Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut – Episode 88

The Buddies are going back to school reading popular high school novel, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Things haven’t changed much since high school for the Buddies as they struggled to interpret the true meaning of the novel. The satirical anti-war book did provide the buddies some good talking points,  namely: how being negative is a good thing, how life is easier when you’re hung like a horse, and the benefits of being a POW. So re-visit your high school reading assignments, pick up Slaughterhouse-Five and tell us what you think of the novel (or tell us what we were supposed to think).

Intro (0:00-2:49)
Stock Up/Down (2:50-26:16)
Favorite Scene/Character (26:17-28:49)
Love/Hate (28:50-34:33)
Lingering Questions/Listener Email (34:34-36:39)
Casting the Movie (36:40-37:20)
Conclusion (37:21-39:16)

NEXT BOOK: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

Welcome buddy book club.
I’m Dylan here with my bitchy flibberty jibbit Keith.
What’s up buddy?
Thank you.
That’s one of the meanest things I’ve ever heard you say to me.
I had a laugh when I read it.
You know what?
This checks out.
Here at the buddy book club we’re breaking down some bestsellers and this week we’ll
be discussing slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us about any past
episodes you can visit our website buddybookhel.com or slide into our DMs on Twitter or Instagram
buddybookhel.com podcast.
You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts so please download and subscribe.
Keith, this was a recommendation from you I think.
Did someone push us in this direction or did you just say you know what?
I want to learn some shit.
It was on the I think top like 100 books and I saw it was a little short one and I was
taught by the prestigious grandson, Mr. Vonnegut in high school.
You were?
Sex Ed?
What was the class?
English.
Oh, so the subjects in this book slaughterhouse 5 are quite serious.
You know we’re talking about war death and alien abductions.
I think we’re qualified to discuss one out of three maybe.
So for all the listeners out there I apologize in advance.
You know if you’re coming here for like some sort of great courses or something like that
I apologize or if there’s someone in high school who’s like I’m not going to read the
book instead I’m going to listen to these guys.
Big mistake.
Big mistake.
You just take.
Maybe only original.
Yeah, don’t get expelled on our behalf.
I can give him a quick book report.
Book report ready to go for that.
Yeah, don’t do it.
I didn’t read the cliff notes.
Go and get the actual book.
But Keith, I would love your book report.
So please jump in with that slaughter house five is a semi autobiographical historical
nonfiction historical fiction science fiction, meta fiction satirical anti war book follows
the story of Billy Pilgrim from early age to death.
So it goes told in a nonlinear time, jumpy manner.
It’s like the movie tenant and then they both have constant time changes and I’ll pretend
I completely understand both of them for the fear of being called an idiot.
The book that makes you question everything your beliefs and war the innocence of youth
and whether optometries are scam or not.
You won’t however have any questions about aliens because they’re 100% real.
It’s a short read that comes in a broft and just like this book report.
So it goes.
The last so goes for your literary critique career because yikes.
We’re giving you C plus.
Yeah, I didn’t think that was very good, but that’s okay.
I didn’t really understand the book.
So I like the intro because it’s so true.
We’re all over the place with this one.
I tried to look up what the book was about afterwards and a lot of the things that you
said in there were in there meta fiction.
This that the other thing.
I don’t know what any of that stuff means.
And I clicked on that and I read with that meant and I didn’t know what that means.
Like you can only keep day into a wormhole that you still don’t understand.
So with that, let’s get into stock up stock down Keith stock up what you got.
Negative outlook stock up.
Oh, I think it is a bit strange that this is a high school book kind of drills into a
few things about life that are somewhat negative.
I would say one people with authority are typically morally corrupt and don’t really care about
the innocent, the poor, the young.
That’s very well established, it seems.
The only person he comes across that hasn’t fought in the war or is of some sort of higher
standing.
I mean, this is every war book we’ve read really, but they just don’t really care about people
that are dying over there.
They’re just more like, yeah, you know, it is what it is.
It’s worth it.
Yeah.
Two, there’s no point really arguing with people because everyone’s set in their ways, which
in high school I feel like you’re like, I’m going to go and change things.
But this book is just like, there’s no point in even like caring about anything.
Everyone’s going to do whatever the fuck they want.
And then nihilism, fatalism, and a good sense of humor the way to go.
Those are the three things you need in life.
It doesn’t seem like having any sort of, this is my life plan and this is the journey.
It’s just like, have a good sense of humor about things.
Let things kind of fall off your back like a duck.
Then you’ll be good.
I’d rather than high school, I’d just be like, what’s the point?
So I don’t know how there’s a high school book or I just read it completely wrong and
I’m super negative.
But for all those reasons, I like the book.
I think it’s just like anything else you know, like where and when you’ve read something
is how what you take out of it is attributed to that.
But my first stock up is associated with yours.
Inevitability, stock up because a lot of, at least with the Trafal Midorians, they say
all the moments in the past, present and future have always existed and always will exist.
It doesn’t matter really what you do.
It’s all meant to happen exactly like this.
So don’t sweat it.
And there are positives and negatives with that way of thinking.
I mean, the positives are pretty obvious in that what’s the point of putting too much
emphasis on anything because it’s already written.
There’s no free will.
The idea of free will just doesn’t exist to the aliens.
And you know, you question whether free will even exist to humans.
But at the same time, it’s a bit sad knowing that that is the case.
Then what’s the point of doing anything at all?
What does it all mean?
That’s what you’re trying to say.
Exactly.
You just said a long winded version of that.
Exactly.
That should be your book report.
Do you believe in that?
Do you have like believe in any sort of like pre destination or?
I think there are certain things that are going to hold everyone back to a certain extent.
But you know, when I go to the restaurant, I can choose between cheeseburger and spaghetti,
you know, so like that’s really all that matters in life at this point.
So what restaurant are you going to that has both cheeseburgers and spaghetti on the menu?
My restaurant and my own brain.
It’s fascinating restaurant.
They even said at one point he was talking about he’s writing an anti war book.
And then one of the guys he was talking to this might have been like at a party or something
was like, oh, you might as well write an anti glacier book because it’s inevitable.
Well, they’re just making sense because glaciers are melting.
So I was like, wait, what?
I think this is pre oh zone the ozone layer.
It’s pre that wow to us the powers references and we’re battling it into it.
What else do you have for stock up?
Stock up under promise over deliver.
I remember reading this in my management one on one book and college to bring it back
to high school and college.
But I really like to say it’s, you know, I think it was written by some dude or at least
the bug I read.
It was a car dealership.
They bring cars in to get them repaired and you’d say always give them like a higher price
and then over deliver and give them a cheaper result.
Because everyone leaves happy after that.
If you think you’re going to pay way more and you all of a sudden pay away less and they
give you more out of it.
And you think they’re being like honest with you?
Exactly.
It’s like, oh, these dudes could have continued to rip me off and instead they went the extra
mile and you know, made a less money.
Unfortunately, this book doesn’t really abide by that.
When he talked about the Dres and bombings, it’s two days and I kind of pictured the
Khaleesi dragons coming through and fire bombing and killing tons and tons of fire raining
from the sky.
We have ash.
That’s just raining.
You know, everything’s black and rag.
You can’t even see 135,000 people died.
I think he said 125, but yeah, whatever.
Okay.
Either way, which is more than the atomic bomb deaths, which is pointed out as well.
So I’m thinking, you know, this is insane.
And then I get to the Wikipedia page, turns out that’s, that’s a lie.
It’s only 25,000 and it went from, you know, 20,000 is not something to snip.
That’s a lot of people in two days.
That’s insane to matter, honestly.
But it went from me being like, this is the worst thing I’ve ever, we can’t believe we
don’t learn about this to like, oh, 25,000.
Like, who cares about like, that’s nothing.
That’s like, you know, like, Josh gets stans and when he finds out that the, uh, Andrea
Doria boat crash only killed like a small number of people and he’s like, that’s it.
That’s a normal cruise.
That was me, my mindset.
I was just, it went from like dragons blowing up the city to like nothing that really that
bad.
I don’t know why, but that’s the underpromise over to the other.
I didn’t really come through there.
You needed to do that.
It’s funny that you mentioned that because, and I’m glad you went next level on the research,
which we appreciate.
And I’m sure our listeners do as well because, um, I just been to the World War two museum
down there in Nollins, which was fascinating, amazing place.
If anyone goes down to New York, New Orleans, get stay away from the debauchery, at least
for a bit and go check out the World War two museum.
But I don’t remember it being that crazy.
Like it was in there, but it wasn’t like, Oh, wow, like it was like hundred or a thousand.
Like that’s a lot of people.
And for me, I’m somewhat gullible in that if someone says something, especially somewhat,
I believe to be smarter than me, I’m going to believe that and I’m going to then tell
everybody that.
So when he said 125,000 people died and dress in, I was like, Holy shit.
Turns out that number, not only was wrong, but it came from a Holocaust denier, which
tough, tough luck.
The real number was closer to 25,000.
But when this was brought to Vonnegut’s attention, he pretty much said, so what?
Does it matter?
Which is a really good comeback because now you’re the asshole because you’re saying
like those 25,000 people doesn’t matter.
But you know, a hundred thousand people, I think that kind of matters.
But I guess in a war where 30, 40 million people died.
I also wouldn’t think it would matter if you didn’t compare it to other ones because
once you start comparing it, then that it does matter.
You know, if you just said 10 people dying, this would have been unacceptable.
It doesn’t matter.
But he was like, look at how many people died in this one and this one versus this one.
Like we should have been talked about more.
It’s like, well, now you’re doing that.
You know, so it does matter.
Granted, I think the, and here we go, we’ll start this bullshit all over again.
But I do think that the Tokyo bombings, which was the same kind of thing, just like fire
bombings of Tokyo and instance, Tokyo is all built of all wood and paper, I think that
killed more than one of the A-bombs.
But who knows?
That could be a lie as well.
Who knows?
It was pretty wild though that this whole thing was kept secret from Americans for a while.
Like, well, it wasn’t necessarily painting us in the best light.
Yeah, I think it was more of a push from what I understand of like the British, especially
because like they had dealt with their own bombing for so long that they were like, all
right, let’s just kick the shit out of the Germans.
There’s no revenge.
It’s all like this whole book is like, what’s the point?
None of it’s justified.
It’s all just, oh, it’ll end the war sooner.
It’s like, okay, kill more people.
That’ll end the war sooner or whatever.
Who knows?
Pretty fucked up.
I love World War II stuff anyways.
And I didn’t even know this book was a World War II book until I started reading it and
I was like, oh, cool.
Like I’m going to be really into this.
And I, I, I, I, I liked it, but it was tough in the sense of it was the opposite of the
glorification and I’m not even saying that the other stuff I watch like band of brothers
or whatnot is like glorifying war or like DOS boot.
Like one of my favorite movies is like definitely not glorifying war, but it took out a lot
of the like brotherhood camaraderie stuff, you know, that, that you love when you watch
those things, you know, like people just pitted against a giant war mechanism, but it’s just
you and the guy that’s in the foxhole next to you because this, all of the guys that
Billy Pilgrim deals with the most part just hate him, but he’s so sympathetic because
he’d be doing what I’d be doing.
Like if I was in the battle of the bulge, I’d be in a ditch being like, just leave me.
Don’t, don’t worry about it.
Yeah.
Like I’m good here.
Like let me freeze to death, but he’s pretty pathetic in this throughout.
A totally novel look at war for my experience, like not obviously experience of war, but
experience with media and whatnot, because usually there’s an anti war book, or won’t
talk about how young people are.
That’s like, oh, these are kids, you know, that are fighting for us.
And then two, there’s usually even if the person’s anti war, the protagonist is like
good dude.
He’s the hero.
He’s, you know, even though he doesn’t agree with war, he’s still like that one where
the guy’s um, Spider-Man dude is like saving people, but he won’t like shoot a gun, but
he’s just like saving lives.
Oh, hacksaw Ridge.
He is doing his duty, it’s still made out to be what a great dude with a like hero of
the war.
And you’re like, boy, is that not that, you know, after seeing it.
Yeah.
When it’s all just sounds terrible.
Yeah.
You come out of a friggin meat locker and you all of a sudden there’s just a city that
just melted around you.
Gotta be wild.
Like just such a shock.
My next stock up is being a POW, prisoner of war.
Obviously being a POW is terrible.
All right.
I do understand that.
I don’t want to get an email from somebody being like, I was P.A.W.
You don’t even understand how terrible this is.
I believe you.
Trust me.
I 1000%.
But these limey Brits were living like kings and I needed to say it.
All the food, coffee, milk, butter, tobacco that they had saved when they were going over
the numbers, it was like, wait, what?
They have how many tons of coffee?
How many tons of tobacco?
Like, how is that even possible?
And they were saying, oh, they stored it in an old area of their barracks and lined
it with tin cans to rad proof it.
I was like, I’m doing the math.
It was like 10 tons of food.
How many cans would it take for you to line something that could fit that much stuff?
And then on top of it, these guys are just getting jacked out of their gourds.
They’re like Cameron Poe and Conair.
They’re saying they’re doing chin ups and push ups all the time.
These guys are jacked, live in like kings, seemed like a pretty sweet situation for being
a prisoner of war, considering how it went for so many other folks.
What’d you think about that?
They’re like, these Americans around really, it’s like the Americans are just fighting
this like this huge front.
They just have like got into like one of the worst battles of the war.
They roll into this camp.
They meet these British POWs who have been there for like four years and like well fed,
getting some nice exercise.
It’s like, you have to be wearing anything in the war.
Like what are you talking?
Like you can’t taste shit.
Like you should be handing out the food, just thanking them for even being there.
Don’t give me the shit of like unruly.
All these Americans don’t know how to like act with class like shut the fuck up.
Get your singing out of here.
I don’t want to hear any cheery thing.
I want to only hear where your food is and I want you to say what else do you need?
That’s it.
You know what I mean?
I am careful.
Yeah.
I mean they just came for the front lines of the Battle of the Bulch which for the allies,
you know, outside of shit that went down in Russia was probably like the worst military
conditions in Europe at that time.
So yeah, give these guys a break.
Honestly, people’s feet freeze and often shit like that.
Can you imagine me being someone coming and being like starting singing cheerfully?
How are you supposed to react to that?
You’re exhausted and they’re like, all right, now we’re going to do Cinderella.
They’re like, oh my God, give me a break.
But I did think it was interesting too that there’s not a lot of movies about USP.
O.W.’s held by Germans.
The great escape.
The one with Bruce Willis.
Tears of the Sun.
What movies in?
Hearts War.
Oh, Hearts War.
No, I haven’t seen that.
It was good.
It’s exactly what you’re describing.
It’s a story within a story but it’s definitely worth watching.
Okay.
Because yeah, I feel like we have a ton of media around being a Japanese POW or like a Viet
Kong POW but not a lot with the German side.
And I think it’s probably because of the Germans which is just crazy.
We’re like nicer to Americans and British POWs than any of the Slavic people or obviously
the rest of the folks who they just decided to straight up kill or work to death.
But Hearts War, okay, I’ll check that out.
Did you have any other stockups?
One last one.
Drugs in the 70s.
Stock up.
I mean, obviously this is two shocking but stock up.
You know we’re reading Slutter as Five and Not Watching Platoon, right?
Well, I’m referencing just a specific quote in the book.
This is my boy Kilgore Trout.
Everyone’s asking about him being an author.
And the quote is, adulation he is receiving affectionate and marijuana.
Happy, loud and impudent.
Impudent?
What’s that word?
I am P-U-D in 10.
Impudent.
Impudent.
Ah, okay, I miss the spell that.
But that means not showing due respect to other people.
So just kind of being like, whatever, not what I would describe marijuana would be.
That’s like when Old Keithie drinks too many Zee-Mahs.
That’s me.
Wow, happy and impudent.
Not impudent, Jesus.
Well, that also happens.
But that’s what was happening when your boy takes too much CBD.
I don’t know what type of marijuana was going on back in the day.
But good for that.
What is it for you?
What do you like?
I’m not going to say I’ve ever done it.
But if I had, I would be passed out right away.
It doesn’t do anything.
Oh, yeah.
But it’s sweet.
That’s fine.
Yeah, there you go.
But I have to imagine that an anti-war writer has dabbled in his share of devil’s lettuce.
So I don’t think this is just like him throwing out something.
So I don’t know.
I think the marijuana back in the day was like, just awesome maybe?
No, it was terrible, supposedly.
It was terrible because it made you happy, free and loud.
But now people just want to get knocked out apparently.
I don’t know what’s going on.
Well, Kilgore Trout is his alter ego in the book.
It’s supposed to be like Kurt Vonnegut’s alter ego.
Wow, that is not something I would know.
Yeah.
I think that’s why he’s joking.
He jokes around saying he’s the worst writer ever and stuff like that.
But it’s supposed to be a version of him kind of thing.
It’s all satirical.
Well, that was my favorite character.
Yeah.
Well, there you go.
Oh, interesting.
You like Kilgore the best.
People love when everyone’s like trying to like, oh, Billy, okay.
And he’s like, oh, he just, he just experienced a time warp or whatever.
And everyone’s like, get the hell out of there.
He was like, no, that’s exactly what happened.
Like this guy’s been through time.
What’s going on here?
A couple quick stockups for me.
I had to give a shout out to Cape Cod.
My boy, Vonnegut lived there for many years.
He lived in Barnstable, which ain’t that far from me.
So that’s pretty cool.
And the movie Interstellar, I had to give a shout out to that because I, I, I, I, I, I
kind of took the idea of the Troll Thaggle Warrins and I’m going to miss that up every
time.
But there it is that what they’re saying about time is kind of like the end of Interstellar
right when it’s like, it’s all in a bookcase.
Like the whole timeline is kind of there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That’s a good point.
And that was like the fourth dimension, right?
So I think I kind of understood the fourth dimension a little more.
Interstellar is another one.
Like that, that throws me through a little bit of loop.
And I’m saying this guy for winning another Oscar because that’s just going to make it,
make more of these movies.
I thoroughly enjoy them.
Don’t, don’t get me wrong.
I already quoted Tenet too.
Yeah, exactly.
That’s insane.
And he’s always do himself a time.
A Mento that.
Yeah, every movie pretty much.
Yeah, except for the Dark Knight or the, that trilogy.
Oh, yeah.
Well, there is the third one where he recovers from back surgery, gets out of the prison
and flies back to a place in like 30 minutes.
There’s something going on with time there.
There’s some, there’s some plot holes in that pretty, pretty major plot.
Fair enough.
And then my last stock up is being hung like a horse.
So Billy’s.
All right, we might have to bring clips back after this one.
Billy’s, Billy’s somewhat pathetic overall, but like his German captors, he’s got an absolute
howitzer.
So.
Don’t I miss this in the book?
Yeah, you did miss it in the book.
I don’t know how you missed it.
I’m not great at reading until usually it comes to howitzer size and I usually hone in.
But I don’t know what happened there.
I missed it.
You know, when you have a situation like that, when you got the old tripod.
Yeah, you know, you never experienced the guy.
The giant’s arm holding an apple.
It’s, it must be nice because then, you know, the rest of it is kind of like, oh, whatever.
So, so it goes, you know, what else can you say?
But I’ve read this on my Kindle, which I pull out here and there.
We both read this analog style as opposed to our digital age.
I mean, granted, I read out a Kindle, but you know what I’m saying, we didn’t listen to
it.
And, but kind of those are fun, man.
They let you like highlight stuff and it’d be good for both of us because our dictionary
understandings are minimal and you just touch a word and it tells you what it means.
So you would be able to figure out the difference between impotent and impudent.
Impudent.
So.
Oh, I told you, you can’t make fun of someone for not knowing how to pronounce a word because
they found it out by reading.
So I read that, looked it up and then I just did not have pronounced it.
So I’m getting myself a pass and a pat in the back.
Yeah, both.
Both.
Both.
I had one and it’s just being a character in this book, stock down.
I mean, it’s tough to be semi autobiographical novel and then being like, Oh, I knew that
guy in the war and then picking up this book and being any character in this book.
Yeah.
Because literally you just go through the list of characters that we get introduced to.
Every single person has some issue.
Even Billy is the main guy.
He still makes him a piece.
He’s like, my wife’s ugly.
I’m cheating on her.
I don’t care about my kids at all.
Yeah.
So it was kind of interesting because it’s semi autobiographical and that a lot of him
is in Billy too, in the sense that he was there during those Dresden bombings.
And I’m sure they didn’t have PTSD.
I mean, they people had PTSD for sure, but it wasn’t understood as PTSD at the time.
And I wonder if like those feelings was, you know, maybe somewhat cathartic or why it took
him so long to write the book.
But then if he was wife and she, you know, she’s reading her early script, she’s like,
what the hell is going on here or his kids, especially at the end, he’s talking about
his son and we like didn’t know that well.
It’s like he’s 17.
He’s like, yeah, I didn’t really know him that well.
It’s like your kids like dad, do you not love me?
Pretty, pretty tough.
And then I mean, I can go through the list of characters, but everything other character
that’s introduced to this book is either a little bit off their rocker or statistic
or arrogant or there’s something wrong with everything with character essentially.
Yeah, except for maybe the guy that introduced him to like the Kilgore trout.
The guy was just like obsessed with it.
And I actually loved his schtick of just fake it till you make it kind of vibe or like just
pretending to be a normal human being.
Well, they did kind of shit on him.
Do you remember that?
He said like he’s like this Kilgore trout guy is like amazing stories, but he’s terrible,
terrible, right?
He’s so awful.
And then Kilgore trout’s like, yeah, I did get a letter from someone.
Oh, right.
And I thought it was a kindergartner or something.
He just shits all over.
That’s what I thought it was pretty funny.
Yeah.
He’s like, I knew that guy.
He’s like, oh, I thought it was a child.
My most obvious stock down and come on, you only had one.
It’s war, right?
Stock down war.
The old sin, the diety, the young to die.
We’re talking about a children’s crusade here.
I mean, that’s like selling Enron.
Like, come on.
What are we doing here?
Come on.
Hey, guys, I just want to let everyone know we don’t want to buy this one.
Come on.
Yeah, fair enough.
This guy invited me to an island.
His name is Jeffrey Epstein.
He said it’s going to be a great time.
I think he’s kind of a dick.
I’m just going to go out there and say it.
I don’t trust him.
I don’t trust him.
There you go.
The company keeps him going with that, but yeah, other than.
But what’s funny is that this book was on Jeopardy.
I was watching Jeopardy the other night and I don’t know where the category.
But the answer was slaughterhouse5 and no one knew it.
I think it was like Kurt Vonnegut death or whatever.
It was like slaughterhouse5 and I was like yelling it at the screen.
No one knew it.
I love that part of Jeopardy when I feel like I’m smarter than everybody.
Yeah, that’s awesome.
It’s great.
Yeah, it’s usually only sports questions, but yeah.
Oh, yeah.
For me, it’s like random stuff and they started talking about monarchies or like presidents
and I’m like, I am out or geography.
No, thank you.
The other stock down is time travel.
I’m going to have to stock down it because when we think about time travel, at least
when I do, I’m thinking about going to the future to see new technology or going to the
past to steal Confederate gold by using our advanced weaponry as they did in the underrated
van den movie time cop.
But going back in time to relive terrible war memories sounds like it’s not the best
use of time travel.
Yeah, it’s a hard pass for me on that.
Yeah, I agree.
I kind of took it as the time travel is a way that he shows PTSD because I’m also the
book I have on my nightstand that I’ve just been like periodically picking up and reading
when I can’t fall asleep at night is a Sebastian younger book called war where he like follows
a bunch of people around the Coringale Valley during the Iraq Afghanistan war.
They eventually made it into documentary called her strepo, which is really good, but I was
reading it the other night.
And he’s talking about he was in Paris a year later, whatever the case after being out of
the Coringale.
And he sees a couple of guys carrying a mattress in Paris.
And he said he was just like immediately got like super sweaty was like heart racing and
like was like transported back to Afghanistan.
Because that was like the way they were carrying it was like very similar to the way they carry
body bags.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And maybe it’s because I’m reading those two things at the same time, but I thought one
minute you’re living your normal life and the next minute you’re like transported back
to these terrible memories.
It sounded a lot like PTSD to me, but I don’t know.
Maybe that was just me.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I assume there’s some greater underlying theme that I just wasn’t able to say for, but that
that makes the most sense to me right there.
My last one is barbershop quartets.
You know, when I think about barbershop quartet, I’m thinking like, you know, bop, bop, bop,
Mr. Sam and bring me your dream.
Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop,
just one I’ve ever seen.
You know, something along those lines.
Yeah, pretty soft.
But he has his optometrist, whoever barbershop quartet come in and they’re singing some somber
songs for his anniversary party.
Whatever the case was.
Did you read the lyrics to those songs?
No, like me.
Yeah.
Well, I’m not going to read them because I don’t have them say they were pretty dour.
Or as they say in the blade itself, which is our next book, Dewear.
It just seems like if you’re invited to a party
and people invite you to sing,
like don’t sing Amy Winehouse’s most depressing song.
Pretty much.
Well, I think that’s kind of true of everything.
You know, like born in the USA is an anti-America,
or US, or more.
Anti-war.
Yeah.
Everyone loves that as like a four to a life song.
My favorite wedding song is Your Love by the Outfield.
And that’s just like, I’m gonna use your love tonight.
I think that’s just like being like,
I’m just gonna bang you and that’s it.
I’m pretty sure.
Yeah.
That’s what it is.
I don’t really know the lyrics of that song,
but I just love it.
Yeah.
It’s a great wedding song.
So I don’t think it matters.
I think the lyrics, you don’t worry about that.
Okay.
Yeah.
It just seemed like the vibe,
especially after the host is like having a panic attack.
Like don’t go for the next one.
That’s also the same vibe.
But yeah, we actually have a big fight, not a big fight,
but you know, a disagreement in my house
when it comes to lyrics for just like music.
Cause I just listen to music.
I’m like, oh, I sing along with it, whatever.
But I never pay attention to the words.
And Carolin’s the opposite.
So she’s all about like,
oh, what does this song mean?
And I’m like, I have literally no idea.
Did you have a favorite scene in this one?
Not really scene book.
I will say my favorite,
probably my laugh out loud moment was
There was a few.
They’re eating a ton of food at the PEW camp
and then they’re all getting sick
cause they haven’t eaten forever.
And they’re all shitting.
And then the guy’s like, oh my God,
I’m shitting my brains out.
And he goes, oh, there it goes.
There’s the brain.
And he goes, I can’t imagine someone said that.
And he said, I said that.
That was me that day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that.
That was hilarious to me.
What about you?
You said there’s a bunch of other funny ones.
Or would you else?
No, I just thought there was a bunch of,
there’s a lot of comedy in this.
And I’m gonna get into it later.
So I don’t really wanna talk with it right now.
But in terms of favorite scene,
I thought like the intro to the Trafalgar Morians
or whatever was kind of fun.
Just because we kind of been hearing about it
and whatnot, but we hadn’t seen them.
And then he’s like talking about actually getting abducted
and like what life was like up there.
It was just kind of wild and totally took me out
of the story that was happening, but in a good way.
Not in a bad way.
It was almost like a totally different
and super weird story.
And he’s like, has this domestic life
that he’s living up there in the zoo?
I thought it was super weird.
I was kind of wondering,
did you know what the point was of the aliens?
No.
When I first started reading, I was like,
wait, this is a different book?
Like what just happened here?
Like it just kind of came out of nowhere.
And it made it super original because I did not see
a sci-fi element all of a sudden coming into the way.
And like you mentioned, like interstellar type vibes
all of a sudden I was like, wait, what’s happening here?
The only thing I could kind of think of was that it’s,
if you were to show war or something like that
to someone that wasn’t an Earthling,
how would they view it kind of thing?
You know, that was the only way,
because you know when you talk about stuff,
you’re like, oh, what would someone think about
or what would a different being think about this or that?
Because it’s something that we always come
with a perspective of being human
and all the history that that entails.
So if someone just came in from outer space
and was saw us just brutally murdering each other
and whatnot, like how would they look at it?
The death stuff was kind of interesting too
in terms of those that I know that person doesn’t die,
which made me feel a little better,
especially now in this age where our voices
are now being recorded.
And there’s photos and whatnot.
Like you can always think back on those times
or even your great, great grandkids can see you then.
And so you are still like somewhat alive,
even after you’re dead.
All right, we’ll jump into some love, hate,
Keith, what’d you love about Slaughterhouse Five?
I kind of had some city of thieves vibes from this at times
because of the humor and like the,
it’s like everything around you is crumbling
and things are terrible, but you’re like,
still making jokes about it kind of vibes,
which I thought was good.
Can’t really tell this story or it’d be unreadable
if it was just like, so then, you know,
me and these other three guys who are 18 years old
who have never been outside of Iowa,
decided to like go over here and we’re getting shot
and beaten and starving.
It’s like, oh, shit, you know,
you can’t just read that straight up.
Add some humor to it, it kind of gets the message
across a little better in my mind.
Yeah, I think that’s so well said, honestly,
because anti-war novels tend to be,
or at least from what I’ve read, and I know there are other ones
like Catch 22 that supposedly is like kind of funny,
but I, from my understanding, war and peace is not.
And it was a new idea in the sense that an anti-war novel
can be both funny and serious.
You know, to me, it was kind of like the idea of laughing
so we don’t cry.
You know, you have to find the little pieces of funny
so that you don’t just like break down
and become a big ball of mush.
And war and death are such inevitable tragedies
that we have to laugh.
So we don’t cry.
And I mean, you were talking about that scene earlier
when they’re pooping and they say that he has the diarrhea
and he shits, quote unquote, thin gruel.
And then the author equates to him coughing,
which is what makes him continue to shit
to Newton’s third law of motion,
which is equal and opposite reaction or whatever the case is.
That’s pretty good.
It’s just like, well, it like came out of nowhere
and it was funny.
And there was a bunch of that kind of stuff throughout.
Okay, if there’s any shit jokes, we’ll laugh at that.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, we have pretty high ground.
We have pretty high ground humor.
So yeah, I thought the comedy throughout
was something I loved a lot and it made it really enjoyable.
What else you got?
Kind of mentioned, sorry, but it’s super original.
It’s pretty out there.
I mean, I feel like I’ve never read a book like this,
which, you know, it’s always cool.
And if this were 20 hours of rambling in this,
I’d be like, all right.
But this was like a quick read.
It seemed to go by really quickly.
And I did appreciate a lot of the callbacks.
There’s a lot of like references in the first chapter,
even that he called back into the book.
It’s like a warm blanket.
We were like, oh yeah, I remember him saying that earlier.
Yeah.
And I also liked how it’s mentioned in the forward,
but the guy who wrote the forward, he references,
he calls Slaughter House Five, wisdom literature.
And I like that because it’s a story,
but it is full of wisdom.
But it doesn’t necessarily like beat it over your head.
Like war is bad.
War is bad.
Like, yeah, it does mention that.
But in a way that makes you like somewhat kind of come
to that conclusion just on your own,
but everything is happening.
And it was, so it kind of was reminding me
of the alchemist in that way,
but then like less abstract with like parables and stuff.
It is a book that you really,
I’m sure you could dig into this super deep
and take tons and tons of literary important things
out of it, but if you just read it as a layman,
like you or me, like I understand what he was trying to say,
I think, you know, I think I got the general idea.
And yeah, war is super shitty.
It’s fucked up that all these innocent people have to die
and old people send young people to their deaths
so that they can be happy.
Anything else?
Just the alien stuff you already mentioned.
Yeah, I had that too, I had that too.
And then I also dug just,
and like we’ve kind of been talking about,
but like the pros of it all,
like the way he wrote it because it was funny
and it was somewhat maybe cynical.
I don’t know if that’s maybe the right word for it,
but beginning of it, I highlighted this thing,
which was, I’m gonna read it here.
The Germans and the dog were engaged
in a military operation,
which had an amusingly self-explanatory name.
A human enterprise which is seldom described in detail,
whose name alone when reported as news or history
gives many more enthusiasts
a sort of post-coital satisfaction.
It is in the imagination of combat’s fans
the divinely litless love play
that follows the orgasm of victory.
It is called mopping up.
It’s like, how can someone write that paragraph
about going in there and mopping up?
It’s only like three sentences or two sentences,
but it just puts everything perfectly.
When you see that, you’re like,
oh yeah, you’re going in there
after killing this German town
and you’re shooting wounded Germans
and killing horses and stuff like that,
just to shut them up.
It’s like, you do get a kind of hard on for that,
but at the same time, it’s like pretty fucked up.
So yeah, I just left it.
What about, hey,
kind of all right, talking about this,
it’s kind of a classic school book
in the sense that it kind of goes over my head
and I take things too literal.
I’m sure there’s a lot of themes.
I’m sure there’s PTSD talk.
I’m sure there’s stuff that you can,
like you mentioned, you could break down for days,
but it was five hours long.
So it goes and you know, like after I got done,
I was like, I don’t really remember a lot of the book,
which is good and bad.
I mean, it makes it so it’s easy to read,
but it also is like, you’re supposed
to probably digest it differently,
but that’s why I probably sucked at English class.
100% agree.
I mean, I feel like I’m a 37,
almost 37 year old man
and this was probably definitely two,
so it was too smart for me.
Like there’s a lot of smart stuff in here
that someone really smart would come in.
Yeah, it’s a high school book.
Yeah, I know.
Like someone really smart.
There’s probably a high school kid
that we could break this down and be like,
oh, wow, I never thought about it like that.
But it’s the same way with me with like movies and whatnot.
I like to go and read Ebert’s review
or whoever now writes the Ebert reviews
after I watch a movie and I’m like, oh shit,
I didn’t see any of that.
I was watching a different movie.
Like I just thought it was fun stuff.
Did you have any lingering questions?
This is more just generic,
but I don’t really understand how you write a book like this.
No, I’ve no idea.
Like when you decided to do the jumps,
where are you going aliens from?
I would think they already kind of went with this,
but how are you editing?
If someone reads this editing,
I don’t know where anything to go.
I don’t know.
It wasn’t really a, there’s no answer to that.
There’s not, and all this stuff blows me away.
Like even I was watching The Oscars the other night
and how people edit these movies and the sound design
and stuff like that.
And people are explaining like, oh, like,
he said he wanted a violin.
So I created this whole score.
I’m like, what?
I’m so fucking dumb.
I can’t do any of that stuff.
So yeah, I don’t know how these people’s brains work.
I’m just glad that we share some DNA.
That’s all that matters.
You’ve been shooting your DNA across the Hollywood?
Is that what you’re saying?
What are you saying in the book?
He said like, he squeezed his seminal vesicles
into his wife Valencia or something like that.
Oh, God, it’s so good.
I love that stuff.
Ironic.
Speaking about erotic, I got some listener mail.
You’ve got mail.
Oh, yeah.
We have a,
Katharina from the Czech Republic.
She says, hello.
Perhaps my message is too specific.
But my older sister found a wonderful man here
and they have a great relationship.
But what about me?
I am 25 years old Katharina from Czech Republic.
No English language also.
And better to say it immediately, I am bisexual.
I am not jealous of another woman,
especially if we make love together.
I don’t, I’m not sure this is a,
yes, I cook very tasty and I love not only cook
winky face.
I’m real girl.
Okay, so I don’t think this was actually
what we were expecting.
Was that the one about Shogun or what was that about?
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
It’s a common day.
I initially was thinking Shogun,
but now I’m thinking it’s junk mail.
But there’s a link here.
I could click on it.
That was a legit email that we did receive.
If you are listening in,
would like to send us an actual email.
That’s not like that.
We would appreciate it.
Has there been any movie adaptations of this?
There is one and I watched the trailer
and it is just as weird as the book.
The trailer is from the 70s.
I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on here.
I would have casted if you, I don’t know if you cast it.
No, I don’t want to hear it though.
I only cast it to people.
Billy, Robert Patterson, I think like he’s can play
the 100% of crazy dude.
And then you knew the answer for this one.
Kilgore trout Johnny Depp.
I already told you, I think the writer is similar
to who Johnny Depp’s played a bunch of times.
The journalist, that’s like crazy.
Oh, Hunter S Thompson.
Hunter S Thompson.
So I think his writing is so similar.
So I just was picturing Kilgore trout
being that same person.
Yeah, I like it.
I mean Johnny Depp would do a great job of course.
Keith, would you recommend Slender House 5
to our listeners who maybe have not read it?
I liked it.
I wouldn’t go on my way to recommend it.
I think certain people would like it.
I get it, I liked it.
But would you recommend it to someone?
I don’t, I can’t think of anyone I’d recommend it to.
Yeah, it’s not a beach read, you know what I mean?
Which is usually what I.
I read by the poll.
So I thought I really couldn’t, I liked it.
Okay, yeah.
I think it would be kind of weird if you were like,
no you’ll like this book and someone reads it’s like,
what the fuck?
Yeah.
If someone said to me, I’d get it.
So I guess to me, I’d recommend it to myself.
All right, we’re back.
If you had a buddy that was in the army
and he was like pretty die hard,
I was like, hey read this book.
I would not recommend it, but let’s just say
I had a, at this age, I don’t know,
niece or nephew or someone that I knew
that was in high school.
And I was like, oh, what’s your summer reading
or what are the cases?
And they said slaughterhouse five,
I would say, hey, could get a lot worse, trust me.
You know?
Yeah, yeah, I’m pretty sure.
Cause I liked it as well.
I don’t think I would revisit it,
but I think there’s definitely a place for it.
And I think anyone that reads it
would enjoy it to some degree.
That’s what I think.
It’s not gonna be by top 10.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaking of top 10s, what do you got coming up next?
The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombie coming up next.
It’s a little longer one,
but back to the epics, if you will.
And then we’re gonna be throwing in
the three body problem by Lu Sixen, six, I don’t know.
C-I-X-I-N, I can barely read as it is.
So anyways.
Have you started Blade itself yet?
I’m like halfway on.
I think my wheelhouse outside of like good sci-fi
is sword and sorcery.
I just dig it, I dig it.
I dig all that stuff.
Makes me happy.
Yeah, I’m excited to chat about that one.
So we’ll be getting that around next week.
And that was slaughterhouse five.
I hope everyone enjoyed it.
If you wanna come down and check out Kurt Vonnegut’s house,
which I think is like a thing you can walk through,
swing on by.
Say hello, knock on my front door.
I’ll call the cops.
All right.
All right.
That’s good.
Bye now.
Bye now.