No Vacancy

In Francisco Serna's blog he touched some very interesting ideas to what the cities themselves stand for in these concise descriptions leading to a puzzle I yet haven't found the key to. Serna talked of Invisible Cities  as a map Calvino presents the reader symbolizing a road through literature but I find the book to be much more than that. Not only can you look at aspects like those presented in Marco's expeditions but you find morals to life and kind of underlying meaning with much philosophical background. 

"And you know that in the long journey ahead of you, when to keep awake against the camel's swaying or the junk's rocking, you start summoning up your memories one by one, your wolf will have become another wolf, your sister a different sister, your battle other

battles, on your return from Euphemia, the city where memory is traded at every solstice and at every equinox."

As I've read through a large portion of the book as well and I do find myself searching for so many lost pieces to this puzzle I don't feel void or empty. On the contrary I feel the cities have shown the Kahn entry to corners of his empire he had never assimilated. Its very weird, but I find Marco Polo's travels as a guide through life and issues that real people face everyday. These troubles are mixed in with the connection the text makes on itself but the book is very far from being meaningless or empty. Serna says he extracts irrelevant messages from the cities but i think he's missed a big portion of the book in which the literal and figurative meanings converge creating the invisibility of these cities. 

Misplaced Elements

We're diving into section three with the understanding Marco Polo has recurred to symbols and signs in his description to Kahn. The words are no longer sufficient to fill the void created around each city so its up to him to recur to other methods in order to transmit his sole message. 

"So, for each city, after the fundamental information given in precise words, he followed with a mute commentary, holding up his hands, palms out, or backs, or sideways, in straight or oblique movements, spasmodic or slow. A new kind of dialogue was established: the Great Khan's white hands, heavy with rings, answered with stately movements the sinewy, agile hands of the merchant. "

The images the Kahn had first assimilated with the cities when Polo was unable to speak are now filling his mind and becoming necessary tools in his descriptions. Its interesting to see how the return to the basic and primitive somehow produces better understanding for the Kahn. Calvino's idea is full of irony but indeed, makes a lot of sense to the reader. Kahn assimilates to what he considers known and is distant to detailed descriptions serving no meaning what so ever. Remembering Cities & Signs I couldn't help thinking about the symbolism that every sign meant something it didn't mean. Could we connect this idea with the images Marco portrays to Kahn or are these completely separate events?

"Kublai Khan had noticed that Marco Polo's cities resembled one another, as if the passage from one to another involved not a journey but a change of elements."

There is now a distinct connection between the cities that even Kahn is assimilating. We have clear resemblenzes in which physical characteristics amongst cities find themselves repeated, but the philosophical ideas seem to shift in between each city. I now see that for Kahn to understand the essence of his whole empire, or for us to understand the book, we need to connect these elements and form a conclusion Marco, or Calvino is leading us to. 

Conservation of the Primitive

I'm finally pulling out of the darkness. Calvino has opened our eyes with important connections I hadn't previously understood. Whenever we find dialogue between Kublai and Marco it's now clear to me Calvino is communicating with the readers through metaliterature. He uses this as an added meaning to the actual text. Its the book commenting on itself giving us further understanding between the literal text and the figurative understanding. 

"All this so that Marco Polo could explain or imagine explaining or be imagined explaining or succeed finally in explaining to himself that what he sought was always something lying ahead, and even if it was a matter of the past it was a past that changed gradually as he advanced on his journey, because the traveller's past changes according to the route he has followed: not the immediate past, that is, to which each day that goes by adds a day, but the more remote past."

This quote gave me a very broad interpretation of what both Calvino wanted to transmit to us figuratively and what the text was literally commenting on. There's something very interesting to how your past and your own life experiences form your future life. I'll be moving a bit off topic to talk about Sigmund Freud. He talks about something called "conservation of the primitive" which I found to relate completely to Calvino's text. Its your life experiences as a young boy, some which you don't even remember, what form your life and your interpretation of different challenges that will be presented to you throughout it. Freud says deep inside your subconscious these events form behavioral trends, directly affecting your life. Calvino is making reference to the fact that we are unable to ignore our past actions for they will make us who we are. 

Looking at it through metaliterature I came to realize how the whole issue of past and present could be talking about how the "utopia's" description we are reading will lead us to a final conclusion we'll soon come to discover. Our future changes as it is and understanding of the past.

Which order?

As I began reading Invisible Cities  it soon came to my attention how Calvino makes order a key part to the understanding of the reading. You are presented with the option of reading the book from cover to cover or individualize each section such as Cities & Memories, and reading all those first. Mine was pretty straight forward: cover to cover.

"Leaving there and proceeding for three days towards the east, you reach Diomira..." 

Here, the first city is being presented to us with a short description. As we continue on the text, Calvino's description introduces a whole new city called Isidora. How can we find a viable connection between these two? I realized as I continued reading through section one that it would be very hard to find any connection what so ever. This lead me to question the order in which I was reading the book. I skimmed into section two, lining up all the Cities & Desire, but to my surprise still there was no apparent meaning. No understanding beyond the literal text is present so its extremely confusing to find a relation between any of the cities mentioned above. I'll have to look at the text from a more figurative point of view to find a clear understanding of what this book is really about.


"The dreamed-of city contained him as a young man; he arrives at Isidora in his old age."

Here Calvino made a very interesting comparison which mentioned how the man reaches the perfect city but no as he imagined, being young. He's now an old man watching the world go by from what looked as perfection. Calvino makes a great comparison with a very troubling issue of life in which men work forever and are never able to enjoy there success. He definitely caught my attention there but the connections aren't here yet.

The book reminds somewhat to a movie by Guy Ritchie called Snatch. His technique focuses different plot lines to converge around one central story. At the end they all come together showing the viewer, with impecable perfection, what the whole movie is really about. I don't see Invisible Cities as a book were something like this will happen, but we'll just have to wait and see.

The End

Finally we finished Slaughter House-Five. It's been a long journey, one I've definitely enjoyed. Vonnegut's genius and unimaginable creativity carried me through the whole novel without ever wanting to stop. It also brought hundreds of questions he left unanswered. I'm now left in a limbo wanting to sit down and talk with Vonnegut to see if I can clear my doubts. I guess I'll just have to check my schedule to see if I'm not too busy.
The book met its objective to leave something on the reader. I can safely say I'll never forget reading this masterpiece because of all the different ideas the reader can extract. A few I grabbed from the novel were its clear anti-war message and the emphasize on time which really made me understand moments in life will never come back. They'll live in the back of our heads as memories for us to cherish or regret but we will never live them again.
The ending was more than just a bit disappointing. It left more questions rather than bringing any answers but its hard to imagine any other way Vonnegut could've ended the novel. The biggest question I have with regards to the novel has been cooking in my head for a while now. Does Billy ever live through his entire life? He was only visiting specific moments in time so what happened to all those other days. The thousands of days full of the same routine, the cloudy Monday mornings and the sunny Saturday afternoons. Where they went we'll never know.
It was nice meeting Billy. Living day inn and day out the experiences that shaped the life of such a wonderful character. Meeting Weary, Rumfoord, Valencia, Montana, Campbell, the Tralfamadorians, and Trout was also great. Getting so close, so personal to these fictitious was a task only an author like Vonnegut could achieve. To all of them I say bye bye, it was great reading the book. To Vonnegut I say rest in piece. So it goes.

Certainty

I can say I've loved reading this book, I can also say I've hated it just as much. It's continuous references to other parts of the book or other people such as Howard Campbell have led me to Google search more than a dozen times. Above all the book has been very enjoyable and interesting which is really the most important. I'm getting closer and closer to the end and really don't know what to expect. I just know for sure its not going to be conventional. It's not going to be happy or sad, it will just be.

In Francisco Serna's blog, The Reading Tavern, I found some very interesting points. He talks about how Billy's destiny is presented to us in the book and questions the fact that there is no attempt from him to change the moments as he lives them. Several times in the book I asked myself the same question. There is really no answer and its up to us to develop our own theories. Francisco mentions he considers Billy does, in fact, have freewill. He is reliving the moments and therefore, has the ability to change the events. But, does he? I believe Billy has complete control over all his experiences but dosen't show any interest in changing any of the events. Why dosen't he want to avoid tragedy? If in fact his destiny is already predetermined how can he know how to act in each specific situation? Sometimes the time traveling seemed more like a dream, like a clip from movie. You can see it, hear it, but you can't touch it or change any of it. But if there is no central plot where is the dream coming from, where is Billy? He is just there. These questions will really only bring more but maybe Vonnegut will surprise us at the end answering a few of these. 

So It Goes...

A book is made out of letters, words, and sentences that later fill up entire pages to entertain us, the readers.  Now lets ask ourselves this question: What makes a great book? There is really no answer but in Vonnegut's novel specific words and phrases are essential for the book's development.

It's not very hard to notice how he uses words to play with the readers using his incomparable imagination and satiric voice displaying his genius. One of his tricks is italicizing words that make reference to a period in time. Whenever Vonnegut refers to was, were, is, and will he makes special emphasize because as we know the novel mentions time is not linear. According to Billy everything is because there is not past present or future, a Tralfamadorian belief. 

One aphorism Vonnegut includes repeated times in the text is "So It Goes". He mentions this after any death is commented on bringing a very informal tone to the novel. Its not grief what he's displaying for he believes there is no tragedy in death. It isn't the end of the journey for there is no end, its just another point in life. The continuous use of this really takes the reader into the novel and makes them question, analyze, and doubt its use and meaning. His informal register also helps us familiarize ourselves much more with the characters and story. Very few novels have really ever taken me so deep into the story line with the use of words and maxims.

Various techniques are used to achieve the desired effect. One of my favorites is repetition. There was one case that really left me mind blown. It didn't prove a point, but it expressed the idea that everything in the book is interlaced. Through the first chapters Billy is traveling with Weary and the Three Musketeers, they then die and not long after Weary dies but Billy survives. Many years later he's with his wife who appears eating candy bars several times throughout the novel. Interestingly the fisrt time Vonnegut makes mention of the candy bars she is eating a Three Musketeers candy bar. The connection may be meaningless but it left me thinking for days and even now I'm still mind blow, perpetually mind blown. 

Vonnegut's word choice and technique display his genius.

A Predictable Future

When reading a book its always the unexpected what thrills the reader. We never know whats coming or what will happen next but we're always a few pages away from finding out. This is, indeed, the push that makes us continue through the book even in those dull moments. Slaughter House Five seems to separate itself completely from any book I've ever read before. With no central plot, no chronological order whatsoever we as readers aren't waiting for something to come. We already know we're we'll be going, were the characters are taking, but we simply don't know the path. Billy already took us to his death in 1976, he already showed us Derby's death. We've made leaps all over his life but its still so mysterious, so intriguing. Something else thats coming to be increasingly important in the book  is the life of Vonnegut, Trout, and Billy joining in together and being incredibly interconnected. I've got to the point of thinking all these characters are Vonnegut's alienated personalities. He represent his feelings, thoughts, and ideas in such a way that sometimes it resembles an autobiography. One of its kind.

A couple days ago a saw an excellent movie. I felt the main character related a lot with Billy and Vonnegut. In Fight Club, the main character, Tyler Durden is actually personified by two separate actors who represent his two different personalities. Although in reality he is only one he sees himself as another person while other people only see him as one. It is a very weird movie with a very intricate plot but the way the characters are presented somehow resembled the connection between Billy and Vonnegut. Another great movie that creates this effect is Identity.

A Mirrored Reflection

Finally. After five long chapters it seems two universes have finally met. Since the beginning I've been speculating on whether or not Billy is indeed Vonnegut but it seems the book has brought my answer a bit earlier than expected. At first I thought Billy's life went in parallel with Vonnegut's. He was Vonnegut's representation of himself in another soldier than went through the same torments he himself had seen in the war. My prediction was erroneous as I came to see in the second part of Chapter 5. When Billy visits the latrines a soldier comments on the gruesome dump he's taking. "There they go, there they go.” These are the only words we hear from a character Vonnegut refers to as himself. It’s a fairly short encounter but a huge turning point in how I now view the book. It’s clear now that Billy is a separate character. He may still be a reflection of Vonnegut’s own madness but we now know, Billy is in fact Billy Pilgrim.

Something else really caught my attention. They quote Howard W. Campbell, an American now working for the Nazi propaganda. His work was sent out to Nazi POW camps to somehow make the officers understand the American’s psychology and to somehow explain why they acted the way they did. In his quotes, Campbell makes great critique of American society, he says, “They mock themselves and glorify their betters”. It talks about higher powers abusing the inferior, pure capitalism. Never before had I heard of an American traitor working for the Nazi regime. He is, in fact, a fictional character that Vonnegut writes about in a previous novel called Mother Night and really only makes short mention in Slaughter House – Five. Campbell is accused after the war but commits suicide before he is ever convicted. So it goes.

Meaningful Art

 The madness in Billy Pilgrim’s life is put under the spotlight. We are now being exposed to an intricate, complex Billy that fears his past. He ignores his mom’s company and lives his life immersed in science fiction books, staying day and night in a veteran’s hospital. This is the year 1948. But this isn’t the present, it isn’t the past, and it definitely isn’t the future. It’s the whole spectrum of his life; we don’t see any chronological order for this doesn’t exist. Moments never come one after the other and what we extract is the big picture. All these ideas really captured my attention.

Billy prepares for his abduction; he already knows they’re coming so he patiently waits. Inside the flying saucer he wants to experience their literature and soon finds himself deciphering something resembling a telegram. This is Tralfamadorian literature. These aliens don’t read consecutive words. Their language consists on forming an image with symbols and just capturing a big picture. It gave the text more depth than any earthling novel could ever create. I connected this immediately with the idea that sometimes images are far more profound than words. “We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the other. There isn’t any particular relationship between all the messages except that the author has chosen them carefully, so that, when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprisingly deep.” The idea of joining together fragments of unrelated material and creating an idea just blew me away. It’s like when we looked at the still painting a few weeks ago. We see a skull, some incense, a sword and other unrelated objects but quickly draw a conclusion. We find meaning behind everyday things you wouldn’t actually look into. Their novels resembled our photographs. Resembled beauty in a perpetual life. 

A Backwards World

There is no was, no will. “It simply is”. It is we, the earthlings that think of free will as something real. We don’t see our lives being shaped by predestination. We believe our actions can shape the future because we see time only in its linear form. Time is relative. It’s circular. Never before had I looked at life in such a way. Never had I even heard of someone talk about it like this. The idea had not been conceived. It takes a book like this to really change your understanding of life, or at least make the attempt of doing so. Quickly Slaughter House Five is turning into one of my favorite books because of its powerful and controversial anecdotes. Just a couple weeks ago a school in Missouri banned this book because of its controversial teachings.  They argued it went “against the bible”. That small fact just makes this book even better, it’s suppose to open people’s mind, to make you think outside if the box. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Up to this point in the book I think I’ve found my favorite part. It’s a strong anti war message brought to us in a very bizarre way. “The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.” This is just an excerpt but it shows us how all destruction is created by us. We purposely search for the deadliest minerals, combine them to form even worst compounds, and then drop them on the innocent just to punish the few guilty ones. That basically is war. We never consider the other option. Not doing any of this. It’s hard to find the why, because there is no why. For now lets leave it at that because this is what it is.

Living In the Moment

           After finishing Chapter 2 I couldn't hold back on the reading, Vonnegut's style makes the narrative that much better and I could only hope the next chapter would do the same. It met all my expectations. 

We begin the chapter by seeing how Billy and Weary encounter a melancholic German patrol and are soon put in captivity. They meet up with more American prisoners and began their journey to a POW camp deep behind German lines. 

I could see how Vonnegut has a very peculiar style in his writing. Through out the story he introduces secondary characters such as the blonde german kid,Wild Bob, the Hobo and others to make the readers identify not only with Billy but with many other characters. He outlines their lives in a very basic way, enough for us to make a personal connection with each and every one of them. These only last a few lines, they then disappear in our memory to be long forgotten. Vonnegut also emphasizes time travel much more taking us a few times to the late 60's around the time Billy first met  the aliens. 

Something that caught my attention was when they mentioned Billy can't change the past, present or future. Most of the time when they talk about time travel they make reference to a butterfly effect where anything you change will create unimaginable repercussions in the future. The character's are then faced with the decision of changing their  lives to meet their dreams without causing any horrible changes but always end up wrecking the future (The Butterfly Effect, Hot Tub Time Machine, Back To the Future). This story differs from them all for we don't see any attempts what so ever of Billy trying to change his life, he just lives in the moment through a predetermined destiny. I still have to see if later on he does make any attempts to do so, but is it even possible? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The Circle of Life

        In the second chapter Vonnegut begins the story introducing us to Billy. He takes us through his life fairly quickly as he just wants to give us the big picture to further present how this character dosen't perceive time as we do. He is able to go to any moment of his life, even his death and birth. At one point in his life, his daughter's wedding, he was abducted by the Tralfamadores and taken for exhibition to their faraway planet. There he gathers a huge amount of knowledge regarding time, how nothing is linear and how events are plainly laid on a table, not one after the other as we see them. Then Billy goes to the point in his life were he first experienced this phenomenon, even before meeting the "aliens". This reminded me a lot of "Inception". It looked like Billy was experiencing a dream on another dream, the only difference was he could travel to any moment in his life.

         What really captivated my attention was how Vonnegut exposed his view on life and the afterlife. Billy talked about how the Tralfamadores had 4D sight, they could look at any point in there life and saw death only as a bad part of a person's life. They didn't see it as the end, it was only a picture in whole photo album. This is something Vonnegut made very clear all throughout stating, "So it goes" after a death was discussed (There were a lot of deaths in this chapter) taking a portion of the tragedy away. I could really relate to this as I too see death as only the continuation of life, not the end as many others see it. Its really all part of the circle, the circle of life. 

Leaving the Past Behind

         Reading Slaughter House 5 really showed me the effect war creates on people. Not only on those involved but also on the others who, alone, wait in the dark for those loved ones to come. So many fathers' they'll never see again, so many kids left alone, and so many widows that will slowly began to forget their husband's faces.

        Vonnegut talked about how when he came back from the war it was so hard to find enough words about the Dresden bombings. With time, as the memory faded in the peoples' mind, he started putting the pieces back together but suddenly no one knew what had happened in Dresden. It was now a long forgotten memory that only he could seem to hold on to. War is idealized in the movies. When it comes everyone despises it, and when it leaves everyone forgets it. No one wants to look back, they are all leaving the past behind.  I felt it somewhat connected to how in "1984" people are brainwashed to the point of not differentiating the enemy. Yesterday we fought the communist, today the terrorist, who will we fight tomorrow?  

Winston Smith In Dante's Inferno

In the book 1984 they introduce us to Winston Smith.  A lonely man working for a party he secretly hates. Being constantly monitored and coping with the fear of being vanished he is unable to show his true feelings. His fear slowly disappears when he meets Julia, a rebellious party member, and begin their secret affair. This first act of disobedience then transforms itself into the search for the underground resistance he has heard so much of. With the hope of finding the leader of said resistance he approaches a colleague he suspects to be on his side. This then leads him to discover a dark secret and end the book on a fairly tragic note. With all this in mind, where should Winston go in the Inferno?

All throughout Dante’s comedy we see how the enemies of the Roman Empire are severely punished. If said party was Oceania he would travel all the way to the 9^th circle, Antenora; where traitors to the homeland duel. Winston could also travel to the 2^nd circle, the home of the lustful. He mentioned his wife was a dead fish, but now with Julia sex was a thrill. Those two circles seem the most appropriate to fulfill his punishment.

After making a quick reflection on 1984 its clear to me there is no poetic justice. Winston, who we could consider the “good guy” is not rewarded at the end. If Inferno were to serve poetic justice we would then have to see Big Brother and other party members lying around the Inferno.  Big Brother would lay with the tyrants next to Alexander who inflicted so much death and sorrow. Winston and Julia would move to heaven. There, poetic justice would be served and the Inferno would become a utopia. A place where sinners pay for their crimes eternally and no innocent souls live amongst the damned. Then again the world would be in peace. It would be perfect.

The Perfect Life By: John Koethe

In Koethe's poem, The Perfect Life, we see the life of an everyday man described in the words of a soul in denial. Looking towards the near horizon, Koethe talks about how the happy moments in life come only once and as time passes by the feelings of contempt soon turn into old memories when everything you took for granted "bears a name to be forgotten soon...". He talks about perfection as something that is lost in time. The obstacles you used to climb with such easiness soon turn into the high walls closing your dreams forever. There once was a time when you never looked back, but now gazing far off into the distance is not enough. You want to recall those moments you thought were filled with perfection but now you see your life was never perfect. This is the idea he portrays in the poem.

I think life is only as perfect as you want it to be. The pursuit of happiness and perfection is the engine that pushes people through life. Is it money what they're looking for? Is it love? Everyone has different opinions but I want to talk about what I consider perfection. Live in the moment and make every minute count, never look back and never have any regrets because life is only one and its up to you to live it the best way possible. As Koethe said, moments won't last forever as soon they will be lost in time.

Every day we face problems and maybe we don't always look forward to the next day because life is a challenge, life is not perfect. It will never be but we still have to stride forward without ever hesitating. Perfection will always come as far as we want it to and someday, not to long from today, you'll recall those moments you enjoyed so much as that single tear slides down your cheek. That joyous tear that represents you accomplished everything you ever wanted. Your life was perfect. 

Poetic Justice in Dante's Inferno

All through Dante's inferno we see different types of sinners being punished according to the crimes they committed on earth. In the Seventh Ring, Dante and Virgil face the violent and in their journey they first encounter the violent against their neighbors. After facing the minotaur a centaur escorts them along side the river of blood where tyrants and murderers face their punishment. Here me see poetic justice being served to the criminals depending on the severity of their crime. Tyrants such as Alexander, who killed so many men, lay deep inside the river of blood with only his eye brows being exposed. Others, who's crimes weren't as severe have more of their bodies protruding from the river, and as Dante walks more and more the sinners have more of their bodies exposed. 

Poetic justice consists of vice being punished and virtue rewarded, not just this circle is a perfect example but the Inferno as a whole is just that precisely. Sinners lay deep in the realm of evil suffering from the worst punishments (vice being punished), no innocent soul is in the inferno except for Dante who is just visiting. In the following books when they visit heaven we see the other half of poetic justice being served, when virtue is there rewarded. Poetic justice was key in Dante's masterpiece as we could clearly see in the 7th circle as well as the rest of Inferno.