The Silly Philosopher Is Safe.

War, gullibility, and temptation are all seen in the second chapter of, 'Candide Voltaire'. War is played out to be heroic in movies. Devastating yet heroic. Candide is our hero in this chapter, but much like Billy Pilgrim in 'Slaughter House Five' he is silly, or at least appears silly so far.

Unlike Billy Pilgrim, Candide actually has a good body for war. His teachers call him a 'prodigy.' I don't think there are that many James Bonds, and I certainly do not believe that there are that many prodigies in war. Movies show our modern heros as strong tough guys, who can out witt anyone. They are always for our side, and are always sientificly correct and annalyze things. Meanwhile the real heros today die for our country, many of them end up with wounds, and the smarts does not only come from one person, but from many people.

One may also question how the power to chosse whether or not someone is to live or die is able to be under the thumb of one person. Candide is almost killed for running from the camp. He was first whipped than almost beheaded. But fortunately, for him, a king comes and stops the slaughter.

The silly philosopher is safe.

"It is proved that things cannot be other than they are, fo9r since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for a purpose it follows that everything is made for the best purpose."- Voltaire Candide or optimism



Immediately after reading chapter one, in Voltaire Candide, I immediately went back to this line, and thought it might be a good idea for myself to analyze it and see how it concides with real life.



Is it true? Does everything have a true destiny? Is everything made for a purpose? The book gives us some examples: "our noses were made to carry spectacles, so we have spectacles. Legs were clearly intended for breeches, and we wear them . Stones were meant for carving and for building houses, and that is why my lord has the most beautiful house/ and since pigs were made to be eaten, we eat pork all the year round."



Maybe this is also true for people. George Washington had the destiny to become the first president of the United States. Martin Luther King had the destiny to change the history of the views of races in America, and the destiny to die soon after. I believe in totla we are all part of one destiny : the worlds future.

You Are Foolish if You Want the People you love to live Forever.

It is quite true that we should not expect people to live forever. Actually, we should not expect that things in life will last forever, unless it is something like our name (but even that can change). I don't think it is stupid for someone to want something to last forever. Its just human nature ("if they say why? why? tell em that its human nature"). Another thing that is true, is that we can not control everything in life, as was found in English class. In English class our teacher showed us a recording of a radio station of how our mind works. We are not even in control of the way our brain works, and not necessarily of what we will choose in life.
Fun no?

Going Back to Blogs

Indeed this blog has nothing to do with what is done in class, but instead with what we are learning outside of class.

Today I sat here at my computer, finishing my homework, and fooling around on the internet. My boredom began to grow as I realised that today I really did not have an interest in going on the internet to find wild fun facts Ive never known. I finally ended up staring at the screen, looking at my mouse and typing away to the blogger website. I already have a separate blog either than the one I have in class, but I much prefered writing about something that I have already learned in class.

With not a clue what to write about, I skimmed over other peoples blogs and decided to take a look at some of our english teachers tips. As I tried to dissolve the facts in my head a question finally poped up, " What makes a blog such a good blog?" My curiousity grew, "how can I catch the attention of people who read blogs?" again I asked myself another question, "how can I get the people who are interested about the same things as I am to enjoy what they see?" These questions I hope to answer.

I don't want to bore my reader to death (am I already doing that?), and I don't want the reader to just be interested once and never think about my writing again. I want to be able to write something that will stay in the persons mind. Perhaps the best way is to be honest, and is to say what I really believe. Or maybe I should pay more attention in class, and read more of Mr. Tangens tips.


Tangen tips from everyones blogs in general:

"use more vocabulary"
"get more in depth"
"Don't be wordy"
"cite titles correctly"
"I'd like to see paragraphs"
"please proof read this"
"do closer reading"

Some interesting things said by Mr. Tangent

"Shakespeare very well may have read Epictetus. Welcome to the realm of the Great Books! What might you write to contribute?"

Dear Mr. Frost

Dear Mr. Frost

I have just read your quite dashing poem. I must say that I find the way your mind works interesting, but I would also highly recommend you to read my book, "The Handbook of Epictetus." There are many out there in our wild world who have found the book quite interesting and helpful. I truely believe it is the book for you.

Reading your life like poem I believe I must tell you a few things. Whatever path you end up on you must accept it. Accepting what happens in life is far more fun and adventurous than standing at the beginning of two paths trying to plot your way.

I'm quite satisfied with the fact that you choose a path that most people did not take. Since that shows that your personality does not want quite what others have. You are not saying, "that boys hat is outstanding" instead you are saying, "I like my style. I believe in myself, and my hat is outstanding." Bravo Mr.Frost.

But then again, do remember: You can not control what goes on in the path of life. You must go on and see.

Sincerely,

Epictetus.

Trying to Understand

Numbers 6 - 10 for Epictetus
6. What I see is that we should be happy for others when they succeed, but its even better when we are happy when we succeed. We are not going to get anything out of other peoples greatness.

7. Perhaps what Epictetus wanted to tell us in seven is that we should not get caught up in worldly things, because there are far more important things out there.

8. I believe here we are told that if we want life to go the way we plan it, we will live miserably. But if we wait to see what happens, we will live much better.

9. This passage shows us that illness should not change our morals, or the people we love.

10. I find this interesting. I shall translate it as, "when you go through a situation in life, think about how you will react to it"

Hand Book of Epictetus- My thoughts

Handy Dandy Handbook for life.

1. First section of Epitetus handbook shows that we can not control everything in life. We must accept changes. We must accept change and accept the things we can change.

2. Of what I understood. You may want something but you may not always get it. Desire does not lead to your choice

3. Once again did not understand this one so well. But I suppose it means: If you want to do something good and righteous, do it before it is to late.

4. Did not understand.

5. If we don't judge something it becomes nothing. But because of our judgement it becomes something.

So it goes

Billy Pilgrim finally leaves us at the end of the book and we are brought back to the first person we met in this book, Kurt Vonnegut. He tells us about what Billy does after Dresden. He explains some reasons for the story and he tells us about several people who have died in that year. So it goes.
This makes me think of today. During that time Robert Kennedy died, Martin Luther King died and his father died. He starts the chapter with so it goes. He talks about the soldiers of war and that brings me to today. Now there are soldiers of war in the middle eastern world from the USA that have died and this year many famous people have died. So it goes.

Diffrent things at Diffrent times

Chapter 9 was pretty interesting. It showed a continuation of what happened after the plane crash that Billy Pilgrim was in. Rushed to the hospital. He then laid in a bed next to an old man in his 70s. The 70 year old man See's himself more as in his 40s and has a wife that is 22 years old. His wife is a high school drop out and is extremely pretty yet extremely stupid. Her IQ is 103. Having a 22 year old as his wife this old man believes it just makes him look more like superman. I believe it makes him look more dumb and useless. Why is he using her? He barely knows her yet he takes advantage of her stupidity. What I do like about the old man is that he takes care of himself and is constantly curious about history,. But as I what I can see in the book he is an annoying old man who believes everyone should agree with him. For example he believes that weak people should die, yet the doctor's disagree with him and know that every life should be allowed a chance to live. This man believes that to be the "macho man" he has to be with a young girl. It seems that he believes it will make him appear younger. Yet he is old enough to be her father, actually her grandfather. As the people from the Netherlands say, "sjeesj."

The drastic amount of effort Billy's wife puts is almost exaggerated. It is true she is extremely involve with Billy, but with her impatience she loses her life. This scene reminds me of what my mother sometimes says, "It is better to lose one second in your life, than your life in one second." I believe because of her impatience she managed to lose her life in one second. Off course it was out of love, but by her dying this may make Billy suffer more. Although he might just remember what the tralmaphadorians say. Now his wife is dead. So it goes.

Kilgore Trout : " You Think Money Grows On Trees?"

We already know that Billy reads Science Fiction Novels. But what we might not have remembered was the author the writer mentioned in chapter five : Kilgore Trout. That's one of Billys Favorite authors.

We first hear about this man in Chapter five and he is mentioned by Rosewater, Billy's friend in the asylum, he was reading "The Gospel From Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. Rose Water later says, "Jesus- if Kilgore Trout could only write!" It is then explained that Trout's unpopularity was deserved. His prose was Frightful. Only his ideas were good.

Its strange that Billy would become intrigued by such unpopular books, written by such an unpopular author. Off course everything Billy does is fairly strange, even his time travel. Time Travel may be the reason why he is interested in Trouts books. Trout is a Science Fiction writer and Billy is in a science fiction world.

Unfortunately for him, no one shares his enthusiasm for Trouts books. But fortunately he is able to meet one of his favorite authors in chapter 8. The first words we hear from this man are, "Hell no, You think money grows on Trees?" Billies reaction is much like the reaction of a person who meets a celebrity. "Are-are you KILGORE Trout?" I believe his shock is of one meeting a celebrity you know about but have never met, "The-the writer?"

The unpopular author can not believe this man is a fan of his books. So far it seems like they are off to a good start. They don't live that far from each other either.

"Vunce a veek ve get our pay. Holy s**** no vork next day"

Finally in chapter seven we see the plane crash that Billy Pilgrim was in. The one that was spoken about in earlier chapters but never described. He flies with his wife, Valencia, and with his father in law, Lionel Merble.

I found his father in law a little vulgar and did not appreciate his taste in song choice, even though it may appear funny to him. As the scene goes on and we get closer to the time where Billy is going to be in an airplane crash, I began to wonder, "why is he so calm?" I found it strange that he was not even a tad bit scared. I also wondered, "will his wife survive. Since the writer said they all died but Billy."

After the crash when he is rescued by two German ski instructors I wonder where the address "schlachthof-funf." Billy had a brain surgery and it made me think, "did that change the way he viewed things?"

So many questions and non have been answered yet.

I Disagree With The Class + DC Blog

I Disagree With The Class

In English class, yesterday, we spoke of metaphiction. We said that the character Billy actually might be the writer Kurt Vonnegut, but after reading chapter 5 and chapter 6 thoroughly, I would have to say I disagree. I believe Kurt is a man who went through a similar experience as Billy, but I don't think it is the same man.

I went back to the quote that one of the girls read out in class yesterday to analyse just why the character Billy Pilgrim might represent Kurt Vonnegut, " That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book." I had not yet read chapter 5, and I was just skimming through the book and I think just reading that line might influence the reader to think that this was Kurt saying he was Billy Pilgrim. But unfortunately I believe this is false.

The man who says this indeed is the author but it is not Billy, since just above the quote I have mentioned above it says, "An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said, "There they go, there they go." He meant his Brains." After this quote the line read out by the girl in class is mentioned. This is why I believe Billy and Kurt are separate men.

If you still believe they are both the same person, there is another area in Chapter six which I believe justifies what I believe. Unless the author is acting as a sub conscious to Billy they must be seperate people. In this chapter there is a line similar to what the girl read in class,"That was I. That was me. The only other city I'd ever seen was Indianapolis, Indiana." Here is where the two different characters of this book enter Dresden. Why do I believe they are completely different people? Because of their different opinions of how Dresden looks like: Billy believes it looks like a "Sunday school picture of Heaven", and the author believes the city looks like "Oz."

The author has done similar things in other chapters where he allows himself to enter into the story. Therefore he allows the story to invent itself, mixing reality and imagination, allowing himself to be part of the story. So I disagree with what was said about them being the same person. Separate minds, seperate sould, placed together at the same place at the same time.

DC Blog: My Review on "ON Behaving Children" blog

I found it interesting and quite true what DC said on his blog. When I was living in switzerland, and sometimes even now, I would talk to little kids. Mainly the little kids on my bus, and I would usually find my self correcting them, or laughing at the cutest things they would say. DC has a way in explaining his blog in words we are able to understand, trys to make us relate and gives examples.

Chapter 5 page 87- 135

This has to be the longest chapter I have read in this book so far. Even though it was long, it was still interesting and I enjoyed reading it. The author continues to jump back and forth in time, explaining different episodes of Billy's life. He explains abduction by aliens and how Billy was placed in a zoo. He describes his first night at the German camp, where he was given a small jacket and met English men. He describes his laugh that was more like a scream which led him to be taken to the "hospital" room. He explains what he thinks of his mother, and tells us about his fat fiancée.

One thing I noticed the author of this book, our narrator, does is give us words or scenes that remind us of other things that he has already told us about. Such as when the two older soldiers in their 40s talk about the younger soldiers and call them children, they mention the "children's crusade" which takes us back to what the wife of Kurt's war Buddy's wife said. Also we are reminded about the Three Musketeers when Billy fiancée is eating a three musketeers chocolate bar. Why? I think the author did this on purpose just like after he mentions death or a killing of somebody or something he always says, "so it goes"...... So it goes.

I am beginning to believe that Billy never met any aliens. This is because when he was inside a mental asylum, that's his fiancée’s father owns, he read many science fiction books, since the man next to his bad was a fan of science fiction, and a lot of what he reads is similar to what he mentions later on about the aliens he encounters. When he is kept in a zoo with a famous young actrice, and he has many aliens watching, it makes me wonder : How do animals feel inside a zoo? If Billy was an animal he seemed to have liked it. One of the aliens asked if he was happy and he just said, "just as happy as I would be on earth" (not exact words but close)

Sex, War, Comedy and even childhood is all explained in the chapter with great detail of the different time periods of his life. Indeed, Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. He has seen his birth and death, and pays random visits to all the events in between.

Watching TV Backwards and Forwards

I love how Kurt, the writer of "Slaughter House Five", describes things so well. I also enjoy how he is able to jump from one part of the story to another with such ease by using the problem his character "Billy" had by becoming unstuck in time.

Here we finally get to meet the aliens. I think its so cool that Billy already knows that they are coming from him, and he is so relaxed. He just sits down and waits for them to come. He drinks and watches TV movies backwards and forwards. He just sits and waits, he does not care if they are going to capture him. The suspense is small but its still there since we begin to wonder, when are they coming? What are they going to do? Why is he so calm? Why dosn't he call the police?

Once again, Kurt takes us to another part of the story, by making Billy unstuck in time. He takes us back to the fronts of World War II where people are being killed and fighting their hearts out, and Billy is the brave hero of our story, capturing and killing all the Nazis. Well, not really actually. Billy, along with other Americans, has just been captured by the Germans. They are inside a train, they are starving and eventually they have to wear dirty old jackets, and be criticised by German soldiers. By now we know weary is dead.

Once again we are taken back to the cold home of Billy. He is in his forties, and captured by aliens. How fun. The aliens speak through an organ that make human noises. They speak with authority and with a way of explaining things that is not human, "earthlings are such great explainers" says one aliens. Id like to know, is that true? I don't think its always true. Some are good, and some aren't. Because of our cultural difference we all understand differently.

What Am I Seeing?

In the third chapter, after Weary and Billy have been ditched, we learn that the two other me have been killed by German soldiers. Eventually,Weary and Billy are made prisoners by the Germans. The Germans take advantage in this and take all the interesting things Weary and Billy have. They take there good boots and make them walk in terrible, used clogs, in the freezing cold temperatures of the Winter in Germany.

Billy is beginning to realise that falling asleep and seeing the future is beginning to cause him trouble. He is beginning to forget how old he is, where he is, and what he is supposed to be doing.
He keeps jumping back in forth in time.

What I enjoyed about this chapter are some of the metaphors such as, "They had teeth like Piano keys." This quote can be found where Billy and other Americans are marching with their hands on there heads, since they have been captured. Even though most Americans are depressed and saddened by the capture, like Weary, Billy keeps smiling and finding things,"Exciting."

Even though Billy sees the future, other people, such as the colonel, are having hallucinations. They are all going through diffrent things mentally. Weary wants to go home and is detesting the pain and blood on his feet.

In the last three chapters we were separated from the writer but by adding himself to this chapter he adds a bit of autobiography and a good story which he tells us in his own words.

Listen: Billy Pilgrin Has Become Unstuck In Time

Reading the second chapter of "Slaughter House Five" was again nothing I suspected it to be. I thought the rest of the book was going to be about the authors life. But then I guess, Like you can't judge a book by its cover, you can't judge a person by the paragraph that comes out of there mouth.

The second chapter of "Slaughter House Five" took us to someone elses world: another man, and another life. The man's name is Billy. The guys called Billy for business. His father said people would remember him more. Unfortunately this Billy we read about so far is not our exact genius we may expect to find in a war book, but instead is a man who can see different points of his life and has met with aliens from Tralfamadore. So it goes.

We meet Billy after he has "recovered" from a plane crash. He was the only man who survived, and we learn that he is a,"Funny-looking youth-tall and weak" sort of man. At the time that we meet him Billy is 45 years old, and he reminds me a lot of the funny character Mr. Bean.

We go back a few years to see a younger form of Billy. A young man just barely into college, stuck in Germany with crazy Hallucinations, with two man and a fat man called Roland Weary.

Now Roland Weary believed the other two men and himself are the "Three Musketeers." But sadly in reality, these two men just want to leave him and run! This man shows off all the gruesome things he knows and a perverted picture he keeps with himself.

It surprised me that the school would assign us a book with bad words, at least this is the first for school I have ever read with bad words. Off course I found it hilarious when one man asked Billy to get down before he was shot, "Get out of the road, you dumb mother f*****." Bad words were not used very commonly in the 40s, therefore I think it was perfect to add some humour to the chapter. Chapter 2 is a funny chapter, a story told by an old fart.