Flight 815-ers Unite discussion

Yesterday I read Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a quick read, but with lots of layers. I wish I would have read this with a group or in a class. I think I would have benefitted from reading it with others and discussing things like the themes and symbolisms while I was reading it. It reminded me a lot of Catch-22, yet this was easier to read and not quite as dark.

It contains lots of recurring things: the "Poo-tee-weet" sound of a bird, the barking of a dog, the blue and ivory color of cold or frozen feet, Three Musketeers (both as a group of three and as a candy bar), and the phrase that Tralfamadorians (the aliens who abduct Billy) say about dead people: "So it goes." Those are just the ones I noticed and remembered while reading. I'm sure there are many more to be found, although I'm not sure that all of these recurring things have deeper meaning.

The obvious Lost connection is Billy Pilgrim becoming unstuck in time and jumping around to different times of his life, just like Desmond. Because of this he knew things that would happen in the future, but unlike Desmond, he never tried to change anything - even his own death. Another connection is that many of Billy's jumps in time are when he is a soldier during World War II.

I don't think this book will ever be a favorite of mine, but I did find it very interesting. I think it is a book you could read again and again and still find new themes, symbolisms and connections.

I found the Tralfamadorian's way of seeing time very interesting: "All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."

I read this back before I ever got interested in Lost Lit... so I wasnt reading it for its connection to the show, and quite frankly I was having a tough time liking it.

I dont really remember too much about it, except that I wasnt impressed by it all that much, but may at some point want to go back and reread it. Im older, Im in love with Lost, maybe it will hit me harder the second time around?

I didn't like this book very much. I couldn't decide whether it was a sci-fi time travel story, or a story about a psychotic veteran. Normally that kind of ambiguity would have intrigued me, but there wasn't anything here that grabbed me.

Interesting comments. I didn't love the book, but I didn't hate it, either. I did find it interesting, but it isn't one I'll probably ever read again.

It felt a lot like Catch-22 to me, but it wasn't as long or as confusing. Since I gave Catch-22 two stars, I gave Slaughterhouse-Five three stars. Both of your comments made me think maybe I was rating Slaughterhouse-Five too high. So then I was going to ask both of you if you had read Catch-22 and how you felt about it, but then I realized I could go see if you had it on your lists. :) Lori, looks like you REALLY didn't like Catch-22 (based on your one-star rating and review). Kristen, looks like you thought it was okay (based on the three-star rating). So I'm curious to know what you think of the two books in comparison with each other.

Also, just for comparison, I happened to notice that you both gave Slaughterhouse-Five three stars.

I enjoyed Slaughterhouse-Five. I found the recurring things interesting and funny. I, too, wished that I read this in a group or a class because I'm sure there are some really cool deeper meanings and symbolism.

Just for the record, I enjoyed Catch-22 also. It was long and difficult in the beginning, but once I got into it, I found the book a really great satire.

Hmmm,...interesting thoughts on Slaughterhouse-Five.I did enjoy Catch-22 So perhaps this is one I should take a chance on,especially as it relates to Lost.

Never read Catch-22, but did just finish Slaughterhouse-Five. Honestly, I can't say I liked or didn't like it--it just IS.

I found it to be a tragic story of lost innocence, of being made a part of tragedies, and an inability to find joy in life afterwards. Vonnegut suffered some form of post-tramatic stress and, twenty-five years later, used this book as a means to purge his soul of what he had observed.

He wrote at the beginning of working on a fictional account of the bombing of Dresden in order to reveal what he had witnessed himself. He spent the entire story (as Billy Pilgrim) drifting from one scene of his life to another, "time-travel" was nothing more than his inability to focus on the present. He lost his will to live, I think...and I mean "live"; not just exist from day to day, fulfilling obligations and responsibilities.

At the end, I just felt...nothing. Maybe a bit sad for him.

Just finished this book and definitely saw the connection to Desmond, but now the island has become unstuck in time as well. Hmm...