Maggie in the Inferno

As Billy encounters Trout, a Sci-Fi writer he had read about many times, and heads off towards his home for a party, where Trout begins to talk with a lady called Maggie. He jokes around with her, and comments, "That's right, and I'm not the only one who's listening. God is listening, too. And on Judgement Day he's going to tell you all the things you said and did. If it turns out they're bad things instead of good things, that's too bad for you, because you'll burn forever and ever. The burning never stops hurting." pg 172. If this was to happen, according to Dante she would end up in one of the circles of Hell. But in which circle would she end up?

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It said that she was a cautious women, which took strict measures before doing anything. Although it is very uncertain which sins she might have committed, you can still infer with very little precision of what her sin was by looking at what people thought of her, "She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies." pg 171, and at her reaction after what Trout said, "Poor Maggie turned gray." pg 172. From the first passage you could say that she could go to the 8th circle in Bolgia 1. This is where all the seducers would go, where they would be whipped by demons while walking eternally across from the panderers. She might belong here because it said that she had many times been with a man, and had never had babies because she protected herself. This is the attitude of a seducer, and it becomes even more convincing once she reacts in the matter she did after trout told her of the consecuences she would have to go through once she died.

Brother's of the Poor

During the book their is a text written by Howard W. Campbell Jr. where he states that Americans don't consider each other as a same level individual but rather have prejudice over their economic level, and therefore are nasty beings that are unable to treat other Americans with care. "It is a genuine expression of hatred for the poor, who have no one to blame for their misery but themselves." pg 130. Here, according to Campbell, an American officer shows discrimination towards some lower ranked soldiers because of their economic level. Cambell says that Americans are unable to treat each other nicely and at a same level, but then as he continues his speech he mentions something which shows the complete opposite. "They(Americans) despised any leader from among their own number, refused to follow or even listen to him, on the grounds that he was no better than they were, that he should stop putting on airs." pg 131. What is mentioned here is that people were not treated for the rank they had, but rather were treated equally as prisoners and captured war buddies. Here no sort of better or worse measure was taken, since no matter what someone had that others didn't, it didn't make them any better in the circumstance in which they were. They denied to follow the orders of any leader on the camp, and showed their believe of being equal in that moment. It contrasts against the first statement by Campbell, since here he is proving wrong the first thing he said. Americans, even when captured in the war, showed compassion towards others. And it is even clearer with the example of Edgar Derby, who took care of Billy in his sickness or promises such as the one the wagon partners of Weary made to him before his death, that you can see how captured Americans try and make the stay there better for the other comrades.

On Your Right: A Human

"And Billy traveled in time to the zoo in Tralfamadore. He was forty four years old, on display under a geodesic dome." pg 111. Billy is taken as a human specimen by aliens to Tralfamadore, where he is put into an exhibit to represent a human being. The case in which he is involved is very similar to the movie: Planet of the Apes. In Planet of the Apes human beings are also taken hostage by aliens who do exactly the same thing we do with species we have here on earth, make them become a sort of attraction. We as humans make species live in cages as if we were the ones to know everything, and the ones to decide where to have them living. Even being so similar as these two are, there are also some similarities between the two. In the case of Planet of the Apes people are treated more as slaves and as beings without a brain. They are constantly being treated badly by the ape guards and finally have to end up escaping from them in order to be free. In the case of Billy it is different. In his case he is given many commodities such as being in a human environment, and being able to do whatever he pleases in there. He is not mistreated by the Tralfamadorians and even has peaceful and interesting conversations with them, apart from knowing he will someday be free and return to Earth. Even though in both cases humans are being trapped as an exhibit or as an inferior being, they both know what it feels like to come into the position we as humans have imposed on earth on the many species that share it with us.

How's the Patient?

"How's the patient?" he asked Derby.
"Dead to the world."
"But not actually dead."
"No."
"How nice-to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive."- pg 105

In this passage Billy is injected morphine after his attack watching the Cinderella play. I believe this passage holds how sometimes you might feel after certain moments in your life. Even though you are alive, you feel dead on the inside, and feel as if your time on earth was over. Many times you feel it is not worth living and feel as if you were dead to the world, and as explained by the passage, it tells how nice it must be to actually be dead and be considered alive, since actually being dead depends on whether you are feeling it or not. An example is Billy, who in the time warps feels a sense of being dead in both cases. In the war he is injected with morphine which causes him to feel very little or nothing at all while in the hospital he feels life is not worth it and doesn't want to be part of the world anymore. In both cases he is not actually dead, but the circumstances cause him to be dead by what he feels in his own body and thoughts, even if others consider him to be as alive as always. Another example of being dead but being considered alive is the case of people who can only live by being connected to a machine throughout the rest of their life. These people, even if the physical condition of their body indicates that they are alive, aren't really living, for they have no purpose in life and are condemned to live in a fictional state of mind as they dream on forever. Then there are also the people who achieve a great deed during their lifetime, and are remembered throughout time. Even though many of these have died, their legacy lives on, and the good and bad changes they brought when they were dead are remembered, and become what continues to live on as a part of themselves they left behind. Being dead has become something simbolical, since the significance of being alive has so many meanings, and so many ways in which it represents itself.

Trapped in Amber

"That is a very Earthling question to ask Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because the moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?" pg 77. Billy is kidnapped by Tralfamadorians, something he had known would happen since before, since he has visions of future and past events of his life. During his kidnap he asks why it was him the one that was kidnapped, and they answer the previous maxim. It takes to the fact about how we as humans want to know the why of everything. We are constantly fighting among how things are supposed to be in order to learn its secrets, but we also lack the ability to know the real truth of everything. We can only know the partial truth of things around us, since we generalize and group things into categories which only appear true to us as humans, as first mentioned by Friedrich Nietzsche. That's the reason we keep wanting to know more, since we cannot find the real truth behind everything that exists, existed, and will exist. Here the captor of Billy explains to him that a moment simply is, so why ask more questions that will deform the reality into something humans can categorize? Even if we were able to name absolutely everything that existed, it would be impossible for us to keep track of everything, and complicate things even more. Even more interesting is how you can also compare it with the flashbacks and future sights Billy has about his life. Since Billy is able to look through his life and know how things will turn out to be or were before, it gives Time a symbolical meaning of not meaning anything. Why something turns out to be something else is reality, and should not be considered something past, but something that triggers an action that keeps living on. The example he uses is a bug trapped in amber, explaining the significance of it being there because it simply is, and that there is no way of explaining or asking why that bug was the one being trapped in there, but rather know things simply are because that's how things are supposed to be, and no human logic is able to categorize or fully explain why things turned out to be that way. Billy turns out to be a bug trapped in amber, living not a moment in time, but "cursed" to stay in a moment which turns out to be his entire life.

The Sin of Man

In chapter 3 of Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut there is a mention of a German soldier whose boots are identified by Adam and Eve, as he himself says it and as Billy notices later, "If you look in there deeply enough, you'll see Adam and Eve." pg 53. Adam and Eve have been always identified as the sin of man. The sin of man is in this case with what the German soldier is walking with, being it his boots, and therefore giving it a sense of all the sins he is carrying with him. What this may come to indicate is that he might be carrying a lot of the crimes he may have committed during the war and therefore feels that he is carrying all the sins for which man was condemned to leave paradise and become mortal. But then there's also another maxim said by Billy which states, "They were so innocent, so vulnerable, so eager to behave decently. Billy Pilgrim loved them." pg 53. Even though it seems that this man is carrying the sin of man within himself, Billy sees that this man, in a sense, wont hurt them. He seems to be, even if he carries with him some sins, someone who at that moment had noticed what he had done, and therefore was going to act in a different way than he would in other instances, just as it happens when you notice you have done something incorrectly and feel the need to behave decently in order to compensate for it in some way. Similarly it happens with Man when he is taken out of Paradise, and which then decides to pray to God thereafter. The German soldiers boots represent the sins walked on by the Nazi army, and it shows the punishment of having to carry them along for the rest of their time.

Sink-or-Swim?

As Billy travels through time he encounters a moment of his past where his father plans on teaching him how to swim. The method he uses is called sink-or-swim, being the name more than self explanatory. As he is thrown into the water, he is unable to swim and is quickly rescued by someone who jumps in the water. Sometimes a moment of desperation makes you do things which you would not do regularly, as his father thought would work with him if he threw him into the pool. Even if maybe in this case it didn't work, there are cases in which it comes out to perfection. I was once out vacationing with my father and little sisters, since my mother had decided to not go on that trip for a health issue with my grandfather. We assisted a hotel which had an extremely large pool, and so the oldest of my little sisters and I were told to keep an eye out for our baby sister, who at that time might have had 3-4 years. She still didn't know how to swim even after the efforts of my parents, but my sister and I decided to teach her while our mom was out, since she didn't like our methods for getting her to swim. In this case we decided to do the same thing Billy's father did with him, and both of us went into the pool with her. We began playing around with her as we would normally would, but from a moment to another I submerged into the water while she was hanging to my back to keep from sinking,. While my sister stood nearby and while I kept an eye on her at the same time from inside the water, we saw how she began to desperately swim and go all the way to the side of the pool to hold on from the side. What happened here is another example of my previous blog, on how something might limit us from doing something we are perfectly capable of doing, being this case the fear of sinking. Also it proves how we need the help of others, sometimes it being a simple push, or in my case, dive, which is sometimes necessary for us to overcome obstacles we feel we are unable to go through, limiting our true potential.

Looking to the Past

In Slaughter House Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, the presence of a sense of future, present, and past is continuously mentioned. As mentioned in the first chapter, after talking about how it was that Lot's wife turns around to look at the burning city even when she is warned not to do so and is turned into stone, the conclusion reached by the main character is that People aren't supposed to look back. Looking back upon actions and thoughts we have had in the past may give us insights to the future to make better choices and to aid the way in which we interact in our community. Looking back, even with all the positives it has, may sometimes end up giving you "advice" which can take you in wrong directions. Sometimes its better to keep some feelings and events in your life locked up as to not interfere with any ongoing events. Tragic moments, indescribable, excruciating feelings, and moments of complete nonsense according to your present day way of looking at things are among those thing you wish not to look upon. Not only will you feel embarrassed of your past actions, but they may limit you to things you want to do because you feel you are either unworthy of doing so or incapable of carrying them along. In other words, they may form a trauma that sets restriction upon the way you could carry out things. A very clear example is the case of characters such as Alex in Clockwork Orange or Robert, played by Will Smith, in I am Legend. Alex goes through a painful treatment which causes him a trauma under certain conditions, where if he were to experience any sort of violence, he would act differently then how he would otherwise. Robert also experiences a life changing trauma, where there is an area within the city that had a painful event where he doesn't dare enter, even with it being safe from infected human beings. These two look upon their past and take decisions influenced on a trauma that took place which relates with the action they are about to perform. Sometimes, if the trauma was not present in these situations, the outcome of the decisions and final consequences they would have could give them positive results. If we were to be able to control which aspects of our life we were to remember and to take action upon, we would give a mold to our future, as it was with the clear example of the choice of looking back upon what is happening in the city by Lot's wife, giving her as a result something she wasn't looking forward to.

Dantes Inferno and the Wayuu

The Wayuu are a know tribe located in Colombia. They have a series of beliefs, including what happens to their people when they die. Although the Wayuu believe that once they die they become roaming spirits that focus on talking to people in their dreams as well as kill people and animals, if taken into the Hell that Dante has created, they would would be set in one of 2 circles. For the roaming part they would have the first circle of Hell, which is considered to be on the outside of Hell itself, called the Opportunists. In this circle the people that get to it are here because they were neither good nor bad, but simply decided to be themselves, which brings them the sentence of roaming around for all eternity while trying to get a banner. Roaming around is what the Wayuu's say their dead do, so they might as well belong to the first circle, but the Wayuu's also state that their dead go around killing, which could also mean they could belong to the fourth circle, where they are sentenced to wage war between the Hoarders and the Wasters. These souls are condemned because of their greed of money. What this proposes is that people from the Wayuu, using Dantes model, that were greedy and that at the same time had no interest in taking a side are the ones that turn out being the ones they know and describe in their traditions, roaming around and killing men.

What is a Blog?

A. What is the difference between a blog and a book?

The difference is great in the way that the books tend to be something more unique than blogs while books stick to being long, having many details, preserve certain ways in which to write, and maintain certain commodities that blogs dont, since blogs are more concise and often give another aspect that might analyze or add to the topic.

B. How have blogs changed recently?

They have changed from being simply links with some sort of comment to become a more private matter which involves discussions and flows of ideas about different topics.

C. Why might you read a blog?

I might read a blog for several reasons, since blogs have a variety of topics. I may want to know the opinion of people who like similar things as me, or maybe learn about a new subject and read about different ideas people have about them.

D. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?

Blogs are many times written by normal people who are interested in the subject. They might write their personal believes concerning different matters. This is why you have to be careful reading the blog to know the difference between their opinion and actual information of a certain topic.

E. Identify three blogs that mention our summer reading.
http://fineartamerica.com/blogs/the-divine-comedy-and-dantes-inferno.html
http://vampyresoul.blogspot.com/2007/03/dantes-inferno-divine-comedy.html
http://horrorlibrary.blogspot.com/2006/03/clara-chandler-takes-on-dantes-divine_08.html