book one project: slaughterhouse-five

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! Are you interested in life beyond our world? Do you want to be involved in an experiment? Did you read Slaughterhouse-Five? Then come right down to the Tralfamadore Observation Center! You have two line choices, and you can only choose one. You may either become one of the human in the experiment, or you may dawn out alien suit and become one of the creatures from Tralfamadore.

Now for some background on the story. This attraction is from the book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. "Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time" (23) writes Vonnegut at the start of the story. We follow the life of this Billy Pilgrim and what makes him a little different. He fought in WWII, married his wife, and became an optometrist. Then he was in a plane crash. After the plane crash, Billy was not quite the same. Billy is visited by the Tralfamadore creatures and is taken up in their ship. They place him in a human habitat filled with furniture that the Tralfamadorians stole from shops on Earth. They have not captured Billy to harm him, but to find out more about human beings. There is an observation deck above the habitat, where other Tralfamadorians are able to see the live human they captured. But Billy is not alone. He was set up with another earthling, Montana Wildhack, and they lived together in the human zoo.

But the whole book is not about the Tralfamadore creatures. The whole story is based on Vonnegut’s experience in WWII, specifically the bombing of Dresden. So, when Billy is coherent with the WWII part of his life, we find out that he has been taken by the Germans and is now a Prisoner of War. He and hundred of other Americans are sent to the city of Dresden, and are held in a Slaughterhouse. And hence the name of the book, “Their address was this: ‘Schlachthof-funf.’ Schlachtof meant slaughterhouse. Funf was good old five” (153). While they were in that slaughterhouse, the bombing of Dresden happened. The men were safe, but after everything subsided, they saw the destruction and aftermath. The city was completely destroyed, and not another person other than the prisoners to be found. This was the whole point of Vonnegut writing this book. He wanted and needed to tell what he had seen, and did so vividly.

But back to the attraction. A person will need to choose between being a human or a Tralfamadorian. As the human you will be able to follow the path of Billy Pilgrim, and his experience of being abducted by the Tralfamadore creatures into a human zoo. They placed them in a small area that they tried to recreate to look like a human house. People will be able to walk through and see the space where Billy lived in space. As the Tralfamadorian, you will go up to the observation deck, and will be dressed up as a traditional Tralfamadore creature. You will take notes of the human behavior and see the world from the Tralfamadorian point of view.

I think that this could bring in more readers because it different and out there. People can come to this attraction and see how it is, and that could spark the interest of reading the book where it came from. This will also attract people who have read the book and are fans, so it offers a way for them to connect even more with the book. They will be able to see our interpretation of the Tralfamadore creatures, and also what the surrounding looked like for Billy. For the new guests who have not read the book, we could have staff around to answer questions and explain what is going on. There will also be a gift shop where you can purchase the book and some small souvenirs.

“The letter said that 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” (26).