All in Good Storytime 📚 Episode 39

All in Good Storytime is an interactive, bookish, book club podcast hosted by Alanna, Katya, and Tia. To join the club, make sure you're following us on Twitter to get updates on what book we're reading and to what chapter we are reading through (or what anime we're watching and what episode we are watching through), and listen to the podcast here or on iTunes (see link below) to join in on the discussion. And don't forget to read along!

In the 39th episode of All in Good Storytime, we read the first three chapters of Slaughterhouse-Fiveby Kurt Vonnegut. In these chapters, we first hear from Vonnegut regarding his time in Dresden during WWII and his motivation for writing this book. We are then introduced to the time traveling American WWII vet Billy who claims he was once kidnapped by aliens and taken to the planet Tralfamadore.

We discuss the interesting framing device used by Vonnegut which opens the story with a first chapter that almost feels more like an introduction separate from the main plot. We continue by discussing Billy, the main protagonist of the story, and his role as a nerdy boy soldier. We also examine how while Vonnegut explicitly avoids romanticizing the war, Weary, Billy's war companion, intentionally glamorizes every aspect of his life as a soldier. We look at Billy's unfortunate adult life in the 60s which is filled with money and prestige but still sees him turn to Magic Fingers to address his bouts of weeping. We question whether the aliens are real, a plot device, or a result of Billy's shock therapy after the war.

In two weeks, we will be reading chapters 4 through 6 of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

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