...I. Introduction In his foreword to a collection of the radio scripts of comedians Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. endorses these entertainers as somehow new and different—and relevant—since they draw their humor from the plight of the (American) Common Man. In the process, Vonnegut offers us an insight into his own writing, and the philosophies that inform it. “They aren’t like most other comedians’ jokes these days,” Vonnegut writes, aren’t rooted in show business and the world of celebrities and news of the day. They feature Americans who are almost always fourth-rate or below, engaged in enterprises which, if not contemptible, are at least insane. And while other comedians show us persons tormented by bad luck and enemies and so on, Bob and Ray’s characters threaten to wreck themselves and their surroundings with their own stupidity. There is a refreshing and beautiful innocence in Bob’s and Ray’s humor. Man is not evil, they seem to say. He is simply too hilariously stupid to survive. And this I believe. Jerome Klinkowitz, in the introduction to his essay collection entitled Vonnegut in America, has used this quote—as he certainly should—to support his claim that Vonnegut’s humor has its roots in the comedic response to the Great Depression. But of course there is much more to it than that. The reader is left with a nagging question: Were humanity’s case really as Vonnegut describes it, and were this truly his belief, wouldn’t it seem that the...
Words: 6991 - Pages: 28
...Yoan Nurbudhiati Gindho Rizano, M.Hum Literary Criticism December 20th 2013 The Rise of Unwavering Band of Light Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was born on November 11th 1922 and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is known as American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. His funny, somewhat slang and imaginative writing style of fiction has been well-known especially among scholars, collage students and young people for more than 50 years. Through his works which usually involving dark humor, comical drawings, flying saucers and time travel, Vonnegut expresses social criticism about the suffering and atrocities human beings experienced in the 20th century—from the effects of war and atomic weaponry, to racism, social injustice, and environmental destruction. His remarkable novel Slaughterhouse-five (1969) is acknowledged as his masterpiece and has successfully catapulted his name to international fame. It recounts the story about the come-unstuck-in-time Dresden War ex-serviceman Billy Pilgrim who was abducted by extraterrestrial creature from Planet Tralfamadore. This novel is also a piece of Vonnegut’s memoir as an eyewitness when the tragedy happened. While in his seventh novel, Breakfast of Champions (1973) he stated at the preface “This book is my fiftieth-birthday present to myself. I feel as though I am crossing the spine of a roof—having ascended one slope” (4). The story revolves around a well-to-do Pontiac dealer Dwyne Hoover who was stepping into madness...
Words: 2405 - Pages: 10
...The book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a book on the experiences of World War Billy Pilgrim, the main character of this book happened to be among the military soldiers participating in this war. As a soldier, not adequately trained appears in various events that surrounds his life in Dresden. The of the book, Kurt Vonnegut organizes this events in an abnormal chronological way as he fragments the events in relation to time, characters, and the structure to combine his nonlinear story. From the book, Slaughterhouse-Five, the initial details that the readers get about Billy is that he pays unsystematic visits to every event during the war period (Bloom 11). The experiences that Billy goes through are episodes that do have chronological obligations. This reflects the structure of the book that has the beginning, body and the conclusions, not placed traditionally. The author of the book says that Billy has, “come unstuck in time.” From this phrase, the author turns the time from something intangible to something tangible and therefore uses this as a fix to his own purpose (Federhen 44). The use of the word “unstuck” by the author implies that Billy is free. Apparently, Billy and Vonnegut achieve a certain level of freedom. In other words, Vonnegut and Billy have no limitations with time and the author, Vonnegut can place the character, Billy in a period of his choice. This makes the book have an effect of collage that makes the pieces and bits of the life that Billy has...
Words: 1199 - Pages: 5
...The Judge of Wars and American Society --Black Humor in the Slaughterhouse Five American society was unstable at 1960s. Korean War and Vietnam War catalyze anti-war emotion among the American people. Black humor was normally appeared in the both literature works and comic works during that period. Black means oppression, sadness, helpless and death. Black humor is a way of using ironical comedy to show tragedy. Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller were the most famous writers in American at the period of anti-war writing. Slaughterhouse Five and Catch 22 were the representative work of black humor back then. In the Slaughterhouse Five, through the using of dark humor in the language and the characters, Kurt Vonnegut suggests the meaningless, indifferent and ruthless of the wars and American Society. In the Slaughterhouse Five, there are senses of embittered humor with the Tralfamadorian phrase “So it goes” and “blue and ivory”. These two phrases appear in the novel more than a hundred times. Through the using of repeating phrases after each time when death happens, Vonnegut built their meaning with each incremental refrain. It may look upon as funny in an ironic way when one see “So it goes” at the first time. However, when one reads further in the novel, that phrase becomes irreverent and irritating. Also at the same time, Vonnegut compares the war scene which is “all the young people in bright elastic clothing and enormous boots and goggles, bombed out of their skulls with snow,...
Words: 1106 - Pages: 5
...Slaughter-House Five In the semi autobiographical novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses the character Billy Pilgrim to depict the effects of war, death, and post traumatic stress disorder. Kurt Vonnegut felt the need to create the character of Billy Pilgrim to express his own feelings of trauma because of the difficulty to address them on a personal level. Like Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim was captured by the Germans, and witnessed the fire bombing in Dresden on February 13, 1945, which is known to be the most detrimental airstrike in military history, killing an estimated 135,000 people. “He was down in the meat locker on the night that Dresden was destroyed. There were sounds like giant footsteps above. Those were sticks of high explosive bombs. The giants walked and walked...A guard would go to the head of the stairs every so often to see what is was like outside, then he would come back down and whisper to the other guards. There was fire-storm out there. Dresden was one big flame. The one flame are everything organic, everything that would burn.” (Vonnegut 177) This quote from the book illustrates how the image of Dresden is instilled in Vonnegut's brain, from when he witnessed it, and how he can't let go of his lingering memories of Dresden. Billy Pilgrim is greatly disturbed by the obliteration he witnessed in Germany. These events signify Vonnegut’s painful past and he comes to terms with his pain through the writing of Slaughter-House Five. Freese explains...
Words: 1584 - Pages: 7
...THE MARKET WIZARDS CONVERSATIONS WITH AMERICA'S TOP TRADERS JACK D. SCHWAGER HarperBusiness You've got to learn how to fall, before you learn to fly. —Paul Simon One man's ceiling is another man's floor. —Paul Simon If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from men who had never succeeded. If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around me for those who are succeeding and do as they have done. —Joseph Marshall Wade (as quoted in a Treasury of Wall Street Wisdom edited by Harry D. Schultz and Samson Coslow) 2 Contents Preface...................................................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................5 Prologue ................................................................................................................................................6 My Own Story ......................................................................................................................................7 Part I-Futures and Currencies ...........................................................................................................9 Taking the Mystery Out of Futures.................................
Words: 49182 - Pages: 197
