Perfection of Tralfamadore as Billy's Escape

      In class we have been discussing the role of Tralfamadore in Billy Pilgrim's mind as he deals with his experiences in the war. We labelled it as a coping mechanism, a way for him to escape and "reinvent [himself] and [his] universe." We also were debating whether Tralfamadore was real, within the context of the novel. I think that, given how similar it is to some of the Kilgore Trout books, and given the timeline (using the linear Earthling view of time, sorry) of Billy's life and his mental state at different points, it seems very likely that Tralfamadore was a construction of Billy's need for a way to cope with his time-travelling and war-time stress. Not only is Tralfamadore a world many light-years apart from Earth and its inhabitants, but it also is the environment Billy would rather live in.

      Tralfamadore is Billy's personal utopia for several reasons. First of all, it isn't Earth. Earth has been giving Billy a hard time, and he needs something different. Also, the Tralfamadorian mindset is most likely a relief for Billy from the constraining Earth one. Billy, as with most Earthlings, tends naturally to view time as a line. He has been struggling with this line, however, especially as he has been jumping around throughout it to times he doesn't necessarily want or need to visit. The Tralfamadorian perspective gives reason to this otherwise maddening time-hopping.  Billy is able to look at the events in his life as many that exist together, forgive himself for not preventing things later, and generally make sense of the time-travelling he is not intentionally doing. This view of time also helps Billy deal with the deaths he witnessed in the war. He was somewhat traumatized from the experience, which we can see in the way he avoids the topic of Derby's death on his honeymoon with Valencia. Through the Tralfamadorian view, deaths are not as tragic as we think of them because they are still alive in other moments. This was a good way for Billy to conceptualize the traumatic events he experienced.

      When Billy is on Tralfamadore, he says that it is amazing to him that it is so peaceful there. He mentions the frequent wars on Earth, and remarks how startling it is that the Tralfamadorians do not fight. They think he is stupid, and one Tralfamadorian explains, "Today we [have a peaceful planet]. On other days we have wars as horrible as any you've ever seen or read about. There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments." There are moments when Kurt Vonnegut, or otherwise the narrator, interjects with an anti-war sentence or two, but this scene is the only time that Billy Pilgrim seems to be much bothered by the war in general. It shows just how much the war affected everything he thinks about. However, Tralfamadorians don't have to think about war. They can just consider the other moments in time instead. When Billy thinks up this elaborate other planet, it isn't a mistake that war can be ignored. Billy created Tralfamadore to escape and cope with himself and Earth, especially his experiences in the war.

Coalhouse Walker: Infected with Jes Grew?

      I was sitting in free period earlier today, and I was applying the Mumbo Jumbo framework of Jes Grew and Atonism to random things, until I began to consider Ragtime. Ragtime as a whole is mostly Atonist. One could say that J. P. Morgan is at the very top of the Atonist pyramid, and Father is most definitely very Atonist in thought and manner. However, Coalhouse rocks the boat in some ways.

      When Coalhouse enters the story, he is a very respectable ragtime musician. Ragtime, as referenced in Mumbo Jumbo, was a surge of Jes Grew in the 1890s and early 1900s, even though it does die out as Jes Grew shortly afterwards. Therefore, as a ragtime musician, Coalhouse is infected with Jes Grew. This is most clear when he plays for the family. The music is described as "like bouquets," "robust," and "a vigorous music that roused the senses and never stood still a moment." This does fit nicely with some of Jes Grew's descriptions in Mumbo Jumbo. Coalhouse also is confident, while also being rebellious, that is, against the Atonist worldview. However, the way he goes about being against the Atonist worldview is by becoming somewhat Atonist himself. He plays music in an orchestra, a very regulated system, and he dresses and talks in a more Atonist fashion. Also, when we first see Coalhouse, he wants to move up in the social system, specifically the Atonist social system. It is kind of ambiguous whether he should be classified as somewhat Atonist, but I think he is still more Jes Grew-ist (is there a word for that?).

      After Sarah's death, Coalhouse leaves behind his music, orchestra, and social status to grow militant. He turns from the Atonist system to become anti-Atonist, literally terrorizing them and criticizing his ways. Just like Benoit Battraville, he asks for the sheriff (or Hinkle von Vampton) to be handed over to his justice outside of the United States legality because the American legal system is too Atonist and has failed him before. In the end, Coalhouse learns that he cannot survive in the Atonist world. He has been too deeply infected and affected by Jes Grew and now he can never turn back. In the end, just like Father not being able to survive with his views in the coming era, Coalhouse cannot survive in the Atonist system. 

      There are some ways in which Ragtime doesn't quite line up with Jes Grew and Atonism, but that may be merely because I am trying to impose Jes Grew when I am primarily Atonist. However, when it comes to Coalhouse, it is interesting to compare his story with that of Berbelang and other characters in Mumbo Jumbo as they relate to Jes Grew and the Atonist structure of American society.