Just finished for the first time. Amazing how relevant this book is in today’s AI environment. Long live the reeks and wrecks of the world!

Should we quote it when dealing with grief or not? I think it is both a phrase that euphemizes and waters down death without properly facing it AND a deeply meaningful approach to life and loss.

The use of the phrase “So it goes” is ambiguous and I certainly think that the Tralfamadorian way of perceiving time can be beautiful and applicable to both grief and other elements of the human condition. However, the direct context in which it is used in the book can detract this value from the phrase. Throwing it around whenever somebody passes might not be right.

Tralfamadorians are fourth-dimensional beings. When they look at somebody they see a clear panorama of everything this person once was and everything they will be. They experience the present as merely being “trapped in the amber of this moment”.
They just say “So it goes” whenever somebody passes because death is less significant of an event to them; they have always seen it coming, it’s just a minuscule piece of everything they know and see.

Seeing people as a collage of everything they have been and have experienced throughout their life is not something exclusive to the fourth dimension. Your memories of time spent with people you love are incredibly valuable. Them being alive once— laughing, feeling, falling in love, running to catch a train— will always have existed and thus will forever exist, woven into the fabric of time and space.

——————

In the book, Billy, while experiencing intense flashbacks to his time serving in WWII, says the phrase whenever somebody dies. This is a coping mechanism, a necessary one in his situation but an unhealthy one for dealing with loss in most contexts. It uses the Tralfamadorian philosophy to avoid grief instead of facing it.
What’s important to emphasize is that in Billy’s case, he was— and during his flashbacks still is— mentally incapable of processing the incomprehensible amount of pain and loss that he experienced in the war. In reality, he discovered the Tralfamadorians and their ways when he read science-fiction books in the hospital after surviving a plane crash that “cracked open [his] skull”.

My conclusion is: the phrase “So it goes” should be used in a way that encompasses a fourth-dimension perspective of time moulded to meaningfully fit the third-dimensional human condition,
not in a way that allows one to avoid facets of the human condition like grief because a traumatized and brain-damaged war veteran keeps repeating it to (rightfully) soften the blow of his memories without having to face an intolerable amount of grief.

I want to clarify that this is an interpretation of the phrase when it’s placed OUTSIDE of the book and applied to grief in peoples’ own personal life, not in a war. Maybe a little too specific

❕ For context, I was spiraling over how to deal with loss within my family and when “So it goes” popped into my head, it felt dismissive at first. Read an analysis of the book I wrote in my notes app, was reminded of how I originally liked to interpret the phrase and found it comforting.

Whats your favorite? If you’ve read a handful do you how would you order? I’ve been doing a bunch of head to head comparisons of books I’ve read to get some fun rankings/stats and it’s landed me at this ultimate Vonnegut sorting. I think I might quibble over Breakfast being ahead of Sirens, but otherwise that’s my list.

Whats yours? And excited to see which next book I should pick up based on your favorites! Cheers!

So it goes.

(He's calling the hotel now to see if we can get it back. He's so sweet 🥺)

Edit. They found it but can't send it back I guess? We live 3000 miles away so we can't go to lost and found and get it. Luckily my aunt lives in the city where his conference was and I've contacted her to see if she can retrieve it from them and mail it back. He feels so bad for losing one of my favorite things. I said it's just a thing, it's okay. He reminded me that it was a gift from my parents for Christmas, so it isn't just a thing. I said "so it goes." No word back from Aunt yet.

Edit 2: my aunt responded and she will be there sometime this week to ask for it! And my boyfriend said he would replace it if the copy from my parents doesn't come back home. I told him he didn't need to do that but he insisted.

all I need is Godbless You Mr Rosewater which i already read from the library but I don/t have my own copy

just finished a reread of Timequake . here are the 4 constitutional amendments proposed in the book.

Article XXVIII: Every newborn shall be sincerely welcomed and cared for until maturity.

Article XXIX: Every adult who needs it shall be given meaningful work to do, at a living wage.

Article XXX: Every person, upon reaching a statutory age of puberty, shall be declared an adult in a solemn public ritual, during which he or she must welcome his or her new responsibilities in the community, and their attendant dignities.

Article XXXI: Every effort shall be made to make every person feel that he or she will be sorely missed when he or she is gone.

Why throw money at problems? That is what money is for.

Should the nation’s wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful.

Also from mother night❤️

Kurt Vonnegut museum

This movie feels so inspired by Vonnegut in its humor and story to me. Great characters, important message, silly humor, and a commentary on humanity.

Anyone else feel this way/enjoy this movie?

And the whole movie is very Vonnegut coded

I did a search and didn't find a post about it, but this popped up in my FB feed this morning. According to Google, as if the title didn't give it away already, this book is definitely inspired by Kurt's work. I plan on reading it.

Hey folks, just curious of where you’ve all seen the best selection of Vonnegut works in the wild? Personally I love indie bookstores and always look for Vonnegut in used and new stores. Some great bookstores have really slim collections, most are average - usually a couple slaughterhouse 5 copies and 2-4 other novels if I’m lucky. I went to Powell’s in Oregon once and saw this selection and was blown away. Anyone found anything better than this?

1. One of my best friends introduced me to kurt Vonnegut and re sparked my love of reading with cats craddle. So i found him a copy of BOC.

2. I finished BOC durring an experimental tape set. The second i pulled it out the 3 other people at my table were like “holy shit i love that book” “is this your first time reading it”

3. Another friend needed a project in the park so she recommended a buthole on my hat..

:) love this silly author.

Reading sirens of Titans next followed by Galapagos and slapstick.

Thank you for comming to my tex

I finished Sirens the other day and since then, I’ve read the final pages over and over and actually, I got goosebumps just now thinking about it! Don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t read it but man, what a wonderful book!! Many authors have danced around what he was talking about, and I love him for just putting his version out there!

short story from Welcome To The Monkey House.

i first read this over a decade ago. i remembered it was an uplifting story. i decided to read it aloud today to a family member.

y'all. i was BAWLING by the end. tears streaming down my face, throat choked with emotion, had to stop reading to just 😭 for a solid minute.

i am a band geek and have John Philip Sousa's "Stars And Stripes Forever" memorized. i also recently turned 40, the age Helmholtz is in this story.

this fourteen-page story about hope in a hopeless world is sublime. no notes except to say, i wish every human being under 70 would read it and reflect upon its message.

Better lock em away when She's around.

With a senator at least braindead if not fully physically dead and now tonight's news of another senator's death that many are speculating is to hide the other but no matter what has happened

I just wonder.. and wish. He would have written how my soul feels right now, I just know it

Hi all, I believe I may have just been the beneficiary of the steal of the century, and would love the knowledgeable eyes of this sub to confirm it for me. I popped in to my local used bookshop in LA, and saw this gorgeous copy of SL5 on display on its own, as most first editions tend to be in used shops. I went to grab it just to hold it, as I’ve never seen an SL5 first edition and it’s the white whale of my KV collection. Imagine my shock when I open the cover and see the price is listed at $35. I’ve never bought anything so quickly in my life. Is this thing really a first edition? Every copy I’ve ever seen online has been in the many hundreds to thousands of dollars, still reeling about this find (if it is actually a first edition)