National Science Fiction Day

Today is National Science Fiction Day, the date chosen because it is the anniversary of the birth of Isaac Asimov. In honor of the day, I'd like to highlight Slaughterhouse-Five, a 1972 film and the first winner of the Saturn Awards. It is based on the 1969 book Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut. The book doesn't seem to get much attention now, but when it was released and during some years afterwards it was frequently referred to and discussed. I still feel a special connection when I say, "And so it goes" and the other person knows the quote. Another striking quote: "All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist." Relevant even today, I'd highly recommend the book if you haven't read it, and then the movie if you liked the book.

film trailer:

One last quote from the book:

America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.

The actions of some of the characters in the book (and film) are so strikingly like the actions of the neo-Nazi white supremacist Trump supporters that I sometimes wonder if it wasn't Vonnegut who had become unstuck in time. You'd think we'd learn. And yet, here we are.