Ryan Scott
December 22nd, 2011, 04:35 AM
We talk about things being "meta" these days - TV shows that are in on their own jokes or use of sit-com cliches; movies, art, or entertainment that gives a wink to the audience - it would be insulting to call Vonnegut's Bluebeard "meta," but even in 1987, he had an understanding that what he was writing and what he was writing about were one and the same.
Bluebeard is the story of Rabo Karabekian, the child of Armenian immigrants to the US and survivors of the Armenian genocide. He is a gifted artist, an identity he never fully realizes during a life of general failure - as an illustrator, soldier, painter, husband, and father.
Bluebeard is written as a memoir/diary of one summer late in his life. It tells the story of that summer (and how he found some meaning in life) as well as filling us in on the details of his life to that point. It is a novel about the scope of humanity, that we're capable of unspeakable evil and yet also capable of unspeakable beauty. It is a novel about art and the power art has to bring meaning to confusion and also to create confusion in meaningful ways.
In a sense, this is how Vonnegut's writing works. I believe these later novels to be far superior in writing quality, clarity, depth of emotion, and meaning, than his earlier, more famous novels. However, if Vonnegut had written only these later novels, he would not be as famous as he is today, nor would he get credit as an originator. These later novels express the beauty and meaning in life and humanity that Vonnegut was able to capture only because he dealt with the pain and messiness of life and humanity earlier in his career.
When one read Vonnegut, it should be chronologically, for that is the only way to understand that his life and writings are really one work that moves beautifully from beginning to end. Bluebeard is a microcosm of that journey and one well worth reading.
Bluebeard is the story of Rabo Karabekian, the child of Armenian immigrants to the US and survivors of the Armenian genocide. He is a gifted artist, an identity he never fully realizes during a life of general failure - as an illustrator, soldier, painter, husband, and father.
Bluebeard is written as a memoir/diary of one summer late in his life. It tells the story of that summer (and how he found some meaning in life) as well as filling us in on the details of his life to that point. It is a novel about the scope of humanity, that we're capable of unspeakable evil and yet also capable of unspeakable beauty. It is a novel about art and the power art has to bring meaning to confusion and also to create confusion in meaningful ways.
In a sense, this is how Vonnegut's writing works. I believe these later novels to be far superior in writing quality, clarity, depth of emotion, and meaning, than his earlier, more famous novels. However, if Vonnegut had written only these later novels, he would not be as famous as he is today, nor would he get credit as an originator. These later novels express the beauty and meaning in life and humanity that Vonnegut was able to capture only because he dealt with the pain and messiness of life and humanity earlier in his career.
When one read Vonnegut, it should be chronologically, for that is the only way to understand that his life and writings are really one work that moves beautifully from beginning to end. Bluebeard is a microcosm of that journey and one well worth reading.