Billies Feelies
There were two moments in Slaughterhouse-Five in which Billy Pilgrim felt strong emotion--or any emotion. The first was at his anniversary party during the performance of the quartet, and the second was when he saw the condition of the horses pulling the green hearse wagon. There may have been more, but I don’t remember them so I’m pretending there were only two. Point is, any instance of emotion from Billy is rare. There’s a good reason for this—Billy has seen all the events of his life and a good deal more of the realm of time than just the span of his life (Adam and Eve???) so he knows that nothing matters. Excitement, anger, and grief are all so temporary and irrelevant. They are experienced and then mostly forgotten. There’s no point in caring about something to the point where it can cause those strong emotions in you because everything comes to an end, and Billy Pilgrim has seen those ends. We don’t know how or when something will end. I suppose our ignorance is bliss because ...