Vonnegut Blog 1

Dear All,

Below are 14 questions!  I'd like to have no more than two people per question.  Therefore, please lay claim to your question by commenting on THIS blog.  You should write something like "I, Jennifer Hughes, hereby claim question 14."  Then, go compose your thought-provoking, insightful blog!  (PS -- I'd like to lay some major kudos down for people who are tearing along in the book... y'all rock!)

1. The New York Times said of Vonnegut that he was “Our finest black humorist… We laugh in self defense.” Explain what the NYT meant by that statement.


2. On page 10, Vonnegut talks about what he learned in college, and why he doesn’t have villains in his novel. What do you think this passage (and the novel) says about college?

3. Why, do you think, on page 12, that Vonnegut makes note of the fact that the woman reporter was eating a Three Musketeer Bar while talking with him about the elevator man’s death.

4. Looking at page 13, what does Vonnegut think about toughness? Who are the “kindest and funniest people” according to him, and why?

5. On page 14, Vonnegut includes lines from his two limericks after writing “Eheu, fugaces labuntur anni.” What does that mean, who said it originally, and why does Vonnegut quote it here? (Google it!)

6. Vonnegut includes a poem from a Theodore Roethke book, Words for the Wind (26). How does this poem fit in with the books themes?

7. Why does Vonnegut say, at the end of chapter 1, that this book was written by a pillar of salt? Why is that meaningful?

8. Look up Private Eddie D. Slovik. Wikipedia’s fine. Why do you think Vonnegut talks about him in this novel?

9. At the end of chapter 2, Weary starts to “beat the shit” out of Billy, and Billy “makes sounds that were a lot like laughter.” What do you think they were? Was it laughter? Why or why not?

10. Why do you think that Vonnegut has an “Impeach Earl Warren” bumper sticker? Who is Warren, and what does this say or not say about Billy that he has the sticker on his car?

11. What do you think the black man in the ghetto wanted to talk with Billy about? (75)

12. Why, on page 86, does Vonnegut interrupt the story of Billy Pilgrim to say “I was there.”

13. How do you think we are supposed to understand the Hobo’s persistent claim that he’s “been in worse places than this… this ain’t so bad” (87, and other places!)?

14. At the end of chapter 3, Vonnegut lets us see the boxcars of soldiers through two different perspectives. One is from German soldiers, and one is from inside the cars. What effect do these perspectives have on readers, potentially?