you Billy Pilgrim.

Readings DC blog entry "On many" made me realize that every person is different there for each of us writes differently. And has different style and preference when it comes to writing. So I believe it’s a problem of Diction and it all depends on the writers and what diction they are looking for.
“...where we find many examples....
where we find a lot of examples....
where we find lots of examples.” (DC blog)
Each of them has their own level of diction many is formal, a lot is informal, and lots is friendly.

Imagination

Imagine “Billy Pilgrim in his blue toga and silver shoes, with his hands in a muff” (SHp5pg149) Parading around into Dresden. They all were the clowns of America instead the American troopers they should be. It’s just obvious why they are prisoners of war. No wonder when the ex soldier no w surgeon spots them especially Billy he says “I take it you find war a very comical thing.” (SH5pg151) Billy had nothing to say ; like usual. What could he do if the only reason he wore this was because of “fate and feeble reason to survivr” (SH5pg151) He meant no mocary to anyone of sny kind

IF WE CAN, WE MUST.

I love the attitude of the English prisoners have. They look ways to distract and entertain te American prisoners and themselves.” The Englishmen were clean and enthusiastic and decent and strong” (SH5pg94). After so many years in the camp to have spirits like they it’s inspiring, No wonder the Germans loved their English prisoners. If everyone had that attitude towards life we would be a lot better off than we are today, just look at what we done and yet have not learned from. We have had so many chances to redeem ourselves, but just like it takes only one person to make a difference it also takes one to screw it up. Obviously we can’t all go out looking for our personal utopia, because as everyone on the first day of school each individual has their own utopia. That’s why people in politics (it’s not only in politics it’s all around us) never totally agree even though they are in the same party, they didn’t exactly grow in the same ambient. Their for they were always reached by different ideas, just because one sees different way to solve a problem it doesn’t mean they are wrong or even right . The Englishman greeted the Americans with songs, food, and dace even though they though the Americans were 'Weak, smelly, self-pitying-a pack of sniveling, dirty, thieving bastards,” (SH5pg127) The English could help the Americans, so they did. We must all follow the example if we can, we must.

Why We Dominate

Now that I said in my last blog how the last chapters didn't have close reading, I am beginning to wander that what the Tralfamadore are the ones that I’m most looking forward, even though they may be brief. This last chapter has a conversation between the Tralfamadore and Billy about humans that was very interesting. They were having a brief conversation of how “Earthlings are the great explainers…”(pg 85). Human Beings need to have an explanation for everything if not, they don’t feel comfortable where they are. This need for us to have an explanation for everything is what I think, has brought human beings to be the dominant species. This need for an explanation for everything is something we are born with it’s one of our killer instinct (that everyone is too proud to admit). If when we are simply toddlers we are already asking questions, like why?

So It Goes

 This the first book that there is no close reading, this has me lost. I don’t know what to write about, my last blog I did not like at all because of it. I want this new blog to be much more invigorate. As I was reading a word that has come up often so far in the book has been, so it goes. I understand that this is a tradition from Tralfamadore when someone dies. Thought chapter three this word is used 7 times (pg 52, 53, 54, 65, 65, 68, 69). The funniest thing is that you can see the lap’s time between the pages (54-65) when he is traveling through time. What irritates me is that this words makes him sound detachment and with a huge lack of feelings towards people. Since the beginning of the book I have asked myself about the sanity of this man and now I can see that we was completely utterly damaged from the war, and I think of the time traveling seeing deaths including this own. Billy seems so lifeless in his actions that, I guess that makes him cold hearted towards other people outcome and his own, which makes me pity him so much because a man with out feeling has yet to explore life. 

Something is Wrong With This Picture

Billy doesn’t have any reason to live, he just wants to give up and stay. Weary on the other hand had other plans, being the hero and part of the three Musketeers with the two scouts. When the two scouts reject and abandon Weary and Billy. This brings up childhood memories for Weary, with people ditching him in the past. He blamed Billy for the scouts’ departure and started beating him up when “Five German soldiers and a police dog on a leash were looking down into the bed of the creek. The soldiers' blue eyes were filled with bleary civilian curiosity as to why one American would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh.” (Pg 18-19 PDF SH.5) I just can’t seem to imagine the faces of these soldiers and the thoughts because obviously it makes no sense from their point of view. The image these soldiers must get from these two is just crazy, one colleague beating on another and the other one just full of laughter. There is definitely something wrong with that picture in anybody eyes especially to one that has just got there to witness it.

Little Vonnegut

This constant flow of ideas doesn’t let the text flow as it would be if were probably structured. This biography of how the book is written and anything related with it is a very cool idea that the author does to confuse the readers. The way its written makes him sounds like a child writing it and this is his intention. Like he promised Mary O’Hare” If I ever finish it, though, I give you my word of honor: there won’t be part for Frank Sinatra or John Wayne.” (Pg 15) If you reread this part it shows how Mary fears this book and future films would encourage war, fearing children (like her husband was when he went to war) would go to war. And that’s why he is writing like if he was an 8 year old with a lot of ideas, keeping his promise.