Time Is A Flat Circle In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007. And so it goes. But in his life, the book he's perhaps most famous for writing was Slaughterhouse-Five. You may have read it in high school or come across the critically acclaimed 1972 film version, but either way, its consumption is a singular experience. Narrated out-of-order, Slaughterhouse-Five retells the life story of Billy Pilgrim, a WWII soldier who survives the fire-bombing of Dresden.
Part satire, part sci-fi, part post-war meditation on peace, conflict, life and death (and so it goes), Slaughterhouse-Five naturally blurs the lines between genre just as its protagonist jumps back and forth through time. So join Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim as they analyze Vonnegut's most widely-regarded work- a novel that paved the way for generations of books, graphic novels and movies to consider the horrors of war wracked on the mind, the place of human life in the universe, and the arbitrary nature of death. And so it goes.
Sections:
Plot Time! (01:10)
Kurt Blurt! (55:30)
Recurring Characters Update! (01:31:00)
Kurt Cameo! (01:39:20)
VonneWHAT?! (01:42:00)
VonneART! (01:52:15)
The Meat! (01:55:45)
Vonnegrades! (01:57:00)
Movie Time! (02:01:40)
Related Reading! (02:07:50)
Vonnegut News! (02:17:10)
Related Reading:
Film: Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Short Story: Ray Bradbury: "Tomorrow's Child" (in I Sing the Body Electric)
Album: Roger Waters: Radio Kaos
Graphic Novel: Yoshihiro Tatsumi: The Pushman and Other Stories
Short Story: Harlan Ellison: "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"
Preface: George Saunders: "Introduction to Huckleberry Finn" (in The Braindead Megaphone)
Short Story: Elie Weisel: "Night"
Novel: Thomas Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow
