Imagine you are in a box. A glass box. A plexiglass box. This plexiglass box is hurtling through space at a speed too fast for you to fully comprehend. The funny thing is though, you are not afraid. In fact, you could not be any more indifferent towards your current place in time, and in space. You are Billy Pilgrim.
In the poem I Do Not, by Michael Palmer, the narrator makes a point of telling you again and again (In English) all the words he doesn’t know, and all the things he cannot say in English. In the book Slaughterhouse Five Billy Pilgrim finds himself unstuck in time, at some point in 1944. He has seen his birth, death, and everything in between, many times. These pieces of writing both relate to what it means to be an outsider, and …show more content…
At one point, Billy was kidnapped by a species of aliens, known as the Tralfamadorians, who saw time as a block, and taught Billy that freedom of will does not exist, and we are but “Bugs in amber” (pg 86). Now tying this back into the poem, Palmer’s narrator is talking about a bunch of events occurring all at once, in different locations, showing the connectivity of these events through a snapshot in time. In Slaughterhouse Five, there is a continuing idea of how everything is leading up to one moment that is exactly as it is meant to be, and cannot ever change. One can revisit a moment a million times and everyone will always behave in the same way, because all people are an accumulation of all the moments they have experienced, and those moments will remain up until the point of the moment in question. They will have the same thoughts, reflexes, and will take the same actions “Still the games continue...a village turns to dust in the chalk hills.” Which is to …show more content…
Those, that is, where you write so precisely of the confluence of the visible universe with the invisible universe…” The narrator of this poem claims not to know this information he clearly has quite a good grasp on. “As a time traveler, he has seen his own death many times…” (Pg 141) Billy knows how he dies, he knows what it is to be dead, he knows who kills him, and he knows why. Billy doesn’t really care all that much. He doesn’t tell anyone this information, and he doesn’t do anything to prevent it. Much like the poet, has acts as though he does not know everything that his reality is based upon, right up until his final speech before death. Both of these literary characters act ignorant when really, it’s just the opposite. This is true for just about everything throughout I Do Not, and the same can be said for Slaughterhouse 5. Though obviously in the poem, the author did not intend for all the lines to be taken quite as literally as that, it still shows a rather obvious connection of a
In the poem I Do Not, by Michael Palmer, the narrator makes a point of telling you again and again (In English) all the words he doesn’t know, and all the things he cannot say in English. In the book Slaughterhouse Five Billy Pilgrim finds himself unstuck in time, at some point in 1944. He has seen his birth, death, and everything in between, many times. These pieces of writing both relate to what it means to be an outsider, and …show more content…
At one point, Billy was kidnapped by a species of aliens, known as the Tralfamadorians, who saw time as a block, and taught Billy that freedom of will does not exist, and we are but “Bugs in amber” (pg 86). Now tying this back into the poem, Palmer’s narrator is talking about a bunch of events occurring all at once, in different locations, showing the connectivity of these events through a snapshot in time. In Slaughterhouse Five, there is a continuing idea of how everything is leading up to one moment that is exactly as it is meant to be, and cannot ever change. One can revisit a moment a million times and everyone will always behave in the same way, because all people are an accumulation of all the moments they have experienced, and those moments will remain up until the point of the moment in question. They will have the same thoughts, reflexes, and will take the same actions “Still the games continue...a village turns to dust in the chalk hills.” Which is to …show more content…
Those, that is, where you write so precisely of the confluence of the visible universe with the invisible universe…” The narrator of this poem claims not to know this information he clearly has quite a good grasp on. “As a time traveler, he has seen his own death many times…” (Pg 141) Billy knows how he dies, he knows what it is to be dead, he knows who kills him, and he knows why. Billy doesn’t really care all that much. He doesn’t tell anyone this information, and he doesn’t do anything to prevent it. Much like the poet, has acts as though he does not know everything that his reality is based upon, right up until his final speech before death. Both of these literary characters act ignorant when really, it’s just the opposite. This is true for just about everything throughout I Do Not, and the same can be said for Slaughterhouse 5. Though obviously in the poem, the author did not intend for all the lines to be taken quite as literally as that, it still shows a rather obvious connection of a