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Ash Wednesday, December 19, Doug Dorst, dresden, Ernest Hemingway, Filomena Caldeira, JJ Abrams, Kurt Vonnegut, Le Monde, Slaughterhouse Five, University of Iowa, V.M. Straka, VM Straka, Writer's Workshop
Fn2 in the Foreword mentions a 1935 interview in Le Monde where Hemingway praises Straka. But Le Monde did not begin until its birth on December 19, 1944. That same day, Kurt Vonnegut was captured and became a POW. His experiences there are a wellspring for his writings.
Perhaps we are being pointed toward clues in the relationship and/or writings of Hemingway and Vonnegut.
Hemingway provided frequent fodder for Vonnegut, inspiring a cadre of characters who celebrate war and death. In his sardonic response to this vision of a Hemingwayesque world, Vonnegut espoused kindness and restraint as moral imperatives against the more violent yearnings of human nature, which Hemingway in turn embraced as stoic, virile, and heroic. Though their paths were radically different, Broer finds in both an overarching obsession with the scars of war as chief adversary in a personal quest for understanding and wholeness. He locates in each writer’s canon moments of spiritual awaking leading to literary evolution—if not outright reinvention. In their later works Broer detects an increasing recognition of redemptive feminine aspects in themselves and their protagonists, pulling against the destructively tragic fatalism that otherwise dominates their worldviews.
Notice the spiritual awakening, literary evolution, and the “increasing recognition of redemptive feminine aspects in themselves and their protagonists.” This is symbolized in “S.” by S’s longing to connect with Sola – how he doesn’t even know she exists until the beginning of the book and by the end, he is side by side with her.
Another interesting Vonnegut connection is in the introduction to Slaughterhouse Five where he states…
Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.
The entirety of V.M. Straka’s life is impacted by the massacre at Calais in 1912, and his book is filled with the names of the victims of evil (including himself) who have the names of birds: Straka, Corbeau, Stenfalk, Ostrero, Osfour, Pfeifer, etc. Vonnegut’s quote could easily serve is an epigraph for Ship of Theseus in its entirety.
V.M. Straka “died” (or did he?) at approximately midnight, June 6, 1946. On this same day, Gerhart Hauptmann died. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912. Like Kurt Vonnegut, he was in Dresden on the day it was firebombed and survived. Dresden was bombed for three days straight (February 13-15, 1945). By early morning February 14, Ash Wednesday, the center of the city was engulfed in a firestorm, which temperatures reaching 1500C.
Also, as Clare points out in the comments below…
Both Dorst and Vonnegut have a connection to Iowa via the U of I Writer’s Workshop. They were there at different times. Kurt Vonnegut taught there and Doug Dorst was a student.
Keep in mind this cannot be an in-book solution to any clues from FXC to VMS, because Vonnegut had not yet written anything. This would be more of an easter egg from JJ Abrams and/or Doug Dorst to us to note one of the points of the book.
For LOST Fans
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five had heavy influences on the time-traveling character Desmond Hume. Additionally, December 19 is the date of antihero Benjamin Linus’ birth, his mother’s death, and his father’s death years later. This is a nod to the birth of the antihero character in general, especially through Emily Bronte – who gave birth to Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and died young on December 19, 1848. Benjamin Linus’s mother’s name was Emily.
Thoughts On "S" 
Mystimus, I can’t believe that you missed that both Dorst and Vonnegut have a connection to Iowa via the U of I Writer’s Workshop. To be fair, they were there at different times and KV taught there and Dorst was a student.
Interestingly, Slaughterhouse Five does involve the time travel of the main character, Billy Pilgrim, whose name is an allusion to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. I seem to recall that Billy’s becoming unstuck from time cause him some disorientation, but it’s been a while since I have read this and would need to revisit to confirm.
Missed it entirely. Thank you for bringing it to light here.
Reminds me of the connection between J.J. Abrams and Joseph Campbell. They both were at Sarah Lawrence College, but at different times. JC taught and JJ was a student.
Hmm, and Vonnegut was born in 1922 and he left Cornell and joined the Army in WWII. Guess what year? It’s a gimme! 🙂
Brian, I recently got a book of his short stories for kindle (there was a sale!) and in the forward he states he considered himself a writer from about 1949 on…. Interesting, don’t you think?
Very. The choice of 1949 for the publication date of SOT and the inclusion of the footnote with Vonnegut’s capture date seem more than casual notes to Vonnegut’s influence. There must be much more to come.
You do know there may be other answers that are not words but…
No one seems to “be” paying any attention to the kits, why is that?
I think the kits had some postcards relating to the 1939 World’s Fair, and then we had the 75th anniversary on April 30th where the twitter story of Eric’s sighting of the valise and “The Archer’s Tales” took place on the old fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows – Corona Park. There was also an attempt by some to use the color codes on the pencils to produce something, but I did not see that go anywhere. Not sure where to go next with the book club kits.
The kits are key. Wish everyone with a kit would contribute a little bite more before its behind time.
May have something to do with 19487171
Sorry, Captain, but I doubt the kits have anything to contribute as these are going to book clubs who probably are not going to dive as deep as us bloggers and some of the other individual readers have. If you think about it, these clubs are going to read the book, discuss it, and then move on to the next book on their list for their club.
What I.F. there was another vision another way to see. What I.F.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Zork
The future was formed with PDP-1 Maynard MA top floor of building 5
Unless, of course, you are on Traal and dealing with a bugblatter beast.
I.F. you look for monsters you will find them I.F. you look for blue butterflies you will find them.
Play it Sam, play it for…
Old Time’s sake
The same actors in Notorious are in Casablanca. In one she has a key the other letters of transit.
Quote: “If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still–if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I’m grateful that so many of those moments are nice.” (Chapter 10). Last words Poo-tee-weet. (the sound of a bird.)
The final chapter 10 of Slaughterhouse Five is going to be revisited over and over again just like chapter 10 of S.
It seems that some people with the book club kits have left out large amounts of information or they just did not get all the metadata.
On a related topic: Fn3 of chapter 2 (with the 2710, 2760) gives V F I L T and I Y B W U. Can anyone decode this?
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