(MG = Middle Grade, YA = Young Adult. I wasn't quite sure what to qualify the book in question as; I read it during elementary school, but they probably wouldn't let public-schoolers anywhere near it until eighth grade. I'm just bad at gauging reading level. I will henceforth refer to it as a kids' book, since any audience younger than me is clearly composed of kids.)
As I read through Slaughterhouse-Five, I couldn't help but notice that the Tralfamadorians have some stylistic similarities to an alien species I had encountered before: the Boov from Adam Rex's middle-grade/young-adult novel The True Meaning of Smekday, which to this day remains one of the few books I have read more than once. That's how good it is. Adam Rex writes some weeeeeiiiiiird kids' books. But they're really good. He also illustrates them.
Smekday involves a girl named Gratuity, a cat named pig, and a (male) alien named J.Lo traveling in a (hovering) car called Slushious. Needless to say, it's not all that serious of a book.
The Boov (pronounced Bo-o-ov, according to the alien character who is rather rude in his ignorance of the International Phonetic Alphabet) don't have much of a direct relationship to the Tralfamadorians except for glovelike body parts and a general theme of lavatory about their appearance. They don't live in the fourth dimension; they don't see everything all at once; they don't say "So it goes". The Boov are presented flat-out comically, with malapropisms in their speech (the bomb is going to explore!), condescending treatment of humans (sending them to human preserves and feeding them milkshakes), general ineptitude (a second alien race is on its way to destroy Earth because a Boov technician accidentally sent them a recording of an offensive children's song), and odd affinities (they like to wear oranges on their feet). They don't have much to offer in the way of deep philosophical insights about the meaning of time, and they actually don't have such a hard time understanding things the way humans do. Instead, the similarities I see between the Boov and the Tralfamadorians are more tangential, including passing references and stylistic features.
The main passage of SH5 that made me become literarily unstuck and jump to Rex's book was where the Tralfamadorians react to Billy's inspiring speech about everyone living in harmony. The adorable little gloved plungers close their hands over their eyes because Billy has just said something very stupid; they then explain that they themselves are actually more dangerous to the galaxy than humans are, since they destroy the universe while testing new fuels for their flying saucers. Specifically, a Tralfamadorian test pilot presses a starter button and the whole universe disappears.
This passage reminded me of the Boov's own mishaps in space exploration, featuring a Koobish (a type of alien livestock used as a test animal) named Peeches who leans on the Big Red Button Labeled NO, leading to the complete loss of the mission... sort of. I can't tell you what happens to it without spoiling things.
Okay, okay, so maybe not a big connection; just pressing buttons and making bad things happen. But this at least got me thinking about some other connections. Both species view humans as animals, placing them in zoos or herding them off to preserves in Arizona. Both try to focus on the happy parts of life and block out sadness, failure, and mistakes, and yet both are also somewhat defeatist and realize when they can't change something; the Tralfamadorians' destruction of the universe and the Boov losing control of Earth against the invading Gorog. Throw in some weird technology and an astounding number of sexes, and you can see where I might be getting ideas about these two being related somehow.
Since Adam Rex wrote Smekday much later than Kurt Vonnegut wrote SH5, I'll assume a non-Tralfamadorian concept of time and conclude that Adam Rex hid some Vonnegut references throughout his book, and if I go back and read it again, I'll probably find more than just the ones I immediately remembered while going through SH5.
Of course, I could email Adam Rex and ask him about this. He seems like the kind of guy who would answer email from fans.
As one last interesting note, The True Meaning of Smekday is being made into a Dreamworks animated movie. I'm sure they'll ruin it. For one thing, they've retitled it Home (can people really not handle "smek"?) and J.Lo has been possibly been renamed "Oh", perhaps because the female human known as "J. Lo" has been cast as Gratuity's mother, and it would be confusing (BUT OH SO HILARIOUSLY METAFICTIONAL!!!) to have Jim Parson's character share a name with his costar--especially since in the book there is a brief exchange where Gratuity points out that J.Lo is the name of a human actress.
I wonder what they'll do with the parts where J.Lo (the alien) directly adresses the reader to explain certain aspects of Boov history and culture through comic strips?
Basically, if they stay true to the book, it will probably not be popular with a general audience (due to sheer weirdness) but will become a cult classic kids' film. If they try to tone it down a bit, it will be the usual bland silliness you expect from an animated movie that tries to be new and different.
Anyway... I'm judgmental about movies. And Smekday is great. Go read it.
No comments:
Post a Comment