Can You Put Up With It? (Epictetus Sections 26-30)

In these sections of Epictetus some very interesting themes are brought up. Section 26 mentions that you should truly empathize with what happens to other people because when it happens to you it is no graver. For example, if the brother of another person passes away you shouldn't be indifferent about it and say that things like that just happen. But when you brother dies now you make it a big deal and say that your world is tearing apart, and in that moment is when you should remember how you felt when it happened to other people.

Section 29 repeats somewhat what has been said in the first sections of Epictetus mentioning that you have to be prepared if you really want to be a philosopher. You have to see what it implies to be a philosopher. You have to act with hardship, be willing to give up sleep and put up with people laughing at you. I think this really gives a good perspective about philosophy because not everything in it is thinking and sharing ideas and everybody accepting them. This relates also with section 29 that mentions "For each action, consider what leads up to it and what follows it, and approach it in the light of that." (Sec. 29). It ties up perfectly to what is said because to analyze what it takes to become a philosopher and you have to see if you have it, and if you have it you have to see If you can put up you what it requires while you're one.

The Choice

Dear Robert Frost,

 

I just ask for you to decide yourself because there are very good motives to take either of the paths. Now that you have chosen which path to take, you have chosen a more unique experience choosing the one that has been less traveled by. Now that you have already chosen a road, as a philosopher, I advice you not to doubt of the choice you have taken and make an effort for not to think of what you may have missed by taking this road. I ask you not to wonder what you may have missed because if you had taken the other road you would've been wondering what you missed if you had taken this road. You have already made a choice and you didn't know what the choice was going to mean until you have lived with it.

 

With all due respect,

Epictetus

Not All Changes are Accepted (Handbook of Epictetus Sec. 11-25)

Section 17 mentions that any role that you are given in life you should play it the best you can. If you are given a role and you think you're better than it you should exert your role the best you can with the hope that destiny will put you in a role that suits you in a better way. The point of this passage is that your job is to get the tasks that you are given completed, your job is not to decide which tasks you are assigned. I believe that this is one of the wisest passages I've read so far in Handbook of Epictetus. This is certainly something that I will remember most of my life if not all of it. The best part of it is that it says you have to play the role the best you can no matter what role it is: if it's a beggar you have to play, then you have to play it but remember it's not your role to decide your tasks.

This book makes the reader realize things too, that it's not all color pink in life. It says, "If you crave philosophy prepare yourself on the spot to be ridiculed, to be jeered by many people…" (Sec. 22). People think that if they have a new idea, they will be congratulated and cheered for. The reality is that people in general never want to change because it changes their comfort zone. The world has changed to what it is now because of the people that put up with the put downs and aggravations. This not only includes philosophy but it includes all types of prophets that try to expand their beliefs. The perfect example of it was Christ, who came to earth claiming to be the son of God and not only was he rejected, but his followers were killed and were stoned to death.

The Uncontrolable (Handbook of Epictetus Sec. 1-10)

In this first Reading of Handbook of Epictetus I received an excellent impression of this piece of literature. This book could almost be like a manual for my life! In the very first part I learned that you cannot get frustrated trying to change the things that are not up to you. If you accept the things that you cannot change, you won't try to blame another person. Another thing I learned is that when something goes wrong, you can't blame none other but yourself. This also correlates with the serenity prayer in Slaughterhouse-Five when it says, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…" (p. 209). When you blame other people you are actually hurting yourself morally because if you find the mistake in yourself, you will work to not make the same mistake unless you're a careless person. A related point to this theme of accepting things you cannot change is the one made in the next point (point 2). This point mentions to be careful in what you desire and what you averse. Your desire has to be of reasonable capacity of reach because "if you desire what is not up to us, you are bound to be unfortunate" (Handbook of Epictetus).

Deviating from the theme now, the fourth part mentions something about preventing that if something happens that you can't control you have an excuse to not feel bad. For example if you wanted do something as simple as going to the park, you said to yourself I want to go to the park "and to keep my choices in accord with nature" (Epictetus) so if something undesirable happens during your visit at the park you have a reason not to be annoyed because of what happened because you also wanted to keep your choices in accord with nature.

A Rushing Death

In the first part of chapter nine is Valencia, desperate because she has been told that her husband can die or if he survives he most probably will become a vegetable. This specific situation shows how in the most anguishing times you must remain calm. There is a reason for when flight attendants say that of an emergency you must remain calm. That is the first thing they say because if you let yourself guide by your emotions, you can end up like Valencia. If you see; Valencia had no risk at all of dying because: she wasn't sick, nobody wanted her dead and she wasn't a potential victim of any other risk that a normal citizen is forced to take, yet she killed herself with carbon monoxide poisoning for God's sake! I bet she could've imagined dying in many ways except from this one. If she at least had gone out of the car to see what exactly had happened to her car she might've noticed that the bumper was no longer attached to the car but "… she put her car in gear and crossed the median divider, leaving her exhaust system behind"(p.183). Because of the lack of an exhaust system, the car had lost the correct way of the disposal of the gases created in the engine therefore when it stopped the interior of the car got invaded by gases.

Another thing that pointed out to me is that heading towards the end of the chapter, when Billy went into the bookstore. When Billy looks at Kilgore Trout's books, he notices that they have to do with alien things, like a Trafamadorian message that they want him to see. Also when he is in the adult section of the bookstore he sees a movie about Montana Wildhack. In the movie she is in an alien zoo. This confirms my theory that the Tralfamadorians wanted to send him a message. The message probably was that he had to go to the radio station and say what he said about Montana Wildhack and Trafamadore. Vonnegut may also use this to make the reader realize that Billy is completely insane, that Tralfamadorians don't even exist and that this Trafamadorian view of going on an infinite journey in time is just all in Billy's head.

Schlachthof-Fünf

In chapter seven of Slaughterhouse Five Billy, miraculously, is the only one that survives the plane crash with the copilot. When the plane crashes Billy's skull is hit and fractured. When his is practically dying in the snow, some ski instructors from a resort nearby come to the site. One of them saw him half alive and thought he was saying his last words. Billy thought the instructor had something to do with World War II and "he whispered to him his address: 'Schlachthof-fünf´" (P. 156 Vonnegut)

I personally took the time to find a translation to what he said. It actually means Slaughter-house five. He clearly spoke in German so I found the translation in internet. In the story he spoke in German because as stated before, he thought the ski instructor was a soldier or someone who had something to do with World War II. He finally survived and he was taken to a small private hospital and attended by a famous brain surgeon. Billy remained unconscious for two days "and dreamed millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time travel" (P.157 Vonnegut). The last part made me realize that Billy is having dreams of his own life and like any other person, while dreaming, can make things that are total fantasy look true. So this passage suggests that the time traveling that has been happening over and over again are just dreams of the past Billy has had. It would also give an explanation to Tralfamadore and it is the following: it´s just simply a crazy idea that went through Billy's head because the book said that of the million things he dreamt of only some of them were true. So he could've dreamt in other parts of the book and invented Tralfamadore. Billy didn't need a very elaborate thought to invent Trafamadore because in the book it says that he just spent a few earthling seconds in Tralfamadore.

Inside Knives

In chapter six there was one special event that amazed me yet still terrified me. When Lazzaro tells the story of how he took revenge on a dog that bit it was one of those parts that you want the whole information the page has gets into your head right away because you cannot wait to see what happens. Lazzaro tells this story when he is mentioning how sweet revenge is. It says the following:

"When he was gone, Lazzaro promised Billy and poor old Edgar Derby that he was going to have revenge, and that revenge was sweet.

'It's the sweetest thing there is'" (P.138 Vonnegut)

The theme in this part is clearly revenge because it is mentioned so much and so emphasized. When telling this story, Lazzaro tells it with such tranquility that it can even transmit a feeling of irony. In some kind there is poetic justice for the dog because while he wanted to eat Lazzaro from his physical outside, he wanted to eat his inside and then he reflected it outside because "Blood started coming out of his mouth. He started crying, and he rolled on the ground, as though the knives were on the outside of him instead of the inside of him. The he tried to bite out his own insides" (P.139 Vonnegut). The way Lazzaro tell the story shows his sadism and how he is willing to have revenge even with an animal that cannot think, this shows the bitterness of his life.

It is stated clearly that Lazzaro has an obsession with revenge. An explanation to this could be some grave event in his childhood that could've affected him for life for him to end up thinking this way. At the end he says, "Anybody ever asks you what the sweetest thing in life is, it's revenge" (P. 139 Vonnegut)

Unused but not Forgotten (On Living Latin)

In David Crystal's blog I read a fairly interesting article about how the latin language has been dying over time despite being the root language of spanish, italian, french, rumanian and many other languages and dialects that conform a vast percentage of usage in the world. I agree to what David Crystal says in this blog post about how you know when a language dies. He says "The distinction between life and death can be a bit fuzzy, when applied to language." This is true because a language is not like a person, that only depends if he/she has a heartbeat or not. It´s different with a language specially one that has been around for so many years and has made that much history. To define if a language is dead or not is very difficult because the process is very gradual so you cannot distinguish when it´s actually gone completely because there will always be the few last people that spread their knowledge.

A Reflection in the Phone

In chapter 4 of Slaughter-House Five there is a part when Billy made me remember about the first part of the book. When Billy cannot sleep and goes to his daughter's bedroom, the phone rings and "Billy answered. There was a drunk on the other end. Billy could almost smell his breath-mustard gas and roses. It was a wrong number" (P.73 Vonnegut). This reminds me of the first part of the book when Billy called people he hadn't been in touch for years, being drunk at late night. I don't know why did Vonnegut used this occasion to remind the reader what Billy did when he was drunk at late night. Maybe he used this to reflect Billy. The roses are a symbol of love and they could actually represent that he mostly called women that he had been with late night. When it says that it was a wrong number it could mean that because he is sober in this moment, he is ashamed he would be too shy to do it so he would need to be drunk to call these old friends.

Another thing I noticed in the reading is that Vonnegut doesn't need a person to die to say "So it goes". When he goes downstairs in his house, right before watching the WWII movies, he found a bottle of champagne "So Billy uncorked it with his thumbs. It didn't make a pop. The champagne was dead. So it goes" (P. 73 Vonnegut). I personally think Vonnegut is mocking his own saying when he says "So it goes" after saying that the champagne is dead. So he could say: "That statue is dead. So it goes". By this point this saying has lost its meaning to me. Another way to interpret this is that he is so depressed and champagne makes him drunk so when he is drunk he is depressed and everything makes him sad.

Past, Present, and Future

I have liked the author's way of writing this far because it's kind of pessimistic but not boring. The following passage is an example of a pessimistic thing Vonnegut says: "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future" (P. 60 Vonnegut). Though what he said is true, that Billy couldn't change anything, but it still gives a depressive tone to the story. What is depressive of this passage is that Billy could not even change the future because everything is already decided for him, no matter what he does, he will always end up as it is decided for him. What I see as a reader is that Billy Pilgrim didn't influence in the decisions that were made for his life: that he was going to be an optometrist was as decided as the fact that he was going to be born. I guess here is where the depressive tone comes from; from the fact that he knows that he is just a marionette of fate.

It is clear that Billy has sleeping disorders because in the day when he is examining patients falls asleep in the middle of the appointment, but when he tries to sleep in a comfortable environment, he needs the help of a machine that makes him fall asleep. We know that this was caused by post-traumatic stress, but post-traumatic stress doesn't only affect your sleep, it can cause severe mental disorders so it makes me question the veracity of the stories he tells.

“So It Goes”

Reading this chapter I realized that my prediction in my previous blog post was right. As I said, this way of writing really interests me because it goes back and forth in time. The proof of this is when the book says "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time"(P.23 Vonnegut). This form of writing is very interesting because when it goes back to the time that the story is being narrated, it analyzes what happened. This time is used to express regrets or affirmations of what happened in the time narrated.

More than different parts of his life they seem like "separate stories" because he apparently had a very changing life. He talks about 1922 when he was born in Ilium, New York he was not a very good looking guy in his youth he had more of a weak profile, so maybe he wasn't into any sports activity or anything because of his physical description. When he describes the time when he was studying in the Ilium School of Optometry and he got drafted by the military, because this passage lays beside the previous description I suppose happened in that time, Vonnegut also says "His father died in a hunting accident during the war. So it goes" (P.24 Vonnegut).

This "So it goes" I have noticed that it is mentioned by Vonnegut when something of evil nature has happened. I suppose he says this as a subconscious way to close the subject because he really doesn't want to talk about it anymore, especially if it's how his father died.

Check, Check

Hi Mr. Tangen, I was just checking if posting from a word document worked from my computer.