Candide

Satire

Choice..

We are constantly making choices every day, every where, every time, whether we are choosing what color socks to wear to which car we should buy. But making choices goes beyond. Actually we need both parts of our brain to make an actual choice, both the rational and the emotional minds. In my English class we have been listening to a show called Radio Lab which talks about choice and the emotional and the rational minds, these are people that make experiments to normal random people and we can actually see that our emotional and our rational minds affect the greatest part of our decisions.

The first show talked about how there was a certain amount of people separated into two groups; one of the groups was given two digits to memorize while the other group was given seven digits to memorize. Their goal was reciting their digits after going through different rooms, but in the way a woman would stop offering cake and fruit. It was said that the group memorizing two digits would choose the fruit given that their rational mind was still concient but the group that was given the 7 numbers chose the cake because their rational mind wasn’t “available”.

I think its amazing how the emotional and the rational systems can effect a person so much and how everything we do from choosing a pen to making a very important decision can vary with our feelings and what we have in our minds.

"Why me?"

Talfamadorians and flying saucers. I think this chapter is overrated, it begins with our friend Billy on the night of her daughters wedding day time traveling. But he cant sleep because he knows the Tralfamadorians will pick him up in no time so he decides to go down stairs grab a bottle of champagne, he thinks about all the violence and war around the world and its humanity, and his thoughts end up again with Adam and Eve. He waits in the yard for his friends to pick him up. The flying saucer arrives and as he goes up he is asked if he has any questions and he asks "why me?" this reminds me of the movie "The knowing" This movie actually mentions many of the points in the chapter. Its about a girl that writes some numbers and puts them away in a time capsule. When they open the time capsule years later they find that all the numbers in the paper are actually dates of massive accidents, then the day arrives were everyone in the world is going to die, and a flying saucer picks up to kids and takes them to a new world were they become Adam and Eve. It mentions violence, flying saucers and Adam and Eve just like the chapter although the overall idea has nothing to do with the chapter key words make them both share similarities

The picture is actually a picture a boy drew for hi weekend project about "Slaughterhouse five" and I found it on another blog.

And so it goes..

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”

Getting back on track with my previous blogs, we are talking about Slaughterhouse five chapter 3, with our friend Billy as the main character of the story. As we can continuously see in the novel Billy is not the happiest human being. He has had a harsh life full of sorrow and grief. In chapter 3 of the novel we see that Billy is constantly having trouble with sleep using a little vibrator to help him, he can no longer stay in the present he is constantly time traveling and he cries from time to time. The chapter begins with Billy in the war and he is laying in the snow and he sees a picture of Adam and Eve in the commanders boots, and he gets some clogs that make his feet bleed when he walks through the cold harsh snow. He time travels when he tries to sleep with his magic fingers vibrator to marching in the snow.  

Thequote “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, 

and wisdom always to tell the difference.” is when they are talking about a bombarding in Vietnam and Billy only thinks about the plaque he has in his office with the quote

i mentioned and its kind of ironic because Billy can not change the past the present nor the future.

And so it goes..

Time Traveler

Chapter 2 in Slaughterhouse five is about Billy Pilgrim traveling through time in an attempt to give us a "tour" through his life. He takes us from place to place, time to time disaster through disaster. He is a unique character who has undergone many moments of crisis during his life. They tell us every detail; from the fact that he was optometrist who was drafted to the fact that his wife died to giving a speech in 1957 as the newly elected president of the Ilium Lions Club.We get to see Billys life from moment to moment we picture everything, we are there, we see him like no one else does. Just the reader and the character picturing every movement, every feeling. One would think that this is a book like any other with the courage and the bravery of loyal friends and a helping hand instead we see that our friend Billy totally lacks companions and instead he is saved by a guy who only thinks about being a hero. 

We also face the idea that this book is no fairy tale, no. In only chapter two we face The death of Billys father in a hunting accident before Billy is drafted, we find ourselves with a plane crash full of victims with Billy being the only survivor, and off course as I previously mentioned the mothers death as she is coming to visit his son. We know that Billy has a tough life although he has survived to a plane crash, war, and his parents death. 

This book actually reminds me of "Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" this movie is constantly jumping from time to time. It shows us the past, present, and future of the characters life through the main characters dreams and experiences and it also set on the present but it still jumps from time to time its also a little science fiction, like all the part of the aliens picking him up (tralfamadore).

And so it goes.. 

Say it once, maybe twice..

People are constantly communicating with other people, exchanching ideas or simply talking about the latest soccer game. As a highschool student I tend to speak to a lot to my friends, basically that's how I spend most of my free time. And I find it particularly aggrivating when I have to repeat myself more than once. When your caght up with a topic you're really into and people are constantly asking you to repeat things once, twice, and then 3 times it gets to a point where its really tiring, and it may be considered rude. I understand if you're not interested in the topic, but then again then why do you keep "listeting" or pretending when you could be doing something better, and maybe, somebody who is intereseted could actually listen and have an interesting conversation with you. But no, most of the time you just have to put up with people that constantly are asking you to repeat yourself. It can be anywhere, about anything, and with anyone. Sometimes im in the car when my mom decides to tell me AGAIN that we have lunch at my grandmas monday, i get stressed, or sometimes im at school talking to my friend about something I already told her but it seems she wasnt paying attention neither the first or the second time so there I am repeating myself again. Or just socializing at a party talking to a person I just met and I have to repeat myself four times before he can actually get an idea of what im saying because he is not paying atention. Maybe theres reasons, yeah my mom doesnt want to forget my grandmas lunch or my friend really didint hear what I said the first time, and maybe, just maybe the guy im talking to at the party is to drunk and he just noddes because thats all he can do, either way whatever the reason is, I still find it rude and aggrivating.
And offcourse there will always be people who repeat things constantly, they are always telling the same old stories, or just asking again and again what your plans are for the summer. That I find aggrivating as well, as I previously mentioned once is fine, I mean no one is perfect but when people start doing this kinds of things more than once I can't stand it. I was paying attention the first time, I get the point.

V.

I find slaughterhouse five a very interesting book. The first chapter is written in an informal way and I like the way the author tells you about the book at first. For example it mentions songs and informal language it kind of feels like you were having a normal conversation with Vonnegut. He talks about his position in an honest informal way as I previously mentioned. He talks about how he always wished about writing a book about his old days and when he finally got the chance he couldn't remember anything that could actually make the book somewhat interesting. I find this book  entertaining because its different, its unique, it "out of the box" and those are things I definitely enjoy. I cant wait to read the whole book and the chronicles of Vonneguts character, I think I will enjoy it a lot. 

And so it goes..