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       #Post#: 2270--------------------------------------------------
       Devastation of war, particularly among 
   DIR By: Jabin Khatun
       Date: August 30, 2023, 1:42 am
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       In some canals the water was burning. In the tram carriages the
       window panes melted, and sugar stocks boiled in the cellars of
       the bakeries. Those who fled from their underground shelters
       sank with grotesque contortions into the molten asphalt, from
       which thick bubbles sprouted. Combined with the demonic Nazi
       machine run by Hitler, could any art form hold up a mirror wide
       enough to contain and reflect that devastation? Kurt Vonnegut
       was drafted into the US Army towards the end of the war and,
       like Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of his 1969 novel
       Slaughterhouse Five , was captured by the German Army. Vonnegut,
       like Pilgrim, was in Dresden when the Allies bombed the city.
       The author and his character hid – along with his guards – in a
       slaughterhouse that was partly underground.
       As a result, he was one of the few survivors of the firestorm
       that devastated the city on February 13-15, 1945. Between 25,000
       and 35,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed in the
       air raids on Dresden, though some put the death toll as high as
       250,000, given the flow of undocumented refugees from the German
       Eastern Front. Most of the victims were women, children and the
       elderly. Vonnegut chose semi-autobiographical science fiction
       and satire as his genres to portray the physical and
       psychological young people: the novel's subtitle is The Telegram
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       Children's Crusade . Following each
       reference to a horrifying death (more), the narrator says,
       "That's life." Critics have interpreted this as showing
       Vonnegut's fatalism, but I think it actually emphasizes
       something broader, echoing Sebald's comment: human beings – our
       hearts, minds and language – cannot comprehend so much death.
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       Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim is a delicate and not at all brave
       young man, whose mental health suffers for the rest of his life.
       One of the novel's points, the reader assumes, is that the only
       logical response to war is to be mentally and spiritually
       disturbed, and to stay that way. Thanks to its artistic
       presentation of the reality of war and its effects on human
       life, Slaughterhouse Five is also one of the most controversial
       novels in American literature. It is ranked 46th on the list of
       the "Most Frequently Questioned Books of 2000-2009" compiled by
       the American Library Association. It is also one of the first
       literary texts to refer to homosexuals killed in concentration
       camps.
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