Response Post

For my response post, I've decided to take a look at Aaron's Blog. While reading through his posts, I find that I get to see a completely different perspective at the novel. But, it's a humorous perspective that retains that severity of the concepts involved. Indeed, it embodies the positive nature that I think Vonnegut would wish everyone had. That, primarily, is what drew me in and kept me reading throughout.

Just a note to make, for whatever reason I read the blog from most recent to latest, so all of my thoughts actually start opposite from when Aaron wrote the posts.

Anyways, that's not to say that I didn't have some conflicting ideas with Aaron. For example, when he wrote:

There is some speculation on our favourite theme of Fate duking it out with Free Will. In SH5 we see the Tralfamadorians and their idea of Fate reigning supreme. But in 2BR02B,  people are able to call the number 2BR02B and book an appointment to die in a gas chamber (they do this when they want to volunteer to die in order to serve the future generations). Yayyy. Sounds a lot like Free Will to me if people have the choice to pick their deathday, not birthday.

I felt that the definition of fate and free will are a bit blurred. Fate is something that is set in stone and cannot be changed; it is something that no one knows. Meanwhile, life is when free will and choice occurs, which is what Aaron is referring to. I think this might've been what he was getting at, but it wasn't stated explicitly. I think often people mix up the terms fate and life in the sense that they define fate as your set of choices in life, while fate is actually the set of choices you are bound to make in life (thus setting it apart from life itself). People can pick how they want to live their lives, and in this case picking when to die, but their fate is forever unchangeable.

But immediately after, the subject of Vonnegut's dark humour was touched upon. Right away, I remembered in the first chapter of SH5 when I read "there must have been tons of human bone meal in the ground". I chuckled a bit since it seems such a grotesque picture to paint out of nowhere, and the true significance of the statement takes a while to get to you. As with Aaron, Vonnegut's creativity never ceases to make me chuckle.

Speaking of creativity, I enjoyed reading the blog post on parodies of famous novels. Larry Potter and Hermyknee Ranger are just two of a number of tidbits in the post that made me chuckle or smile. I think that fans of the subject matter would actually appreciate the humour as it is refreshing to see something you like presented in a different way, especially when it's amusing.

And now that we're on the topic of amusement, Aaron's warped narrative reminds me of all of the Failblog videos I've seen. Even though I know that sometimes the people in the videos must be getting hurt (to varying degrees), I can't stop laughing at the scenario that they've put themselves in. In that respect, I find that I'm not only similar to Vonnegut's style of humour but also Aaron's. I know that I've had my own veritable share of "fail" experiences. His last sentence in the warped narrative was a good way to end it off and really relate it back to Vonnegut's humour: If Aaron were in Charlie’s place, he would have died…

Aaron's post on censorship really had me agreeing with him. These days, people are surrounded by so many conflicting opinions that they really get lost in blaming someone for their misfortunes. Oftentimes, literature gets blamed for its negative effects. Ulga Hoffstadder, with her few sentences on Dr. Seuss' book, is a paragon for ignorance for everyone. Without commenting on her intelligence, I'll say that her failure to see the words beyond the words leaves me without words of my own. . .

Regardless, I very much enjoyed reading Aaron's blog. Aside from his humorous posts, you can still pick up a different perspective of things. Reading his blog, I really get a sense of connection and similarity between his words and my own. Maybe it was fate that made me post about Aaron's blog. No, wait. It WAS fate that made me post about Aaron's blog, but it was my choice in my life to do so. Now try and see what I mean by that.