Original artwork, not a still
Slaughterhouse-Five • 1969
Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The line states the book's impossible premise flatly, like a fact in a report, and that deadpan is the point: time travel and trauma are handled with the same calm voice. 'Unstuck in time' became the standard phrase for anyone whose mind keeps jumping between past moments, and for the Tralfamadorian view of time.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Slaughterhouse-FiveShow the scene
After a first chapter in which Vonnegut talks about himself and the trouble of writing a book about the bombing of Dresden, this sentence turns the novel to its hero. It is the point where the narration changes from the author's own voice to a third-person account of Billy Pilgrim, who jumps between moments of his life. The word 'Listen' has been compared to the 'Hwaet!' that begins Beowulf. The book's very first sentence is 'All this happened, more or less.'
Sources (1)
- Slaughterhouse-Five (Wikipedia)Plot/structure section, description of the end of chapter one and start of the storyReference checked
Context reviewed
