More Thoughts on Slaughterhouse Five (Chapters 4-6)

After reading more of Slaughterhouse Five, I am starting to understand the deeper complexity of the book. For me, the book is centralizing on the violence of war, the inevitability of death/war, and on how free will is a mere “illusion”. After the description of a death or any unfortunate situation, the narrator will follow up with the phrase “so it goes”. This phrase is frequently repeated throughout the novel and serves to reinforce the nonchalant mindset that the narrator has of time and free will. Although the jumping from moment to moment in Billy’s life is confusing (and requires careful focus when reading!), I think that it is an interesting way to set up the story. I have also taken noticed of more subtle humor in this book. For example, in chapter 6, Billy has to replace his ruined shoes and settles for a pair of Cinderella silver boots that actually fit him! This is funny because of the irony in the fact that Billy is probably the furthest from being Cinderella yet the boots actually fit him perfectly. Also, the fact that Billy is blamed for Roland Weary’s death in chapter 4 is also quite humorous because of how ridiculous it is. Billy had nothing to do with Weary’s death yet because of Weary’s foolishness, Paul Lazzaro will eventually avenge Weary by killing Billy. I think this situation is used by the author to show that revenge and even war itself is senseless and unnecessary. Overall I like this book and find the ingenuity of it extremely amusing. I think it will make for an interesting discussion in class! 

Initial Thoughts of Slaughterhouse Five (Chapters 1-3)

After reading a couple of chapters of Slaughterhouse Five, I have found both the book’s structure and plot to be quite interesting. At first I wondered how a book that focused in part on World War II could be funny? However, I have taken notice of many sentences or situations that I have found humorous. For example, in chapter 2 Weary is described as “Tweedledum or Tweedledee, all bundled up for battle” (p. 37). This not only illustrates the bulkiness of Weary but it also is pretty funny to picture. Also when describing Weary, Vonnegut lists a ridiculously long list of items that Weary has received from home. This is funny because it is unexpected (cognitive shift!) and, if you are like me, you probably just glanced over the items on the list. Another thing that I find humorous about this book is how Billy Pilgrim is displayed in a child-like manner. He is depicted as poorly trained, weak, unprepared, foolish, and basically unfit for the army. Even his name “Billy” gives him an immature quality as opposed to the more adult name of “William”. This book does a lot of jumping around between moments in Billy’s life. My favorite “flashback” or “flashforward” or whatever you’d call it moment so far is the one where Billy is captured by aliens… Or more specifically Tralfamadorians from the planet Tralfamadore. The word “Tralfamadorians” itself is funny but what is funnier is when Billy tells the world of his “alien abduction” and all of his revelations. His poor daughter thinks Billy has gone crazy and, honestly, I do not blame her! My initial thoughts of this book are that it seems intriguing and I am actually curious to see what happens in the chapters to come! Definitely beats Morreal, that’s for sure…

Social Net-Laughing

            In today’s society, the Internet has become a fundamental part of everyday life. People shop, talk, explore, video-chat, and even date on the Internet. It is not unexpected then that the way humor is viewed today has also changed. YouTube videos, funny Facebook pages, parody Twitter accounts, and other social media sites offer numerous ways for people to view humor. One site in particular has recently taken my interest as a form of entertainment. That site is Tumblr. For those of you who do not know, Tumblr is defined as “a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblr). Even though Tumblr has been around since 2007, I had never had much interest in it until I observed a friend laughing over a post on a Tumblr page. Since then, Tumblr has become an essential part of my daily “study breaks”. I have found some universal qualities that I believe are what make Tumblr pages so entertaining and humorous. 

            The first thing is that they are relatable. On the Tumblr, THEYCALLMEFUNKYFROG, the person who controls the blog is an anonymous TCU student. Because of this, TCU students can easily empathize with many of his/her posts. For example, one of the posts I found features a caption that reads, “When I’m Studying and Can’t Go Out”.  Below this title is a motion clip from The Little Mermaid of Ariel mouthing “I wanna be where the people are”. This is funny to those viewing it because many college students can relate to those nights when going out with friends is practically impossible due to having a test or quiz the next day. 

            Another reason why I think Tumblr accounts are so hilarious is because most of the time they show scenes or clips from popular TV shows, movies, etc that are themselves funny. Clips like Friends, Modern Family, Bridemaids, Dance Moms, How I Met Your Mother, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and Mean Girls are frequently quoted on Tumblr blogs to help illustrate some point that the blogger wishes to address. For example, one blog post (also from THEYCALLMEFUNKYFROG) was titled “Sororities During Rush…”. Below the title was a classic scene from Mean Girls with Karen Smith saying “On Wednesdays we wear pink”. This post parodies how sororities can be overly unifying and somewhat obsessed with the concept of sisterhood. 

           The final reason why I think Tumblr pages are fun and sometimes plain addicting to look at is because a lot of them over exaggerate certain situations. For example, on the Tumblr, “Procrastionismymiddlename”, (which is also controlled by a TCU student) there is a post with a caption that reads “When I Haven’t Been to the Gym in a while…”. Below the caption is a clip from Monsters Inc. with Mike Wazowski doing uncontrollable flips on a treadmill. This is funny because it focuses on a cognitive shift. Due to the title, we expect to see a person exhausted or having trouble working out. Instead, however, we see a scene with a monster practically getting beat up by a treadmill because he is so out of shape. There are tons of Tumblr pages out there and my suggestion to all of you reading is to explore some and find the ones that make you laugh!