https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/world/asia/india-indus-script-prize.html

I consumed most every Vonnegut I could as a teen, so I don’t recall all the plots, but I remember rather mature themes throughout KV’s body of work. Are there any stories or novels that might be appropriate for a young reader, or should I just hold off a few more years?

Just got into Vonnegut at the end of this year, and I'm wolfing them down now. I look forward to joining the ranks of you more well-versed with his overall body of work, but in the meantime I wanted to ask if it's known why Vonnegut chose to re-use Tralfamadore in Slaughterhouse, in a way so contradictory to the first appearance? Was there some lofty motive at work, or was it just too good a name to use only once? Thanks!

Hi everyone. I wrote a blog post talking about Vonnegut's prose, working from an excerpt of Slaughterhouse-Five that I think captures the essence of his writing. I hope it's okay to share here; I messaged the mods yesterday but didn't hear back. It seems relevant to the community. Post is here if you want to read it: https://floydholland.substack.com/p/vonneguts-clean-approachable-hilarious

Thanks!

Specifically strong opinions on Breakfast of Champions.

I have a deep and abiding love of BoC, and after years of cajoling, I finally got my friend to read it and share her thoughts. She was not nearly enamored by it. But after talking, i realized that she skipped the preface and didn’t read the epilogue, and therefore kind of missed the whole point of the book.

Normally, I also won’t read the Prefaces or acknowledgement, but for KVJ, it almost feels required. It seems like he deliberately puts key components in those portions, either to “force” people to actually read them, or to reward those who actually do. Or both. Or neither. It could very well be just a low-key practical joke. So it goes.

So, i’m curious to see if there is any sort of correlation between people who read it cover-to-cover and loved it, as well as those who skipped into what they thought was the meat of the book but still weren’t won over.

Please feel free to share your experience with BoC below, ESPECIALLY if you disagree with me!

View Poll

https://preview.redd.it/1d1tjp0pt0fe1.png?width=921&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a98a9e1ce60096c008f44b1a8fbec2ad77aee33

I ranked every Vonnegut novel I’ve read, lmk what you think!

1. SH 5
2. Cat’s Cradle
3. Player Piano
4. Sirens of Titan
5. Mother Night
6. God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
7. Galapagos
8. Jailbird
9. Breakfast of Champions

Either Timequake or Bluebeard will be my next read

While Vonnegut clearly spent some time thinking about artificial intelligence and its potential impact on society given his first novel Player Piano was all about that, I never considered Cat’s Cradle in those terms. I thought it was more of a cautionary tale about man’s pursuit of power through advanced military technology, like nuclear weapons.

But it seems like Ice-Nine functions quite a lot like some of the worst case scenarios presented by AI researchers, such as the Paperclip Factory Scenario in which an advanced AI is given a task to make paperclips and goes about turning everything into paperclips.

Do you think Vonnegut was using Ice-Nine as a stand-in for runaway AI in this novel?

FWIW, Google Gemini concluded that it did, lol:

Yes, in the context of Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," "Ice-Nine" is often interpreted as an allegory for artificial intelligence, particularly the concept of a self-replicating, uncontrollable technology that could potentially lead to catastrophic consequences if not carefully managed, due to its ability to rapidly expand and fundamentally alter its environment, much like how Ice-Nine instantly freezes any water it comes into contact with

I think an overlooked part of Slaughterhouse-Five is when it explains why William Pilgrim goes by "Billy." The reason was that his father-in-law said it would make him stick in people's minds because of how childlike it is, as while as making him seem inherently friendly.

It's almost like Vonnegut himself is explaining his thought process. But Billy himself describes it as just "business reasons."

The author wrote of a man named Mark Shepardille, who, while exploring the amazon, contracted a life threatening virus. Remarkably, the virus seemed to move and behave exactly as humanity would. As Mark’s health deteriorated, The virus evolved to drive microscopic cars, fly in microscopic planes, pay taxes, vote in elections, use a virus version of the internet to interact with others on virusbook and to fight wars. Fortunately for Mark, the virus wound up wiping itself out in the third great virus conflict, which followed the other two relatively quickly. As a result the virus was never able to spread to associates of Mark or even take Mark’s life. Two loud pops were heard from the hospital bed in which Mark lied, dying and then his vitals returned to normal and the virus became impossible to detect on or in his body. All that remained from Mark’s brush with death were the scars left by those two loud pops. One on his right nipple and one on the tip of his penis. They stayed with him to the day he died and were hard to explain to future lovers

Reading Slaughterhouse-Five for the first time and came across the section where Billy visits his mother in 1965. Vonnegut says he is 41 years old at this point, even though he was born in 1922.

Is this an editorial oversight or an intentional mistake as a result of Billy's time unstuckment?