Thursday, November 29, 2012

Slaughterhouse-Five-stars

I was hoping for a good WWII story, but I got a satirical, at times confusing, story of a man who lives his lifetime out of order, and eventually ends up on a different planet. I suppose I should've known, it being a story written by Kurt Vonnegut, not that I've ever even opened one of his books or can name any other he's written. A little too weird for me, I guess. I want John Waynes and Clint Eastwoods sneaking around shooting up Nazis and blowing up airplanes. I prefer my WWII film dumbed-down, I suppose.

Any of you read the book? Any good? Am I just not cultured enough?

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9 comments:

  1. SitzmanNovember 29, 2012 at 9:48 PM

    Do you mean you give it five stars? If so, out of how many? 17? :)

    I read the book a few years ago but I can't recall that much about it, except that it was a bit out of order, which was OK with me. I do remember I liked it. I think I may have to check out this movie, as I prefer my WWII movies dumbed-up.

    And the answer to whether you're not cultured enough will partially depend on whether or not you're still sporting that mustache...

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  2. DustinNovember 29, 2012 at 10:18 PM

    Still sportin' it, for sure. 5 out of 10, to answer your first question.

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  3. SitzmanNovember 29, 2012 at 10:20 PM

    Well, then, there's nothing more cultured than a mustache-sporting guy. So you're saying you gave the movie 8.5 stars (out of 17)?

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  4. UnknownNovember 29, 2012 at 11:20 PM

    And Dusty still looks GREAT in his mustache. I laughed so hard at the 8.5 out of 17 rating.

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  5. SitzmanNovember 29, 2012 at 11:25 PM

    You guys can use whatever scale you want from now on, but I'm sticking with my 17-star scale.

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  6. JessicaNovember 30, 2012 at 9:09 PM

    I liked that book in high school, but who knows if I would now. All my hipster friends like it.

    Hey, you guys are FUN. Good work, men.

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  7. PaulDecember 2, 2012 at 10:43 AM

    I read it a while back and really liked it. It IS weird, but I like weird things, so what can I say? I've read a couple of his other books like Breakfast of Champions (and even made a short film based off that one) and Welcome to the Monkey House. The thing with Vonnegut is that he was never really a great storyteller (in the traditional sense). The power and beauty of Vonnegut is in the language that he uses in his prose and the sentences he rolls out. That's probably why most movies based on his work kinda suck.
    I think it might be the same as Catch-22 and Joseph Heller. I never saw that movie, but it's hard to imagine how it would be able to live up to the satire in the book. I'm not always a "books are better" type guy, since I obviously love movies (and the recent film adaptation of "Cloud Atlas" might be one of the biggest exceptions to the "books are better" theory), but some authors are just a lot harder to adapt to screen.

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    Replies
    1. SitzmanDecember 2, 2012 at 6:58 PM

      Hey Paul! Good to see you here! Now just accept the invitation and start blogging with us!

      As for Catch-22 the movie, it was shitty. Sorry, but it was. The book is/was my favorite non-fiction but I tried to go into the movie without unrealistic expectations, but Chorizo watched part of it with me and agreed that it was shitty.

      Speaking of book/movie combos, I just read "Casino Royale" (free on Amazon with Prime), so now I'm gonna see the movie again (the one with Daniel Craig), so I'll tell you guys how it goes.

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  8. DustinDecember 2, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    Thanks for the insight, Paul. I should be careful, though, when I watch a film that's based on a book and end up not liking it, it makes me want to avoid the book.

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