I didn’t write yesterday. That was the first day I’ve missed in almost 2 months; in almost 40 consecutive posts save for weekends.
40 posts are a lot of posts. Some would say too many.
It’s not that I forgot to write yesterday.
I sort of ran out of things to write about.
But that’s not true because I have plenty of things to write about.
Ludology was next on my list. The study of games. That sounds fun.
So, no. It’s not that I ran out of ideas.
It’s more that I don’t feel like writing.
Tangent: I had this teacher in college that I loathed.
I’m not sure why I loathed him.
Maybe it was because his first class was annoying. It wasn’t a lecture on the syllabus or anything relevant to the class; it was an oral autobiography. He started class by listing all his accomplishments on the chalkboard. He filled the entire chalkboard. He then proceeded to tell us his entire life story.
I hated that.
The class was called Fiction Writing.
I took it because I enjoy writing fiction. I’ve been writing short fiction stories on my own since middle school. In this class, we were supposed to turn in a short fiction story once a week. There were 10 short story assignments and the final was a 10-page story in our favorite genre.
The class was easy because I already completed the assignments before class started. I turned in the stories I wrote as a hobby. Besides changing the occasional story to fit the prompt and making one a little longer for the final, I did nothing in that class.
And the teacher continued to be annoying.
He was very accomplished though. He never let us forget it.
He wrote a fiction novel that got awards or something. I can’t remember.
While proofreading a select few stories in front of the class, this teacher would give us advice on how to become better writers.
He had the same advice every time. He said, “To become a better writer you must write every day, even when you hate it or don’t feel like doing it.”
He recommended writing 1,000 words a day.
He made it very clear that if we didn’t write 1,000 words a day, we would never become successful writers.
No joke, I maybe wrote 1,000 words total in that 11-week class.
That teacher gave me an A.
But according to his advice, I should’ve failed.
Either I’m a fiction writing prodigy or he was wrong about the 1,000 words a day thing.
Do you like books? I like books. During this quarantine I’ve been reading books. Let me tell you about one.
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I never read this book in high school. That’s when most people read it, I’m told. I have a faint memory of my high school carpool listening to the book on tape. I distinctly remember the part about aliens. I assumed it was a science fiction novel when I finally picked it up to read.
Slaughterhouse-Five is not a science fiction novel.
Slaughterhouse-Five is a semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional World War II novel flavored with aliens. Not to be confused with science fiction made to be a metaphor for World War II, i.e. Star Wars.
Slaughterhouse-Five begins with a fourth wall break from the narrator, assumed to be Vonnegut. He states, “All this happened, more or less.”
The narration flows between fact and fiction.
Kurt Vonnegut was an American World War II veteran that survived the bombings of Dresden. The bombings of Dresden were a British/American bombing attack on the German city of Dresden. It involved 722 British/American bombers and killed close to 25,000 people. All of this is fact. The book’s narration is centered on these bombings. Therefore, the book is autobiographical.
But not really.
The book does not follow Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences at Dresden. It follows Billy Pilgrim, a fictional character who is also an American World War II veteran that survived the bombings of Dresden. Billy is not to be mistaken as a character that represents Vonnegut. Vonnegut is referenced throughout the story as a side character, experiencing the war separately. Billy is also not to be mistaken as a person Vonnegut met during the war. Billy Pilgrim isn’t real. Billy Pilgrim is a time traveler. Therefore, the book is fictional.
Semi-fictional.
I don’t believe I’ve spoiled the book. All this should be known before reading Slaughterhouse-Five because the book’s narration is unconventional. Billy is a time traveler, but he has no control over what time he will travel to. Consequently, the book’s narration flows between timelines more often than it flows between fact and fiction. It’s hard to follow. One moment Billy is fighting in the war, another he’s celebrating his honeymoon with his wife, another he’s graduating from optometry school, and another he’s back fighting in the war again. The narration is disorienting and requires effort from the reader to put pieces of the story together.
But it works. I was engrossed.
The book is often cited as an anti-war novel. I don’t agree with this. I don’t mean to say that the book is a pro-war novel. More that it’s indifferent to the war.
Vonnegut has a saying throughout the book whenever there is a reference to death: “So it goes.” This seems indifferent to me. I’ve talked with a few people about the book and most disagree with me. They agree with its anti-war sentiment.
Let me explain my position without spoiling too much.
The bombings of Dresden killed 25,000 people, casualties that involved both sides of the war. The bombings potentially constituted a war crime, although that debate has been disputed as Dresden housed a major transportation and communication center in support of the German war effort. Unsurprisingly, the Allies have called the bombings necessary and the Germans have called the bombings mass murder or “Dresden’s holocaust of bombs.”
What does Slaughterhouse-Five have to say about the bombings?
“So it goes.”
Slaughterhouse-Five reminds me of one of my favorite war novels, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. O’Brien is a Vietnam war veteran. The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional Vietnam war memoir. This one does not involve aliens. Instead, it is a collection of short stories involving a fictional platoon of American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. O’Brien is part of this platoon and the memoir is based on his experiences.
But the memoir is fictional. In fact, it is more than fictional. It is metafictional.
Metafiction: fiction that discusses, describes, or analyzes a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction.
Dictionary.com
O’Brien plays with something called “verisimilitude.”
Verisimilitude: The appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability. Something, as an assertion, having merely the appearance of truth.
Dictionary.com
Metafiction and verisimilitude are present in both Slaughterhouse-Five and The Things They Carried.
I have a lot to say about metafiction and verisimilitude.
But I’m not going to say it. Maybe another time.
I think of more topics while writing than I do brainstorming what to write about. I get distracted easily. This blog was almost several. I wanted to discuss the lengthy history and controversy surrounding the bombings of Dresden and, by extension, the paradoxical idea of war crimes. I also wanted to talk about the cyclical nature of time in Slaughterhouse-Five and its relation to Native American practices. And I almost wrote a thesis on metafiction and verisimilitude. That, plus countless other topics I can only compare to a passing dream; interesting at first, but when you stop to think about it, most of them are dumb.
I’ve come up with a system. From now on, if I think of a blog idea amidst writing a blog, I’ll let you know by putting the word “Bing!” in parentheses.
Why “Bing!” you ask? Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day? With Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell? In the movie there’s a character named Ned. “Ned… Ryerson! Needle Nose Ned. Ned the Head.” Ned Ryerson goes by many names, but mainly he says “Bing!” He says “Bing!” when trying to help Phil (Bill Murray’s character) remember him from high school. But instead of being an awkward one-sided reunion phrase, “Bing!” can be used to help me keep track of ideas without getting off topic. I like to think Ned Ryerson says “Bing!” whenever I think of another writing topic.
I’ll use an example.
Slaughterhouse-Five’s narration is more unconventional than a cowboy in space (Bing!).