We Must Know Better

Sometimes we say things that we think are true but we are actually speculating. In the Handbook of Epictetus we are told that “Someone takes a bath quickly; do not say that he does it badly”. (Epictetus Section 45) this interesting because it describes how we can do things quickly and correctly, which is something we are told don’t match. I often hear people telling me “you couldn’t have done your best in that little time”, and in fact I did.

Another thing, similar to the one I just mentioned, about people who judge others out of speculation is the way they want to correct you. They think the way they are doing something is the correct way and your way is wrong. “For example, at a banquet do not say how a person ought to eat, but eat as a person ought to”. (Epictetus Section 46) I completely agree with this statement and sometimes have done this. In my family (my mothers side) I am the oldest of my cousins and constantly have to “eat as a person ought to” or set the example. I don’t tell my cousins what to do, I just do the right thing, expecting them to learn and do what is supposed to in the future. We must all set the example at some point in our lives and I think it is necessary for us to do so.

Our Judgment Counts

As I kept reading the Handbook of Epictetus I saw the same things I had seen in the previous sections. This is all about judgment and how it is the one guilty for everything. In the fifth sections it says “What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about things.”(Epictetus Section 5) This meaning that we don’t get angry at bad grades but at our judgment of bad grades, we judging them by saying they are bad.

In the sections I recently read I saw again that judgment is guilty of we being insulted. In section 20 it tells us “Remember that what is insulting is not the person who abuses you or hits you, but the judgment about them that they are insulting.”(Epictetus Section 20) Here it is repeating what it said before but in a different way and a different context. Here we are told that we aren’t being insulted by a person but by our judgment of that person being insulting that is insulting.

This is true because we decide what insults us, in other words we decide if we want to let ourselves be insulted or not. So what is really insulting is our decision to let the person insult us.

Our Real Desire

The Handbook of Epictetus, which I began to read, was interesting a different ways. This handbook started straight, no introductions, no nothing. It first talks about what you can control and what you can’t control and then it talks about desires. In section two of this handbook it states “Remember, what a desire proposes is that you gain what you desire,” (Epictetus Section 2). This might sound obvious but it made me think a lot. I had never seen desires so clearly, because its real purpose is to be met, not just to be a desire.

After talking about desires it talks about aversion and says “what an aversion proposes is that you not fall into what you are adverse to” (Epictetus Section 2). This states the opposite of what a desire is. But then some question came into my mind such as what if a desire is not met, or if something you are averse to happens? The handbook took no time answering “Someone who fails to obtain what he desires is unfortunate, while someone who falls into what he is averse to has met misfortune” (Epictetus Section 2). There is a big difference between those two words. The first one “unfortunate” is kind of like unlucky, while “misfortune” is closer to being cursed.

Here we are seeing how people who search for happiness, what they want, and can’t get it are unlucky in a way. But the ones who don’t want something to happen do them and it does, they are in a way cursed. Of course that those who say that they are averse to things they can’t control fall to them often. So they must, and we must set our desires with things we can control, as well as the things we are averse to.

No Real Names

In Chapter 10 of Slaughterhouse Five we find out that Vonnegut and Billy Pilgrim were in the same place at once. Vonnegut says, “Now Billy and the rest were being marched into the ruins by their guards. I was there. O'Hare was there.”(Chapter 10)So when at the begging of the book Vonnegut states he won’t say real names, “I've changed all the names.”(Chapter 1) he was talking about Billy, as well as O’Hare. Before I thought O’Hare was the actual name, but since I read the last pages and his named appeared I remembered that Vonnegut had changed all the names. Also if Billy Pilgrim and Vonnegut where together in Dresden, it might mean Billy Pilgrim is just a man who’s story was written by Vonnegut, not necessarilly a friend, or even Vonnegut himself.

Not Reacting When Necessary

Billy Pilgrim is now a victim to a plane crash. “He knew he was going to crash,” (Chapter 7) but he did nothing to prevent it. It says this, “but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so.”(Chapter 7) Why would someone who is about to suffer a plane crash and knows it not react to it? If I were about to plane crash I would definitely do something, no matter if I made a fool of myself. I prefer to live than to make a fool of myself. A question we could ask ourselves is if Billy knew he would survive. If he did it would make his reaction a little more understandable, but we don’t know he did.

What I believe made him do this was the information given to him by the Tralfamadorians. “Tralfamadorians, of course, say that every creature and plant in the Universe is a machine.”(Chapter 7)If he had this in his head it would explain why he didn’t react. “We are machines, why bother?” That’s maybe a typical reaction of a human being if he were told he is a machine, besides of course saying, “you are nuts, I’m not a machine.” When the plane finally crashes he survives, so he didn’t pay for not reacting against the the plane crash.

Moments We Must Enjoy

While reading the fifth chapter of Slaughterhouse Five I found it very interesting how the Tralfamadorians begin to teach or at least explain Billy what they read. “There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects.” (Chapter 5) Basically what I understand is that they really just want to see moment, just an instant, and a particularly small picture drawn by the writer. “What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.'”(Chapter 5) They are actually reading to feel something, because “many marvelous moments” put together at once generate a feeling. Also a key way to find out what they mean is not just a moment but a feeling is that there is “no beginning, no middle, no end” so basically they already had it, still have it, and will always have it. Billy would not understand the books of the Tralfamadorians not only because of how their written but also because of its deep meaning. In other words the book must have a moral for him or any human to understand. This would be because Tralfamadorians enjoy the plain moments when they feel life, and live it by those precious moments, the ones drawn in their books. While Billy is searching to learn something, or reach a goal.

To Have A Place

After reading the next part of Slaughterhouse Five I began to think a lot. Interestingly enough I began to think of Billy as someone who can’t find a place where he fits, or a place where he is comfortable in. That’s why the plaque on his office has so much meaning to it, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” (Chapter 3, pg. 60) When it says “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change” it shows how Billy has to “live” with the fact that he changes time periods with no control. It’s like what I said before that he doesn’t fit in the places he is in, so he has to live with that.

We must take into consideration what is said in the plaque. I thought about how we could all apply this into our live, by accepting who we are and then changing what we want to do. This is also something Billy has to understand to fit in where he is in the moment.

Time Travelling Problems

Billy Pilgrim is having a problem, he is changing and moving around the different parts of his life without being able to control it. I found it very interesting how in the middle of the war he begins to loose it, he starts to move chronologically from his birth all the way to his older years. This reminds me of the movie called The Butterfly Effect where the main character also has time changes and re-lives parts of his life when he was a little boy. By going back to his childhood moments he is able to change the present he lives in. Here we can see how Billy can go back in time but unlike the movie I saw, he can also see what may be the future.

Another thing very interesting that happens here is that he is stuck in the middle of the war while he has these time changes. You might say he’s trying to escape the war by going to another part of his life. Again, in the movie I mentioned before, the character can control when he moves back in time, so If he is in a situation he doesn’t like, he escapes by time travelling. This may be the case in this book, even though Billy isn’t able to escape the situation.