The previous blog talked about the controlling values for the book Slaughterhouse Five, however, this blog will talk about form and genre; more in particularly the form and genre that’s found within Slaughterhouse Five. The unique thing about Slaughterhouse Five is that it doesn’t necessarily fit into just one genre, but three different genres. The expectations for somebody reading the first chapter or so of this book might be that it’s a historical fiction novel that has something to do with a solider during World War 2, this is evident by the fact that the first couple of pages mention the Dresden bombings. There’s also some dark humor thrown in from time to time but that’s to be expected, especially if you’re familiar with films like Dr. Strangelove; as that movie also talks about the grave seriousness of war but also throws some dark humor in the mix. So maybe Slaughterhouse Five is a historical fiction dark comedy that talks about the horrors of war; set during one of the most horrific wars in human history. However, during the second chapter there’s a massive genre shift and the audience learns about a character named Billy Pilgrim who becomes unstuck in time, and then aliens.
Most people might dislike this bizarre shift in genre, especially if you’re the type of reader who expects one solid genre when reading a book. For example, if you’re a reader who is reading a historical fiction book about the horrors of war and then it suddenly brings up aliens you might be like: ‘What the heck is this sci-fi stuff doing in my historic fiction?!’ Same for if you’re a sci-fi fan and you’re expecting a book about aliens, and then you find out about the historical fiction elements. This is when you need to be that submissive reader and simply give into the book, instead of feeling alienated because of the sudden genre shifts you instead need to give into the book and accept the genre shifts. While reading a book some readers might be resistant to read something that doesn’t stick with one specific genre, and that’s because as readers we are trained to pick up on certain genre tropes; and then identify the book with those genre tropes. For example, if you’re reading something that has somebody trying to solve a mystery then you would classify that book in the mystery genre. However, if you’re reading Slaughterhouse Five for example there are elements of historical fiction, dark humor and science fiction; so you might be a bit confused about how all of these genres play into one book. This is when it’s your job as a reader to resist the urge to classify a book with just one genre tag; because sometimes it’s hard to do such a thing.
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I agree that this book requires a reader that is open to shifts in genre. This book is not looking for a reader to reject what doesn’t seem to fit, it is looking for a reader who really is willing to submit to the text, take the story for what it is, and explore from there. When Antony mentions genre tropes, and the genre tropes we are used to reading for, what I find so exciting about this novel is that the only genre it conforms to is an anti-war novel, therefore don’t know what to expect while reading. It forces me to exercise reading for the story that is there and not forcing my expectations onto it. Also, being comfortable with Vonnegut’s writing I began as a reader that was willing to submit and didn’t have to work as much as a resistant reader to get “close” to the author and the conversation they are facilitating through writing.
From the beginning, the narrator is letting the reader know they cannot expect a positive view of way, “So then I understood. It was the war that made her so angry. She didn’t want her babies or anybody else’s babies killed in wars. And she thought wars were partly encouraged by books and movies,” (19). This opinion is a strange one to mention when the genre the reader is expecting is a war novel, which typically highlights the glory of serving in the military. Vonnegut creates a character that holds this opinion, then has the narrator agree with it, “I give you my word of honor: there won’t be a part got Frank Sinatra of John Wayne,” (19). This alerts the reader immediately that the one purpose of the text is to tell the truth about war, and not glorify or promote war. This is a genre convention of anti-war novels. This leaves me with the sole genre expectation.
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Another underlying genre that is present within Slaughterhouse-Five is the anti-war genre. Although the novel is about World War 2 it talks about the terrible parts of war rather than glorifying it. In the beginning, the narrator talks about a conversation he had with a friend’s wife. She talked about her dislike for war and the narrator agreed. ‘We had been foolish virgins in war, right at the end of childhood,” (18). He describes those that went into the war as children rather than men. Children fighting a war that they had no business fighting in. The narrator decides to call his book “The Children’s Crusade” to honor the children going into the war.
Repetitive form can be seen throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s novel. One phrase that is continually repeated is “So it goes.” This phrase is repeated after the narrator talks about someone who has died. For example, “It killed everybody on the gun crew but Weary. So it goes” (44). The phrase suggests a very nonchalant tone. Death is just another part of life. The narrator suggests that the Tralfamadorians came up with the phrase. “When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments” (34). They do not see death as something terrible and concentrate. The narrator has adopted their outlook on death and now merely shrugs at the idea.
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Antony brings up a great point about how the reader’s initial projections of this genre are challenged because the text contains multiple genres. It’s especially peculiar that the author decides to combine two genres that are extremely different from one another: historical fiction and science fiction. This certainly does not follow the conventional form, which is a form that follows the genetic expectations of a certain group of readers. In fact it is the complete opposite of conventional!
I think Larissa did a good job pointing out the use of the repetitive form that is present in Slaughterhouse-Five. The narrator’s favorite saying seems to be “so it goes” since it is repeated numerous times throughout the novel. However, the repetitive form has more meaning than just the constant repeating of the same phrase over and over. Since the repetitive form has to do with maintaining or presenting the same idea/event in new/different ways, I believe the form can also be seen in the way Billy Pilgrim continuously “travels through time” throughout the story. Readers know that Billy has this strange capability from early on in the novel, however; as readers, we are constantly being pulled away from the war story, and we are allowed to see aspects of Billy’s life that would not be revealed without his mysterious ability to time travel. In other words, readers are allowed to repetitively see different aspect/events of Billy’s life on numerous occasions.
I think that the repetitiveness of Billy’s time traveling is a good tool in this novel because it allows readers to see Billy’s life as the aliens (the Tralfamadorians) see all lives—not as a linear path that changes as time goes on and as decisions are made, but instead as a complete event that is like a “moment structured that way” (117), never to be changed even if one tried. The repetitive form not only allows us to experience time as the Tralfamadorians do, but it also gives us access to moments of Billy’s life that allow us to get to know him as a character outside of the war. If the novel was told in a linear way, we would probably get bored after Billy gets home from the war. However, since bits and pieces of Billy’s life are all spread out in the novel due to Billy’s time traveling, we get to not only see Billy’s life as a soldier and Prisoner or War, but also as a husband, a father, a school boy, a lecturer, etc. I believe that the repetitive form serves a good purpose in regards to the story of Billy Pilgrim because the constant time travel that he goes through allows the reader to travel along through time with him.
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