Wow, zach's blog has come a long way from when I first saw it a few weeks after we had initially started this project. I remember back when we had begun our third or fourth topic, i believe, when Zach had so little work done. But just 2 months and a lot of dedication later, Zach's blog has far surpassed any expectations that I've once held for it. Brimming with creativity and ideas, I feel glad to have read all of the posts that Zach has made. There's so much I'd like to discuss about your ideas, but i'll refrain from commenting on all of them, so i'll stick with the bare minimum of 3.
The first topic that piqued my interest is the one about censorship. Now on my blog, i had previously thought that censorship was a viable solution to certain problems, but now your post has made me think a little bit more about this certain topic. I now believe that censorship shouldn't be allowed in this day and age but back then, novels like Slaughterhouse probably were that bad. As you have said, we have become far more slack in our use of sexuality and language, which is why Slaughterhouse is not so controversial today, but who knows how they lived in the old days, maybe even mentioning the war led to suspicion. Maybe it's because of when Vonnegut wrote his book that it came under fire instead of what his book is about. And also, history books are much more factual than what Vonnegut wrote, which was opinion-based, so the depiction of soldiers and such vary and also lead to these types of book to be banned rather than history books.
The second topic that i liked was the first one about fate vs. free will. I've always been a believer of how nothing is ever predetermined. I agree with you completely on your life choices affect your future, and not fate. When you try harder, then you will succeed far more often. Effort should correlate with success in life while fate shouldn't. The belief in fate, in my opinion anyways, is very ridiculous. If you believed that moments in life are structured to happen a certain way, what motivation would you have to attempt anything? You wouldn't try to be successful because if you were destined to be successful, then it should happen, weather you try or not, which in my opinion, is the worst idea possible. Barrack Obama didn't become president by staying home and watching movies, he pushed himself to become a powerful and influential man.
Your post about Vonnegut's history is very interesting since I also think that Vonnegut defending the Germans very well through the novel. I couldn't agree more about how prevents this by giving the enemies a face, such as with the average citizens of Dresden or even the people who had arrested Billy and Weary. When I read the book, they did seem like average citizens and it made me question weather or not it was right to take their lives, even to end the war. Personally though, I think that the Germans were justified in trying to regain power during WWII (excluding the whole Holocaust thing), since they were just trying to rebuild their country. After the end of WWI, Germany was devastated, poor, and the ridicule of the world. A huge amount of debt was forced onto their shoulders and it was not fair. I also agree that assimilation and cultural conformity should be based on the will of the individual, but sometimes it's just not possible. Just imagine, how would a woodcutter be able to function properly in New York City? People have been forced to assimilate to be able to function in society. I'd love to see a world where everyone can live the way that they want to live, but assimilation does happen forcefully all the time, such as with the native people and even the crusades.
All in all, your blog was very enjoyable to read. Your writing style is very straightforward and i really like the ideas that you wrote about. I think that you put a lot of effort into this blog and it's a really good blog overall. Having now read your blog, I've become quite fearful for mine as it pales in comparison. Anyways, now I need to polish off my own blog.
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