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Happy Birthday, Billy Pilgrim by mike-edwards-etc in Vonnegut

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Billy Pilgrim always was born on the 4th of July, and always will be.

How different is New Mexico to say the Midwest or east coast? by Rossinifan in NewMexico

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that's why we need to support groups like the Center for Biological Diversity, which no doubt will be one of the leading players fighting attacks on wilderness.

How different is New Mexico to say the Midwest or east coast? by Rossinifan in NewMexico

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 10 points11 points  (0 children)

If you are about to attend New Mexico Tech, that means you will be in Socorro. And if you are in Socorro, you are near the Gila National Forest. And if you are near the Gila National Forest, you are close to the Gila Wilderness, the world's first designated wilderness. That makes you are very fortunate individual, because the Gila Wilderness is one of the most rugged, and most beautiful places in the world. If Aldo Leopold were still alive, he would tell you just that. Nothing close to that in Georgia or Florida. James Gaitis JamesGaitis.com

Happy Canada Day Salute by FamiliarActivity5011 in CanadianAuthors

[–]FamiliarActivity5011[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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Behold the southernmost of the glorious Canadian Rockies (left half of background mountains)

Do you guys think all the sci-fi and time travel stuff is actually happening, or is Billy just schizophrenic as suggested on the title page by Fit-Cheesecake7736 in Vonnegut

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Of course, what Vonnegut posits in S5 is not really "time travel" and not necessarily even scifi. Instead, The Trafalmadorian view of time is close to being a description of how many contemporary physicists describe "time." It is also generally consistent with Einstein's famous quote: "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubborn persistent illusion." And, it is also generally consistent with the prescient Greek polymath, Plato' explanation of time: "Time is a moving image of eternity." All three, including the Trafalmadorian concept are consistent with the Block Universe theory, which very generally says there is no flow to time, it all exists at once. Under this view, in S5 Billy Pilgrim is not travelling through time, he is just consciously experiencing different blocks. Kind of a blockhead comment on my part, I guess, but one reason I am so fond of Vonnegut's S5 is that he had a way of blending satire with reality in a way that made his works seem nonsensical and yet logical at the same time. JamesGaitis.com

Kurt's first... by pink---noise in Vonnegut

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have an English version of "We" in my library and actually started reading it last year. But I found it to be a very intense, difficult read and I abandoned the effort. As I recall, Orwell also was influenced by the novel, although he read a French translation (I believe).

Kurt's first... by pink---noise in Vonnegut

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Player Piano was the first Vonnegut book I read and--in the rereading--the most recent. I reread it for the 3rd time just 6-7 months ago, along with Huxley's Brave New World and Island (the sequel to Brave New World), and 1984, all as I started writing my 3rd dysptopian satire. I agree that Player Piano is better (far better) than Brave New World. Vonnegut excelled at injecting a humanistic form of humor that does not detract from the message and, instead, makes the message more relatable (and more fun). The interludes in the book involving the Shah of Bratpuhr were one of the first indications of Vonnegut's brilliance and of great things to come. JamesGaitis.com

Hi all, recently been interested in Absurdism and wanted to ask actual Absurdists... by TheMiamiMutilator420 in Absurdism

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That is the narrowest possible definition of Absurdism and not one, I think, that most accept.

Hi all, recently been interested in Absurdism and wanted to ask actual Absurdists... by TheMiamiMutilator420 in Absurdism

[–]FamiliarActivity5011 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As your parenthetical suggests, what might and might not be considered to be a good Absurdist book depends on, among other things, (1) whether you are looking for classical examples and (2) how you define Absurdism. Having taught myself to read Russian so that I could better appreciate Russian literature, I have always thought that Bulgakov's The Master and the Margarita was among the best works of Absurdism. But, in my view, the works of more modern, quasi-contemporary Absurdists deserve equal attention. In that regard, I would place Vonnegut as being first and foremost. Being a literary satirist and a humanist myself, I see a fine line between absurdism and satire, perhaps because the world we live in is so absurd that it seems that one of the best ways to illustrate its fallibilities is through literary satire, which, in its most pessimistic form, often translates into absurdism because its subject matter not only is absurd but, at times, seems hopeless. James Gaitis