Everything Happens, More or Less.

“All this happened, more or less.” The bombing of Dresden happened and eventually Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book about it. He had trouble doing it though. He had trouble remembering the most traumatic event of his life.  The most important events in a person’s life normally shine like a beacon in his memories and they have probably been replayed constantly. But when it comes to actually describing said events, you may find that they become a full on blur, and no words seem to fit.  The moment you really have to think about that episode that changed your life, suddenly the memory seems to be gone

“All this happened, more or less.” Everything seems to be that way in the world now, even in Kurt Vonnegut’s reality. We never really know what’s happening. Twisted propaganda, social classes, and commercialism have led us all towards different realities. We all live in bubbles, thinking that our own specific reality is the same around the world. We live without realizing that what to us seems normal, may be considered completely abnormal in someone else’s life.

“All this happened, more or less.” This phrase is how Kurt Vonnegut chose to start Slaughterhouse Five, one of his most famous novels. In my opinion no other beginning would have fit this book better. The whole first chapter of Slaughterhouse Five is completely different from anything I expected. Having heard that it was a famous “war book” I wasn’t expecting what I read. I was pleasantly surprised though, and I noticed that this seemed more realistic than any other book that simply talks about war. The way the author captures the want to write about war, and at the same time the hesitancy to do so, makes the book a master piece.  Vonnegut doesn’t organize his ideas in a traditional way. He jumps from memory to memory, creating a brilliantly messed up order for the story. He writes in short chapters, each one being a specific memory. Although this manner of writing may be frustrating for the reader at times, I find it makes the book even more interesting and realistic, because no one really thinks in chronological order.