Science Fiction as a Coping Mechanism

Something interesting that has come up in class is the idea of science fiction as a coping mechanism for both Billy Pilgrim and Vonnegut himself. Until chapter 10, we had been operating under the assumption that at least in the universe of the novel, Tralfamadore and Billy’s time travel were real. The introduction of Kilgore Trout and his work begins to call this into question. For me, the first signal that everything might not be as we thought was the line “[Billy and Rosewater] were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help.” Trout’s novels provided alternative ways of seeing and understanding the world, and the more we hear about Trout’s ideas, the more parallels  we see between them and how Billy experiences the world. When Billy has a strong negative reaction to the barbershop quartet at his anniversary party, Trout speculates that he has seen through a “time window”, a concept similar to Billy’s being “unstuck in time”. Billy later flips through a Trout novel The Big Board, about “an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212.” This is remarkably similar to what happens to Billy and Montana Wildhack on Tralfamadore.

These similarities beg the question of whether Tralfamadorians and their view of time are real outside of Billy’s head, or if they are a coping mechanism he developed, building on the Trout’s works, to deal with his incredibly traumatic experiences. There certainly seems to be evidence to support this second possibility. Billy tends to come “unstuck in time” in moments of intense suffering or emotion, and jumps to either happier--or just blander--moments. One example of this is the first time Billy time travels. He is following the two scouts and Roland Weary through the German countryside, “cold, hungry, embarrassed, incompetent. He could scarcely distinguish between sleep and wakefulness now, on the third day, found no important differences, either, between walking and standing still”. All of a sudden, he is no longer in that moment, but before his birth, after his death, a child, and then an adult living in Illium before returning to WWII. This suggests that Billy’s time travelling could be a way of coping with trauma, and extreme physical and mental stress.

The Tralfamadorian worldview is also a tempting and convenient one for someone in Billy’s situation to develop. Billy has lived through some terrible things, but according to the Tralfamadorian way of seeing the world, none of them are his fault, and there’s nothing he could have done to prevent them. The moments were simply structured that way. It makes senseless death and destruction a bit easier to stomach to be able to say that although those people and cities aren’t looking so good right now, there are plenty of moments where they are just fine; moments where Dresden is still a beautiful and magical city, and its inhabitants are still alive. However, although this world view is comforting, it is not necessarily a good way to see the world (unless, of course, the Tralfamadorians actually are real). It absolves us of responsibility for the state of the world, and removes the very real need to reckon with and learn from the past.

It is also interesting to consider whether Vonnegut himself is using science fiction as a coping mechanism while writing this novel. Instead of simply telling us what happened in Dresden, he skirts around it for more than two hundred pages, telling us instead a story about someone he knew in WWII and their experience with time travel and aliens. Why? Perhaps as it is for Billy, science fiction is a way to frame the past in a way that makes it easier to deal with. Telling the story in this way also distances Vonnegut from the narrative. Instead of writing about his personal experiences in a linear fashion (as he says in ch. 1 he tried to do and failed), he is writing about them through Billy Pilgrim, and in a jumbled order that allows him to switch topics whenever he wants. Adding the Tralfamadorians brings in an element of fantasy that also provides distance from his very real experiences in Dresden. However, this explanation seems inadequate. Vonnegut’s writing is very deliberate, and he definitely seems aware of what he is doing by making Slaughterhouse Five a science fiction novel. Perhaps Vonnegut from Chapter One is not quite the same as Vonnegut the author. What do you think?

Atonism vs. Jes Grew in the Ballet World

We talked recently in class about what Atonism and Jes Grew look like in 2018. As many of you know, I’m involved with ballet, and this conversation got me thinking about what Atonism and Jes Grew look like today in the ballet world.

As much as I love it, ballet is probably one of the most Atonist things out there. Ballet as an art form was developed by and for Europe’s elites. It originated in the courts of Renaissance Italy and was spread to France by Catherine de Medici in the 17th Century, where the first ballet company was established by Louis XIV. He also established and codified several basic steps and positions, and is the reason ballet takes most of its terminology from French to this day. Despite having spread more or less around the world, ballet is still incredibly Eurocentric. The four most widely taught techniques (styles of dancing ballet) were developed in Russia, England, France, and Italy, and the world’s top ballet companies are mostly found in Europe, or countries that developed out of European settlements and colonies (the USA, Canada, and Australia).

Ballet also tends to be practiced and viewed by people who are both privileged and white. The stereotypical patron, especially for major companies, is probably your typical Atonist (old, white, wealthy, focused on tradition and the past). Trying to increase racial and economic diversity among the dancers themselves has also been a huge issue in the dance world in recent years. With a few notable exceptions (Misty Copeland for example), companies tend to be dominated by white dancers who had the money and resources to pursue dance to a high level. Ballet gets expensive, and since directors traditionally wanted their dancers to look as similar as possible, it unfortunately used to happen (and probably still does) that talented dancers are overlooked solely because of their race.

Ballet is also incredibly unnatural if you think about it. In what other context is it normal or good to be able to turn out your legs so that your feet make a 180 degree angle, lift your leg up so that your foot is above your head, or stand on your toes? Jes Grew is about dance, but also freedom and spontaneity. In ballet, every step is codified, and expected to be done in a very specific way. Some executions and combinations are acceptable, others are not.

An example of a recent “Jes Grew flare up” in the dance world is Hiplet, a combination of ballet with hip hop created by the artistic director at the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center. The style is described as a way to keep classical ballet relevant, and takes the strength gained from training in classical ballet to combine pointe work and hip hop. Although classical ballet training is necessary to the style, Hiplet at the same time less an adaption of ballet than a co-opting of the tools used in ballet (strength in certain muscles and joints, pointe shoes, etc.) for its own purpose. The style is much freer than classical ballet, takes most of its steps from hip hop, and uses pointework in a way that would never have been considered “acceptable”. The style has also been fairly controversial, with people debating its legitimacy as an art form, the safety of it, and whether or not something like this will catch on or should even be taught. Sound familiar?