PTSD and Alien Abduction - Slaughterhouse-Five Part 2: Crash Course Literature 213
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- čas přidán 21. 05. 2014
- In which John Green continues to teach you about Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. (WARNING: When Slaughterhouse-Five was published, some of the crude language in the book caused controversy. We quote one mildly controversial line in this video. If you're mature enough to read this book, you're likely mature enough to tolerate this quote, but we're obliged to warn you about it.) Anyway, this week, John is going to talk about Slaughterhouse-Five's status as an anti-war novel, and what exactly anti-war novels are good for. He'll also get into the idea of free will, and to what degree Billy Pilgrim's time travel and abduction by aliens were hallucinations induced by posttraumatic stress disorder. John will even give you an interpretation of why the Tralfamadorians look like toilet plungers. Hint: it has to do with plunging metaphorical toilets.
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I get that "So it goes," is supposed to be expressive of the inability to process these overwhelming atrocities, but I also feel like it's meant to call attention to each one in turn. If he didn't mark each death with that phrase the reader could easily stop paying attention to all the death. But instead the phrase acts as a trigger, causing you to contemplate each occurrence individually.
Potato Girl Well said. I Hadn't thought of that.
Thanks :)
+Potato Girl word. It definitely had that effect with me the first time I read it.
+Potato Girl great point!!!
+Potato Girl I think that the phrase might be the reality check that we need in the book. While there is quite a bit of death in the book, "So it goes" is there to remind us that things always die and humanity is cruel. It is similar to the Latin phrase "Homo homini lupus." But then again, it might be mocking how mundane and factual the casualties of war have become. "So it goes" basically meaning "whatever," in that case.
My favorite line: ' There are two great modern human dangers. First our proclivity towards mass violence and secondly, the danger of us averting our gaze from it'
Don't forget the other big parallel between the fantasy vs. reality segment, being where a slaughterhouse is where animals go to die and the zoo being where animals go to live. Emphasizing the negative and positive connotations he has between reality and fantasy respectively.
Nice catch! I never though about it.
Very good point!
Nerd
Reading Slaughterhouse-Five as a person with PTSD was so interesting and weird. So many weird little parallels to my own life. By that it all occurs out of order was something I really loved, because it really communicated what it's like to have flashbacks which is something that's really difficult to wrap your head around. Like, even as somebody who has flashbacks. I'm in one place, and then all of the sudden my body and my brain start reacting like I'm somewhere else. Sometimes just my body will start reacting, even though my brain knows where I am. And reading Slaughterhouse-Five was very real for me because of that. I don't have flashbacks as often anymore, but there was definitely a time where I was having them so often that it felt like I was living sort of out of time. Things weren't happening in the right order. So reading Slaughterhouse-Five was kind of a surreal experience.
Same. As a vet and teacher -- it's why I assign it as a book.
As a reader, I battled with whether the Tralfamadorians were real. When Billy was with Mr. Rosewater going through the books, I decided they were delusions, and it made me terribly sad. When Billy was prepping for his abduction, I decided they could be real, and it made me much happier. In the end, I stuck with the decision that made me happier.
So I guess, as the reader, I made the same choice as Billy. The world would be far too painful without the Tralfadamorians.
LillyianPuppy I once read a story featuring a man plagued by paranoid schizophrenia and a gap in his memory. There is no question that he suffers from these mental afflictions, but there is an element of fantasy in the novel that keeps the reader guessing on wether all that is described is truly supernatural, or if it is a symptom of the mentioned schizophrenia. Still, many things which occur in the novel cannot be explained without defaulting to the supernatural. And even though many things in the novel are discovered near the end to be figments of the protagonist's imagination, the death of the character, and the events afterward, where years later the deceased protagonist's therapist and his lover for a short time discuss a note he left behind, which he protagonist had claimed to hold the secrets of the universe. The note is never shown in the story. The former lover denies the note of being of any import, but the therapist is not so sure, because the protagonist once told her about events that happened in her life that she couldn't have known about. And I don't know which decision is worse: to believe in the supernatural and that They have won and the secrets of the universe are in their hands and nobody believes him after his death where he thinks by giving the secrets to the world will make it so Them having it is useless, or to believe that all that was done was useless and a flight of fantasy, and that the fear the protagonist lived through was the fear of nothing at all. And that he spent his final moments fully emerged in fantasy after his lover leaves him and he discovered his brother not to be dead like he believed, but mentally damaged beyond repair through an act caused by the protagonist's illusions. I think the only thing to do is accept both realities at once. That is all that can be done
I know this comment is old, but regardless. It's funny, I decided they were untrue. Whereas the reader gets to make a similar choice in Life of Pi, where I did feel more inclined to opt for the fantastical version. Possibly because the ethical environment of Pi's spirituality and fantastical journey rang truer for me than the rather determinist, detached behaviour connected to the Tralfamadorians.
Salo from The Sirens of Titan proves that are indeed real in that world.
Mr Greene here is rather ignorant.
You forget the guilt Billy also feels towards being alive. He's granted life when he doesn't want it. Hiding under a blanket so not to see his Mother who gave him life.
+GR3AT SAMU3L Yes! SPOILER: Also, he tells the three musketeers to go on without him and he is the only one of them who survives.
+GR3AT SAMU3L that's beautiful! thank you for pointing that!!
YES!! My thoughts exactly!
True
He mentioned that in the first part, I think
I got a call from a friend once whose daughter was assigned this book for her high school English class. She asked me if I had read the work and what I thought of it. I spent the next five minutes praising the novel and detailing the themes I saw in it. Then I asked her why she wanted to know. After along pause, she answered, "I was going to ask for your support to get this filth removed from our high school." The conversation became very uncomfortable after that.
Hopefully the book got to stay.
I'm wondering if you asked her if she had even read it (before calling it filth and planning its censure)?
I totally read this book thinking the aliens were real. I mean. I got all of the symbolism of those parts of the book and what not but I never even considered that they could be hallucinations. I guess I just read too much scifi.
I definitely think this can be read either way.
I mean I read a lot of PKD so i'm into that sort of thing but I thought half the point of the book was kinda that you didn't know what was going on for certain.
I still think they are real. Pilgrim does on couple occasions foresee his own future
i thought they were real too, because he knew how he dies, and he told people that he will die and told them to go so he can die.
I agree that the Tralfamadorians were not a fantasy. Instead of calling it science fiction, could Slaughterhouse Five be considered a work of mystical realism like One Hundred Years of Solitude?
No lie, I wrote a 7 page paper on the term “so it goes” for my senior year of High School
Interesting, when I read this book I never really questioned whether the Tralfamadorian parts were a fantasy or a product of PTSD. I just took them at face value and assumed they're really happened to the character. interesting.
Yes I agree, there's not much, certainly at the beginning of the novel anyway, to suggest that Billy didn't actually experience what was being described. I think as the novel goes on there are hints as to what is happening to Billy, I did think of PTSD and wasnt sure if vonnegut was purposely not mentioning the term 'PTSD'. But I think his time in psych and the influence of Kilgore Trout's novels shaped his way of dealing with things.
At the time when the book was written, PTSD wasn't so much a thing as it is now, so he didn't "purposely not mention it," but more likely wouldnt have known to mention it.
The terms of then were "shell shock" and "battle fatigue", I can't remember if either term is used. I always looked at it like it was up to us to decide what was really happening in the story. Here's the thing though, if you read Vonnegut's other work, you'll see that Tralfamadore and its aliens are actually the product of a Kilgore Trout novel, so it seems more likely that the whole thing is a fantasy of Billy's.
Same here, I never questioned whether or not the Tralfamadorians were real and I liked the idea that they were actually.
I questioned it, and I think both interpretations are valid. In fact, I felt like Vonnegut wanted the reader to feel uncertain about whether it's factual, because... Well, if it IS a fantasy, Billy believes it's real, and I think perhaps the narrator isn't certain either way. I did catch the implication that Billy Pilgrim was influenced by Kilgore Trout... but on the other hand, you could say that Pilgrim's stories influenced Trout. And then it gets really interesting, because when you're talking about time loops, cause and effect start to fall apart. Anyway, at the very least, I think the reader is at least meant to consider the implications if it's all true. What if we have to live all the moments of our lives over and over again? That makes it even more important to prevent suffering (because that person will have to experience those moments throughout eternity) and death (because an early death means limited experiences for that person). Not to mention, I feel like the whole novel is deeply ambivalent about the inevitability of war. This is coming from my perspective as a compatibalist. Basically, what this means for me is that I think of us as being tiny pieces of the universe and expressions of physics, acting in concert with everything else, rather than as being controlled. So, everything is determined... but part of what determines us is our beliefs. So if we believe war is inevitable, then it is. But whether we believe that or not is also already determined, and... In this case, it would seem that Vonnegut believes we can change the future, because he wrote Slaughterhouse Five... But the writing of the novel, and any effects it might have, were also inevitable. Yeah, it gets confusing. But the point is, I was particularly focused on that part, because I came into it with the Trafalmadorian perspective on time.
if anyone has a chance, visiting Dresden is one of the most humbling and haunting experiences ever. I had the opportunity to read the book and then travel to Dresden and the way they rebuilt the city leaves so many markings of this tragic point in history. And then you remember that it was your country that did it and it becomes even more troubling. And it's always reminded of the biggest lesson i've ever learned from a novel: "There's only one rule that I know of, babies-God damn it, you've got to be kind." from Vonnegut's work God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
i mean i* not you
"Man is a wolf to man" is one of my favourite sayings because of the vast meanings it contains in so few words. It depicts how one group, country, or ideology might fight another; it depicts how humanity as a whole may create scenarios that destroy us in the end, making us the creator and sustainer of our worst enemy. It also is able to describe with this word usage one person being a wolf to another, and someone being a wolf to themself, through self deprecation, or through substance abuse, or by creating other non-sustainable situations. Many times more than one of these definitions can apply. Someone can be a wolf to another, and the victim in their pain might become a wolf to themself. Sometimes someone who is their own wolf will lash out in emotional frustration and become a wolf to others. And it goes on
I believe they called it shell-shock before it was called PTSD.
Was it Vonnegut who said (paraphrasing) "All books are anti-war books, if they were written by someone who is alive." Or was that someone else? Or was that just me? Anyway, makes sense here, I think.
I get tingly happy feelings every time we watch a crash course in school.
WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE ALIEN SCI-FI BOOKS BILLY READ WHILE HE WAS IN HOSPITAL AFTER THE WAR? then all the alien stuff that he imagined that happened wasn't based on the war, but on the books he read. it was said in the book several times that one book was about idk a man and a woman being captured by aliens and were then on display - like billy was in the zoo, and anotheroe about timetravel or something like that - which was happening to billy too..
That's what I thought too when I read the part when he was at the veteran's hospital! another thing I noticed is that Bertram Copeland Rumfoord (the Air Force historian) was near him when Billy was supposedly travelling back in time to the time he was still in Dresen, and both Rumfoord and his wife heard him talking to himself, which implied that he didn't move at all; the whole scene was just him having a flashback, there was no time travelling at all.
no mention of the last line "Po-Tee-Weet"? That's surprising
John, you are the complete opposite of my senior English teacher.
Where were you 22 years ago?
He was in junior high school memorizing famous last words and trying to think of a way to experience the 'great perhaps.'
VideoNozoki He was also trying to figure out how to get out of a labyrinth
James A Clouder Also developing way too many crushes.
I love this book. Alien may also stand for feelings of alienation when having (complex) PTSD. Many sufferers feel like an alien, not like a human being. It is in that state, fantasy becomes a way to cope with reality as an escape from it. I also think the alien fantasies are a way to dissociate to a fantasy world to cope. Its all basically the same anyway. Alien abduction phenomenon is often linked to sexual trauma, see also Mysterious Skin. Maybe Mulder's sister was abducted into a sex trafficking ring (and Mulder, too?). Maybe the X files is all a fantasy. On a side note, I love the theme of the super powers in some movies, like superman, batman. All based on trauma. Superpowers are a way to cope with trauma. A compensation, also see Harry Potter. Superpower thinking is part of child development and strongly developed when a child is being traumatized. Its a solution to utter powerlesness.
Sure, 1969 was long before the term PTSD was coined, but _battle fatigue_ and _shell shock_ describe essentially the same condition, and were coined during WW2 and WW1 respectively. And, if I may say so, either are more descriptive - and more poetic - than the more prosaic _PTSD_.
WHAT!!! John Green from Crash Course wrote The Fault in Our Stars!!! I admire you even more John Green, Great Job! :)
You guys should do a crash course music theory
oh dear god
Noor Ladha PLEASE
Would watch
I think something that was overlooked was the appearance of Kilgore Trout in the novel as a representation of Vonnegut. He is met from the perspective of Billy who is a fan of his work. Vonnegut does not only appear in the first and last chapters but throughout
In this episode of CrashCourse English Literature, John Green talks about Slaughterhouse-Five's status as an anti-war novel, and what exactly anti-war novels are good for.
PTSD and Alien Abduction - Slaughterhouse-Five Part 2: Crash Course Literature 213
Interesting questions regarding anti-war novels. This has me wondering; has anyone ever read a pro-war novel? Or a novel that was ambivalent towards war?
TheFireflyGrave Well every movie that uses army assets are pro-war, well, at least pro-army. Its just easier to write about the atrocities of war than to talk about anything that supports war and fighting.
Can you please do Kurt's Cat's Cradle?
TheFireflyGrave Every Tom Clancy novel for instance. Not cool because, in hindsight, it may have got him killed.
+TheFireflyGrave to think of pro-war consider these two questions: 1) is violence used to make something cease or 2) is violence used for the salvation of life. A war can be described as large scale violence which comes down to one group trying through violence to end or control another or that there are two groups affecting each other. You can then look at any film of patriotism or old school heroic tale as being pro-war. Any saga of how people X survived against people Y using violence is pro-war.
Beowulf, the viking saga, has a group of warriors coming to do battle (violence) against a pair of trolls (ceasation of trolls) so that the people of King Wrothgar will live (salvation) and not be killed off by the troll (the other ceasation).
The modern first world readers are very separated from violence and only those we call soldiers are exposed to large scale violence. It is a good thing that we have moved from the ever present dangers in these parts of the world. Modern safe people look to movies to understand what is still happening in some parts of the world and if violence wasn't being done by soldiers to keep it away could all so easily fall into a common presence.
Another older pro-war novel would be the Works of Julius Ceaser or the Greek tales around Troy. WW2 movies of the 40s, 50s and 60s are often done in pro-war stand when viewed that way.
An ambivalent movie would be more hard to pick out since the point of the war is that two or more groups are fighting for survival and an ambivalent view would need to not care about which would survive or that both dying would be no big deal.
Can we just mention the brilliant writing about distraction at the end of the open letter there
I mean, seriously, that was fantastic
Please john, make an episode on catch 22!!!!
++
Please do a crash course on hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams
Scott Roper It thought me the meaning of life
The Meaning of Life by Mighty Pythons
yes please!!!!!
++++
I read this book because of this video. I really enjoy it and recommend it.
This is definitely a book about PTSD. The aliens are a projection/distraction of a mind destroyed by horrible experiences. They are a way of working out the trauma. One important point not made is that trauma often comes out long after the activating event. Billy Pilgrim has gone home from the war (1945), gotten a job and married the boss's daughter. Years have passed since the war (it's now the 1950's), but the book deals with the emergence of the trauma and the craziness he feels. The splinter works its way out of the skin eventually and this book is about that process at a psychological level where the war trauma is the splinter working its way out of the mind. People who have never had a serious trauma get side tracked by the aliens part of the story. Brilliant book. Excellent review.
You John Green are a life savior. I like how thought provoking each and every crash course video is. I just finished watching the U.S. history ones.
Sadly, I noticed how I was distracted by the Twitter feed in the bookshelf just as John stated that a Twitter feed is a distraction. Makes me glad that I never got into Twitter.
Now I just need to stop clicking Facebook links.
I was trying to read them to 😶
I had to pause the video and think about what John said during the Open Letter. I hadn't even realized that I wasn't listening to him until he shut the bookcase and said "cause of distraction". Maybe I'm focusing on a little piece of the bigger picture, but that hit me pretty hard. Well done, Crash Course. Well done.
I read the novel as he was actually unstuck in time, and there is an argument that can be made there. The "visions" of tralfalmadorians I don't believe are visions, because Vonnegut actually used the alien rave in different novels such as the Sirens of Titan, which explains that they aren't creatures, they are a race of machines that have heavily influenced the human race over millions of years. He bred life into the race, and to me the novel is read as Billy Pilgrims whole life happening at once in this short amount of time. The book also urges us to accept death as an inevitable event (which Billy experiences his own death several times, so it goes), and the way it is written also backs up an alien way of thinking where everything happens and exists simultaneously with no specific order. Tralfalmadorians see the whole expanse of time at once, and Billy Pilgrim sees life in a very similar were he experiences his entire life throughout the course of the novel.
+Brian Sterling Thesee are different books, and the aliens are not the same aliens.
Ethan Davidson I was just being a hopeful reader who would like to believe the contents of the book were concrete events and not visions, but I'm sorry that by using another example to prove my point made you think I thought the books were the same. Vonnegut reused characters a few times in different novels, why wouldn't he use the tralfalmadorians in both novels?
+Brian Sterling I too read it that way when I read it, which was a long time ago. If I made an error or just sounded like a jerk, I apologize. He wrote a lot of books with aliens, and it's easy to get them mixed up. However, did Vonnegut really say that the Aliens in "Sirens of Titan" were Tralfamadorians? I don't remember it that way, but again, I read it a long time ago.
They were the same name, but they were in an entirely different context. I understand, I read The Sirens of Titan receno, but I've read Slaughterhouse five a few times
I don't know how you do it! but your range of videos is just amazing. they have kept me curious for more and for a myriad of topics from literature to history to more.
i just took it all at face value when i read that book. it's been almost ten years, but i don't recall my teacher saying the aliens were a possible fantasy.
I am not an expert about Slaughterhouse Five, but I can tell you one thing: the Tralfamadorians are neither real nor fantasies: they are fictional. They are not real, because they do not exist outside the book, and they are not fantasies, because they do exist in the book.
Ralph Dratman
"because they do exist in the book."
Actually, they don't. The author very strongly implies that the Tralfamadorians are an imagination of Billy, starting after a head injury he got in a plane crash, long after WW2.
k3nny111 Thank you. I will read it again.
I always took it that it happened, on account of the fact they appear in his other books.
Alex Zarandi orly?
I do like the fact that Billy has a version of the Serentity Prayer in his office, used most famously by Alcoholics Anonymous. Additionally the first two of the Twelve Steps can be summarized as:
1: Admission of powerlessness over, particularly to Alcohol
2: Accept higher power as being able to help restore sanity
However, the following lines stating that Billy could not change "... the past, the present, and the future." implies that the only thing that Pilgrim feels he can change is how he views these events. I find the comparison interesting.
I think these two episodes are a very thin way of reading the novel, because the idea that the abduction actually takes place gives it an eerie sense of fantasy that sounds like reality, indeed, so does the whole book. It helps us grasp the more horrific, yet more real sounding parts of the novel more firmly. Those are the real war parts, so at the end, we understand the feeling of war.
When the book is so unemotional about death it makes us respond to it they way we want individually, instead of telling us what to feel.
Vonnegut’s entire oeuvre can almost be read as one large work. His books reference each other and his own life so often that to pull one out from the pack is to unmoor it from its context. It is because of this intertwining of his works that I am not sure the Tralfamadorians are merely Billy’s hallucinations. It is not uncommon for improbable things to occur in Vonnegut’s books. Gravity can become variable (Slapstick); time can repeat itself (Timequake); the author can pop into the book and transport one of the characters to the surface of the Sun (Breakfast of Champions); and so on. Vonnegut’s early work is mostly science fiction. When reading science fiction, you don’t assume fantastic elements like spaceships, aliens, and time travel are hallucinations; you accept them as part of the reality of the world of the book. I think when Vonnegut says Billy Pilgrim was kidnapped by Tralfamadorians, we have to accept that as something entirely possible in Vonnegut’s world.
you just made appreciate one of my favorite books on a whole new level. I heart you crash course
4:00 In Harry G. Frankfurt's essay "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility" (1969) Frankfurt argues quite successfully that have the ability to do otherwise is not necessary for having moral responsibility. It is, in fact, possible to hold someone morally responsible for their actions even if they could not have done otherwise.
Great video! I loved your analysis of this book, it really gave me a new appreciation for it. I read Slaughterhouse Five when I was younger, and now I think I need to re-read it and see if it gives me a different impression. I'd never considered the PTSD angle, but it makes a lot of sense.
Literature is by far my favorite Crash Course subject!! Please do more!
The book is beyond explanation. You just need to read it, it makes you see. And so it goes.
I've only read it once. I was more exited by the style rather than the message. The writing is so liberating - it made me rethink literature.
Hi mr john green, I have been a fan of you're CZcams channel for several years now, all the way back since 6th grade when I needed help with history class and I found this channel. I am also a huge fan of the book a fault in our stars. And for years I had NO idea u where the one who wrote it. Any way I am a huge fan of all you're work, thank you
When the twitter feed popped up behind him I was watching it and mostly tuning John out, I heard him say "distraction' and he shut the bookcase. When he did, I saw a look of a anger, it scared me, it was as if he was saying " I know you were watching the twitter feed and not me, is this the kind of respect you give someone who poured out their heart to make this book, this grand creation of the soul?" I feel sick with myself. I hope to never have that happen again. Thank you John, even if you didn't mean it like that. I needed that.
PTSD hadnt been coined yet but the phenomenon itself was known. It was first referred to as "battle fatigue" and later as "shell shock" =]
I think shell shock was used before battle fatigue
You've inspired me to pick up this book as an elective text for my "journeys" topic in English this year. I have to analyse a piece for it's qualities that link with imaginative journeys and how it has helped me understand the concept. This book seems like it will slot in nicely if I can get the analysis right ;)
Also the plunger metaphor is a good point I didn't catch, especially given the part in the war where the soldiers and the author himself stay on the toilet when he's flashing back and forth between Billy's honeymoon. Surprised my class didn't pick that up, since they went on about that was their favorite part of the book. DFTBA!
I just finished the book last night and I am honestly speechless. I was asked if I liked it and I didn’t know how to answer. It felt so... weird? Real? Melancholy? I don’t even know. But I think it’s an absolutely excellent book
This is very timely for me, since my mom has been trying to get me to read SH5 for years and I finally did. I was surprised to find out once I finished it that she had thought that Billy Pilgrim's delusions about aliens and time travel were true.
the t shirt says 无比美妙的痛苦， the very sweet and wonderful pain.
thanks!
+silver gong yep it's the title used for The Fault In Our Stars in the Chinese version of the book
Bless the whole crash course crew, I thank you on behalf of stressed although good students. THANK YOU!
God I can, and probably have, listen to john green speak for days. He is so articulate and focused in the presentation of his ideas that it is not only an informative lecture it is also a joy. DFTBA
John's comment about tacitly accepting the intolerable mirrors a class i had this week on the moral justification for the treatment of animals and how even when we know the conditions animals are kept in most of us are confortable eating meat.
My English final is tomorrow. I cannot express my gratitude that this video came out today.
So this is an autobiography.
Also, The Tralfalmadore is a jazz club in Buffalo, NY
This is my absolute favorite book- Vonnegut is hilariously satirical and this is reflected in his other books such as Slapstick and Time-quake. I enjoyed the video as always as it brought of many points that I had not considered such as the fact that the aliens were simply a figment of his PTSD, partial insanity and need to escape the horrible environment he was in.
I absolutely love your commentary on literature
man, I wish CC would do hitch hikers guide to the galaxy
Appreciate the open letter; the shot and the words. Well played.
Finally finished reading it for the first time a few minutes ago. Thanks for making this!
I have no idea why, but watching this in 50% Speed is absolutely hilarious. :D (especially the alien abduction part)
So good to see John talking about my favourite book!
Thank you so much Mr Green ^__^ currently studying for my A levels, these videos help me out tremendously.
Thanks, this has been really helpful for my analysis of Slaughterhouse five, since it is the first novel discussed in my comparative literature study... I was wondering, will you continue this series? It is really good.
My favorite part of that book was when billy pilgrim sees his follow soldiers suffering in the bathroom, as they empty their boules, and he focuses on one who is in particular pane. Then it says, that man was I was me, that was the author of this book. It was so out of the blue and disrupting to the flow of the book.
Do crash course sociology please!
I feel like I might've been asleep at the wheel with this book. I just never felt like I got anything from it and I don't know why. The "So it goes" and the fact that the Trafmaldorians don't think that deaths are a bad thing made me feel so detached from the story. And also Bill Pilgrim's impartial attitude.
One of my all time favorite books. The tralfamadorian philosophies are awesome
Congrats on The Fault In our Stars movie. Can't wait to see it on June 6th next month. ^_^
I really wish you guys would make a video about the divine comedy by Dante!
I love this series and wish I had read the book before I watched this.
I love this book... And CrashCourse... And Thought Bubble
Thank you so much for putting out these great clips I will forever watch hahah
Hmmm, I'd actually forgotten where I picked up, "And so it goes." Appreciate the reminder. :)
i’m crying this is so beautiful
Wow, thank you so much for this. So glad I found this channel. You're slinging pearls.
I want a part 3!!
I've read this book twice now you gave me some new insights I will have to read it again.
I'd kind of like to see John talk about Watership Down.
I think the account of the aliens in the novel are meant to be unreliable, and the audience should question the veracity of Billy Pilgrim's account of time travel and his encounter with aliens. Many of the characteristics of the Tralfamadorians come from books by Kilgore Trout that Billy Pilgrim reads at various points in the novel. Billy's death is also only describe in reference to a tape recording of it that he made, which is locked up in a safe-deposit box, and he can only claims is true. Curiously, his death takes place on the 13th of February - a date with particular significance in the novel. All of this points to them being part of Billy's PTSD. So I'd say the verisimilitude of the time travel and aliens is nil. It doesn't make them any less interesting.
Because death is not literally the end of one's timeline by the Tralfamadorian philosophy, death becomes less of a sad thing, which allows them to see death as just one event of one's life. So the fantasy he created of these aliens allowed him to conceptualize death as something irrelevant. I didn't realize it was a tool for Billy's mental resolution until this video but I always loved the concept of seeing death as not the end but instead a singular event of many.
6:58 Nice Final Fantasy VII reference
both this and brave new world changed my life in how i perceive reality. fantastic books. i never read a novel through until i finished brave new world and now im hooked on reading. pure, unadulterated story straight to the dome.
i love slaughterhouse 5 because it taught me that life is uncontrollable and that what ever happens, happens. so it goes.
i also cant agree more that this is a very clever representation of the 4th dimension. once the book is opened, your mind is then traveled into the fourth dimension because you are reading billy pilgrams events just as the tralfamadorians read their books.
what a fucking trip.
It alleviates some of the guilt when you discover everyone else is a machine put here to study your reactions to them.
One of my absolute favorite books!
When I read it, I understood that it was a way of illustrating PTSD, but also preferred to believe Billy Pilgrim experienced things out of time and was abducted.
When I read the book I thought that all the time travel and alien stuff was what was truly happening because idk, he seemed so convinced of it. Also, when we go like forward in time to see Billy's death, that's not remembering. And if it is remembering then the only way it can be so is if Billy has all these thoughts after he's died or something? I don't know, im just guessing here. It's also been a few months since I read it so I'm a bit hazy on the finer details.
nice slipping in of the pontiac ad in the animation, although it's missing dwayne hoover's smiling face.
Hey John,
So I thought, if you're interested in non-linear plotlines, you might be interested in the anime "Baccano!" The stories told therein are interestingly overlapping.
Keep up the good work, and thanks for making English classes more understandable!
Your commentary is superb, thanks for this. Certainly better than my ninth grade English teacher's.
I like that "all at once" showed the house of cards logo lol
Could Crash Course do "When Heaven and Earth Change Places" by Le Ly Hayslip? I am done with college classes now, but a Vietnam War history class at Auburn University from Dr. Mark Sheftall made me read this incredible novel, and its first hand perspective of the war from a civilian's point of view is one of the most powerful novels I have ever read.
I'm waiting for the day when there'll be an episode about an Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury Novel😭
You make analysing great works of literature appear so strikingly effortless. How do you do it? (And how can I do it?!)
Hi Crash Course, could you please please please do a world history on the topic of VIKINGS and how they lived or invaded other counties. Im sure it would be very interesting and everyone would enjoy it.
I felt and still feel like this book is not really an antiwar book, but rather one man's way of dealing with the PTSD from war. Kind of a self analysis of himself.
PTSD as a linguistic term wasn't around in 1969, but shell-shock was, and it's basically the same, the name was merely changed along the way, probably to make it sound more 'medical'.