"Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time" (23)
That's the first line of the first real, non prologue chapter of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter-House Five. (Also known as The Children's Crusade).
Ever since I read the book rather recently, I've been thinking of the concept of becoming "unstuck" in time. I am aware that Billy's mind made up Tralfamdore and being "unstuck" in time to cope with the feelings he had while in a prisoner of war camp, and the war in general. Being "unstuck" is just how he handles the flashbacks, which are a common symptom of PTSD.
I've just been curious what it would be like to be "unstuck"
Out of this curiosity I've tried it before. I had decided a time to come "unstuck" in:
My mom and I were at Manards, in the lumber yard area to get some wood for her garden. We were in her big red truck, a pack of Lifesaver mints on the console. On the radio "Down with the Sickness" was playing close to silent. There were tons of piles of wood around. I sat there, waiting, and took another mint.
I think this blog post can be summed up from the quote from the book, "It is so short, and and jumbled, and jangled" (19)
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