slaughterhouse 5

i just got done reading slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut and i wanted to share my thoughts of what i read. keep in mind, i am no literary genius. i have a feeling most authors don't write for criticism anyway; they write for enjoyment of expression. still, i digress.

the book can be described as three different stories all united in the concept of time perception. as we perceive, the concept of time is basically arranged as numbers on a number line. the present time is marked as a zero on the number line, the future time is marked by positive numbers on a numberline and the past by negative numbers. now, we see time in linear progression; that is, one number at a time, in either direction on the number line starting from zero. imagine what it would be like to see all moments in time as one moment. that is what it would be like if we had control of perception into the forth dimension...

what could one gain from being able to see all points of time at once? could you imagine living your life not differentiating between birth and death or youth and old age? could the mind fathom that knowledge of the future is inevitable, unchangeable and forseeable at the same time? would it be enjoyable not to be able to just reminisce but actually live all moments in the past simultaneously? it seems to me, the concept of time moving in a forward motion, towards an inevitable destiny gives greater meaning to day to day activities, especially if the future remains unknown and the past to be selectively reveled. it would be akward to be able to focus all of your attention on one moment, for an extendd period of time, while other moments not only wait to happen, but have already happened. i'd be at my first birthday party for days, or at my first girlfriends house for weeks. hindsight would be 20/20, but what could you do about it? trough a known destiny, the future is unchangeable. if you were to die in a car crash, you could live that moment as long as you like. if you failed to kiss your significant other before you left the house, you cant go back and change that. what is the use of being able to see the past and the future and not be able to let that knowledge work for me?

i musta been smoking that good shit, huh?

Let's talk about time traveling,
rhyme javelin...
- Andre 3000