Kurt Vonnegut wrote a World War II novel whose title is a word followed by a number: Slaughterhouse 5 . It is hard to discuss the novel without immediately delving into the stylistic implications of the author’s narrative choices. Veteran Billy Pilgrim travels through time. His time travel is involuntary. As a result, the storytelling is non-linear. It is made up of a string of moments, with jumps from early life to the war, from civilian life to outer space, etc. There is another science-fiction element: aliens abduct Billy Pilgrim and take him to their home planet Tralfamadore. As creatures who see things in four dimensions, all the events of a person’s life appear before them simultaneously. There are only three titles for vocal music in the novel: “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” “Hail, hail, the Gang’s All Here,” “Wait till the Sun Shines, Nelly.” The author goes so far as to mention the origin of the second song, the musical Pirates of Penzance . However, l
Bilingual blog on music and literature. We review the presence of music in fiction.