“Also, Barbara and her husband were having to look after
Billy’s business interests, which were considerable, since Billy didn’t seem to
give a damn for business any more. All this responsibility at such an early age
made her a bitchy flibbertigibbet … “Don’t lie to me, Father,” said Barbara. “I
know perfectly well you heard me when I called.” This was a fairly pretty girl,
except that she had legs like an Edwardian grand piano.
- Slaughterhouse
Five, pages 28-29 of my Dell paperback
Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a
lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can
see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled
with rarified, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don’t see human beings
as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes – “with babies’
legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim.
- same, page 87.
Forgot how
much I enjoy reading Kurt Vonnegut. Read two of his books in the 80s as a high
schooler and two others in the 90s as a single lad in a bachelor pad. Always an
interesting read, and, as the excerpts above point out (at least to me), every paragraph
a small gem of something quite humorous or something that makes me nod and pet
my beard saying, “Wow … that’s unexpectedly deep.”
Currently
reading Slaughterhouse Five with The Sirens of Titan in the
On-Deck Circle.
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