Welcome to Tralfamadore
"Billy had a framed prayer on his office wall which expressed his method for keeping going, even though he was unenthusiastic about living. A lot of patients who saw the prayer on Billy’s wall told him that it helped them to keep going, too. It went like this: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future."
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There is a parallel between Dresden and Tralfamadore; both the German and the Tralfamadorians had power over Billy. Though Dresden is no more than his path, while Tralfamadore is a place to rewrite traumatic events. Tralfamadore is a world before knowledge, it is a place with just innocence.
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Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.
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"We Tralfamadorians read them all at once, not one after the other. There isn't any particular relationship between all the messages, except the author has chosen them carefully, so that when seen all at once, they can produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep"
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The home to being who exist in all times simultaneously, and are thus privy to knowledge of future events, including the destruction of the universe at the hands of a Tralfamadorian test pilot.
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"They were two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm. The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions. They pitied Earthlings for being able to see only three. They had many wonderful things to teach Earthlings about time."
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