Kevin Carter and the Sudanese girl - John

This is the infamous photograph of the Sudanese girl, if anyone's read my post about my ideas on writing my own novel. It shows a starving girl crawling towards a feeding center while the vulture waits for the poor girl to die. Kevin Carter was infamous due to the fact that he had not done anything to help the girl, but instead waited the vulture to spread his wings and take the picture. After a while, Kevin Carter got impatient and simply took the picture without the vulture spreading it's wings. No one knows exactly what happened to the girl, weather she died of starvation or she crawled to salvation, but I pray for the latter option to have taken place.

This picture has nothing to do with Slaughterhouse but it does have to do with the blog post about our own ideas on novels.

Also, I would like to note that this is an enormous reason as to why I do not and will not ever believe in fate. It should not ever be the fate of some poor child to starve to death. No person should have the right to look at this image and say: "That was her fate." This is clearly not true as people such as Kevin Carter had the choice to stop what was happening. He had the ability to help but rather chose not to. World hunger is not a problem that's beyond the powers of human society. It is not fate that has led to millions of humans to die of starvation but rather apathy for those in need that have caused us to choose this world filled with pain and sorrow. Fate is no excuse for why things happen the way they do. Choices are what determine the outcome of a situation.

Why SH5 Should Never be Adapted into Film - Milan, OWA3

It has been tried before. The word on the street is that the movie doesn't perform as well as it could have what the novel intended. Is this coincidence? Or is it actually a result of the fact that the book was never written to be adapted into the forms that modern film take today?

The truth is, when Vonnegut finished writing SH5, his intention was not to create an entertaining novel, per se, but rather to make a point. His elimination of suspense throughout the story (by revealing events prematurely) and lack of character development in Billy (creating a character that cannot be sympathised with) results in a novel that lacks the fundamentals for a movie with which people can enjoy. Granted, it can be said that these forms of writing were employed in order to create more focus on the messages in the novel. However, the results of which create a novel that is not appealing to the general public.

Getting the themes and points of SH5 across in a movie as effectively as the novel (arguably) does, would involve changing the storyline in order to make Billy a relatable character. I believe that doing so takes away from what makes Vonnegut's book unique; it would take away the essence of the story in order to make it a Hollywood hit. If you turn an orange blue, it's no longer an orange.

But, if we were to assume that a film would not attempt to make the movie in the form of how many movies are made today (to make money), then it would be possible for the novel to be re-written for a screenplay. Indeed, doing so would be risking thousands of dollars on the notion that the movie would sell as well as the novel. Not doing so, I believe, would discredit the principles that the novel was written upon.

In addition, the movie can be loosely based upon SH5 in such a way that the fundamental themes are still represented. They can be shown in such a way that they are intriguing and encourage any watchers of the film to create their own opinions of the subject matter within the film. If they are interested enough, they may even delve into the novel itself when previously they may never have given the notion a passing thought. In this way, the novel can be used to slightly simplify the messages from SH5 to make them more appealing and thus draw more people in to the enlightenment that Vonnegut was hoping to achieve.

In short, SH5 cannot be taken lightly. Reformatting it into a movie that can make money on its own should not be the attempt of any film director: the novel, as it stands, is not made for such transformations. A direct screenplay of the novel would be possible, but would risk in the loss of thousands of dollars and man-hours from its creation. As I said above, a movie that is perhaps somewhat based on the themes from the novel may prove to be more plausible. Quite simply, Vonnegut's eye-opening piece literature should be given the same credit in its film adaptation. Anything less would result in the dishonour, not only to Vonnegut, but to all the readers of the novel who have taken from it as much as they could.

How Vonnegut's writing style annoys me - John

Anyone else feel that Vonnegut's gone of on way too many tangents in Slaughterhouse five? There seems to be an abundance of unneeded fluff in his writing. Things like Maggie, the stereotypical dumb blonde who seems to serve no purpose whatsoever in the novel or Vonnegut's descriptions of Kilgore Trout's novels and what happens in them. Is knowing if Jesus really died or his height before his death in Kilgore Trout's novel really going to change my understanding of the book? I have come to see Vonnegut's writing as what i'd like to call verbal diarrhea on a silver platter. The novel might have taken many years to write, but the fashion in which it is written appears to me as a non-stop stream of thoughts that have been slightly cleaned up in the end.Vonnegut's gone off on so many tangents that it has become difficult to tell which facts are actually important and which ones are just simply pointless (A.K.A. the reason why i will fail the content quiz).

Novels should provide a clear and understandable vision of what the author wants to show, but Slaughterhouse only comes off as a jumble of madness. This writing style is suppose to represent the distorted mayhem of war the message is so incomprehensible that few will ever relate it to war. It wasn't even until this matter came up in class that I even considered that there was a reason behind the madness. The messages that other people seem to get from the novel just doesn't come to me. I didn't see the relation between war and the distortion, and this may be due to my lack of knowledge on war, but the relation between these 2 weren't so clear. If an important message is to be given through a novel, it should be crystal clear to see within the book or many readers will not catch what could be the most significant part of the book.

"The Prestige" and How its Plot Matches Up with Slaughterhouse-Five - Milan, OWA2

 Slaughterhouse-Five is unique in its various facets and the messages that it attempts to shed light on in order to enlighten readers is truly a unique experience. However, that is not to say that it cannot be relatable to any other piece of art in the sense of its chaotic and non-linear storyline progression. The movie "The Prestige", with its alluring plot of magicians and their rivalries is more than meets the eye, literally. It's an excellent film that compares with Slaughterhouse-Five in some fashion, but goes completely the other way in others.

The movie begins with no sense of direction as Christopher Nolan spins a concoction of events in an attempt to primarily draw in the audience. At the same time, he creates an atmosphere of mystery. Soon, the film begins jumping through scenes in various timelines as it warps between different events. Much like Billy Pilgrim's time traveling, the movie does indeed do the same thing. The two main characters (for each are each others antagonist), Angier and Borden, host their own magic shows in an attempt to outdo the other and make their claim to fame, so to speak. Over the course of the movie, one slowly begins to piece everything together until the film's culmination; its final enlightenment.

This movie instantly reminded me of SH5 with this kind of plot. However, there are some stark contrasts between the two, primarily being that The Prestige ends with a clear-cut cliffhanger (leaving one to think a little), while Slaugterhouse-Five's ending leaves a reader with a completely open-ended finale and no way to discern with complete confidence what the author intended. In a way, this matches up with the novel's existentialist themes (among other messages).

But, the similarities for the most part end there. Whether or not there is some kind of internal message within The Prestige is up for debate as it's a movie made for entertainment. SH5 definately has messages hidden whose discovery falls on the individual reader. And while Billy is not a character one can relate to, Angier is definately the character that is portrayed to be more likable in the movie. Character development is also present in The Prestige, while in SH5 it's completely absent in Billy. Speaking of characters, SH5 is completely absent of any love interest while The Prestige has a number of them. In addition to these lovers, the people in The Prestige have well-defined goals while Billy has none. All of these factors make watchers feel sympathetic to The Prestige, while Billy is simply used as an eyehole to look at society. In this respect, the two pieces of art are completely different.

It is true that in each case the character contributes in either bringing across the message or being the main proponent in progressing the storyline. I feel that in both cases the character choices were justified as they achieve (what I believe to be) their intended goals, whether it be their own or the author's. Both The Prestige and SH5 are similar, yet they are different. Indeed, quite like apples and oranges, they are both fruit; yet they both have different tastes, colours, and textures that set them apart. That is, in the end, what makes any one thing different from anything else and enjoyable in its own way.

Banning Books, Right or Wrong? - John

Books that give rise to controversy are often banned, sometimes to silence the message of the author but also sometimes to maintain the order of society. SH5 belongs in the latter group, as it caused people within the American society to rise and revolt. The novel portrays the Americans as a weak and pitiful while in reality, not all of their soldiers acted as such. This caused the american people to detest the book because it didn't reflect their point of view on the war. It certainly isn't right to ban a book because it contains the opinions of the author, especially one as influential as this one, but the people who have read it might not feel the same way that Vonnegut felt about the war. American soldiers might not feel happy about how Vonnegut had portrayed them, weak and intolerable, like Billy and Weary, while the English and German were depicted as being far better. This might be a cause as to why the banning took place, because soldiers and supporters of them alike had strong feelings for why they fought and the novel did not reflect this.

Picture this, a mother of 3 boys watches her sons grow up and become wonderful men. They all decide to help their nation and take part in the war. She watches them leave proudly as they march towards the battlefield. 3 months pass and a soldier arrives at the door. The soldier brings with him the sad news of how her sons have perished, fighting bravely for the country they hold so dear. Now if this mother had read this book about the American troops, would she not also feel offended by Vonnegut's words?

Vonnegut's writing certainly isn't for all readers, and this is why it leads to events such as book banning. Although book banning should not be happening, it is the only method for the American population to express how they felt about the book. They country that they had established was being insulted and so they bared their fangs with prejudice against the novel. A novel shouldn't ever be stopped from being read, but when its message is used to harm others, then events such as book banning becomes commonplace.

My Masterpiece - John

If i had the patience to actually sit down and write something outside of the realm of schoolwork, it would definitely have to be something along the lines of a dark and twisted tale about the dirty underside of society. A good example of such would be like the novel Next by Michael Crichton. Next is about the dark underbelly of the glamorous high-tech Biotech industry, about how people go to extreme measures to make money, how dysfunctional and broken the legal system is, and about the evils of the world in general. This novel is the basis for why I'd even consider writing a book because there's no much else that's influenced me like this novel. Unlike Vonnegut, I couldn't possibly write a novel based on my personal experiences simply because my life is boring. If this novel ever came to fruition, it would an action-packed thrill ride unlike anything you've ever read.

So to start off, there would be no main characters since i feel that it's too hard to explore a huge topic with just a single character. There wouldn't be some heroic, righteous protagonist that expunges the evil from the world. This is simply because it doesn't happen. There would be a few good guys that struggle with making the right decision, a few ne'er do wells that try to make their mark on the world, and many unoriginal and uncreative stock characters. This is just my personal preference since having many characters means i could focus on many different struggles and problems with each character instead of having one main character undergo all of it. One person could be involved in an underground gambling scheme, while someone else is involved in the high-tech manufacturing industry. Having all of these qualities and diversity is too much for a single character so it is better to have a variety of different kinds of people with different personalities and traits.

The novel would take place a few years in the future, where a gene, AKR83, has been discovered to be a viable cure for cancer, due to it's ability to manipulate stem cells into a much more aggressive form of an omnipotent white blood cell that would specifically targets abnormal cells that haven't undergone apoptosis. This gene, however has been licensed by three major institutes in the United States and no further research can be done until the licensing disagreement has been sorted out. The world would be on edge due to the United States withholding what could be the most important discovery to this day over such a trivial issue as to who holds the rights to the gene when millions are dying. The great debate for the patent has led to espionage and skirmishes, until the United States can take no more and establishes an ally system with all those who want a part of the cure against those who refuse or even cannot pay the massive royalty fees that come with the cure. The world will wage war on itself and what would once have been a cure to mankind's greatest problem will lead to its ultimate downfall.

The ideas that i'd like to share revolve around society's greed. In a sense, the way that the companies wouldn't share the information is like how the world's not willing to share it wealth evenly. Our society consists of only a few rich countries, while large parts of the world struggle with getting the bare necessities. There shouldn't be anything like a third-world country at the same time as there are obesity epidemics. Events like Kevin Carter's famous Sudanese girl and vulture should not ever happen. This also applies to more than just food. School is also a luxury that not everyone in the world has, yet there are people who don't even care about a proper education. The world needs to change so that there is equality for all and those less fortune should be helped, even if they live outside of your country. Another message that needs to be shared is about patents. A patent should not passed on anything that exists naturally and yet genes, which have been around since the beginning of life, are patented and this allows the companies who own the patents to make millions of dollar for anything that requires the gene, like research. Allowing a patent for genes is like allowing a patent for gravity, which is simply ridiculous. We should not be able to own anything that is inside other people's body. Also, I absolutely detest the idea that readers need to dig to unsolve the message in books, which is why I would specifically have a section in the end where I reveal the messages because it's just simpler this way. With novels like Slaughterhouse five, sometimes the message is hidden so deep that some readers might not notice it.

Not ENTIRELY True. . . - Milan, WA5

Should the opportunity occur, I would write a novel with historical references. A good example of something already done would be the Da Vinci Code, where historical links are interpreted in a fictional fashion and a plot line forms based off of characters that are involved with it. Whether the novel would be placed in a fictional point in the past, present, or future would depend on the context upon which I'm writing. In fact, I might decide to incorporate all three opportunities to form a novel that spans over many generations. Thus having said that, I would indeed want to write a series.

However, there is no good novel without a primary message that is both relatable to the real world and something that can be observed with a critical eye. That being said, a possible topic would be revolving around secret societies such as the Masons or the Templar. However, these are traditionally cliche themes for a historical fiction novel to be based off of.

Perhaps something of more novelty would lie along the lines of an international organization that has existed for the entirety of man's presence of Earth. Similar to the movie The Adjustment Bureau, my made-up organization was made to keep the life of man in check. Instead of having an all-knowing chairman such as in the Adjustment Bureau, the members of the organization would, do, and will forever strive to keep from a single group of people from conquering the world.

Through ever-present monitoring and infiltration, the organization, aptly named Novi (from the Latin "know"), seeks to topple nations that they have deemed to be too powerful. The history goes back to the Egyptian Empire, to the Roman Empire, to the Mongolian Empire, and even to America's independence, were all a result of the plans of the Novi members. For example, Rome's collapse may partially be attributed to its greedy conquest of land. However, members of Novi know that the collapse was entirely attributable to a series of contributions of members that ranged from influencing military generals to changing public opinions.

Indeed, one doesn't not voluntarily choose to be a part of the completely secret organization. In my novel, members of the organization are first born as humans with exceptional abilities. One such ability is to sense the presence of other humans with the same abilities. As Novi relies on these extremely rare traits, they can track down potential new members fairly quickly to keep an eye on them. Some humans choose to ignore their abilities as simply heightened senses. However, those that begin experimenting are quickly isolated. At some point in their early lives, a 'tragic' accident occurs in which the child is spirited away. Perhaps they are lost in a crowd and kidnapped, or become stranded in a forest, they are never seen again.

The novels would take place over hundreds of years. As not every single period in human history can possibly be covered, I would pick certain time-frames to be the subject for the storyline. But for further clarification, the organization does not seek to single-handedly topple whole countries. Rather, they seek to influence the collapse of these countries/empires. As such, the collapse of the Roman Empire or the gradual decline of the British Empire would be possible to explain (military influences for the Romans and public opinion changes for the British). For example, the leader of a social movement for independence from Britain may in my novel be a successor to a leader who mysteriously disappears during a campaign. All following independence movements and independence recognitions would be a result of worldwide efforts to diminish the Empire.

Character perspectives would range from first-person to third-person. While the the majority of the storylines would take place in the third-person, occasional bursts of first-person would occur as Novi members tap into one of their abilities: to see the memories of their ancestors.

Obviously, a theme here would be to never trust what you see or read unless you are absolutely sure it is right (with the only way of doing so being that one was actually there). The last novel may strike a chord with the notion that Novi may become dormant in the future as the human race catches up to its staggering progress and begins to settle for world peace, reiterating the fact that even though hope is for the most part a desperate feeling, its continued presence results in a positive state of mind; in essence, something is better than nothing. Numerous other occasions of drama and romance would occur, with Novi members becoming tied up with the human feelings they are supposed to ignore in order to accomplish their respective goals. With the ability to see memories of the past, notions of "What if?" would be prevalent throughout the series, thus adding to the fictional aspect of the series and inspiring thought-provoking events throughout.

Ultimately, the series would not only provide the entertainment values that a series needs in order to continue its lifespan, but it would also possess messages that become more and more visible as the story progresses towards its inspiring culmination. Given that it is based party off of history, an immense amount of research would have to be done to ensure that the boundaries of the novel are not too far-fetched and that they remain within the confines of possibility (no aliens, for example).

Should the opportunity occur in which I would be able to sit down with enough free time to commit to the series' commencement and ultimate completion, I would take it. The journey would, of course, be satisfying as I learn a great deal of history and improvise 'my own'. But the end result of creating a timeless legacy would, I believe, be something worth experiencing, regardless of how grueling the journey is.