Why should you read Kurt Vonnegut? - Mia Nacamulli

Prevodilac: Milenka Okuka Lektor: Ivana Krivokuća

Billy Pilgrim can’t sleep

Bili Pilgrim ne može da spava

because he knows aliens will arrive to abduct him in one hour.

jer zna da će vanzemaljci da stignu za sat vremena da ga otmu.

He knows the aliens are coming because he has become “unstuck” in time,

Zna da vanzemaljci stižu jer se „otkačio” od vremena,

causing him to experience events out of chronological order.

zbog čega doživljava događaje van hronološkog sleda.

Over the course of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-five,

Tokom „Klanice pet” Kurta Vonegata,

he hops back and forth between a childhood trip to the Grand Canyon,

on poskakuje između putovanja iz detinjstva u Veliki kanjon,

his life as a middle-aged optometrist,

svog života kao sredovečnog optometriste,

his captivity in an intergalactic zoo,

svog zarobljeništva u međugalaktičkom zoološkom vrtu,

the humiliations he endured as a war prisoner, and more.

poniženja koja je istrpeo kao ratni zarobljenik itd.

Naslov „Klanica pet”, kao i veliki deo izvornog materijala,

The title of Slaughterhouse-five and much of its source material

came from Vonnegut’s own experiences in World War II.

potiče iz Vonegatovih ličnih iskustava u Drugom svetskom ratu.

As a prisoner of war, he lived in a former slaughterhouse in Dresden,

Kao ratni zarobljenik, živeo je u nekadašnjoj klanici u Drezdenu,

where he took refuge in an underground meat locker

gde je pronašao skrovište u podzemnoj rashladnoj komori za meso

while Allied forces bombed the city.

dok su savezničke trupe bombardovale grad.

When he and the other prisoners finally emerged,

Kada su on i drugi zatvorenici konačno izašli,

they found Dresden utterly demolished.

zatekli su Drezden sravnjen sa zemljom.

After the war, Vonnegut tried to make sense of human behavior

Nakon rata, Vonegat je pokušao da pronađe smisao u ljudskom ponašanju

by studying an unusual aspect of anthropology:

izučavajući neobični aspekt antropologije:

the shapes of stories,

oblike priča,

which he insisted were just as interesting as the shapes of pots or spearheads.

za koje je tvrdio da su jednako zanimljivi kao i oblici lonaca ili vrhova koplja.

Kako bi otkrio oblik, napravio bi grafikon sudbine glavnog junaka

To find the shape, he graphed the main character’s fortune

from the beginning to the end of a story.

od početka do kraja priče.

The zany curves he generated revealed common types of fairy tales and myths

Nepravilni zavoji koje je proizveo

otkrivali su uobičajene tipove bajki i mitova

that echo through many cultures.

čije obrise nalazimo u mnogim kulturama.

But this shape can be the most interesting of all.

Međutim, ovaj oblik može da bude najinteresantnija stvar.

In a story like this,

U ovakvoj priči,

it’s impossible to distinguish the character’s good fortune from the bad.

nemoguće je razlikovati dobru od loše sreće lika.

Vonnegut thought this kind of story was the truest to real life,

Vonegat je smatrao da su ove priče najvernije stvarnom životu,

in which we are all the victims of a series of accidents,

u kome smo svi mi žrtve niza slučajnosti,

unable to predict how events will impact us long term.

nesposobni da predvidimo kako će događaji da utiču na nas dugoročno.

He found the tidy, satisfying arcs of many stories at odds with this reality,

Smatrao je uredne, zadovoljavajuće okvire mnogih priča nesaglasnim sa stvarnošću

and he set out to explore the ambiguity

i zaputio se da istraži dvosmislenost

between good and bad fortune in his own work.

između dobre i loše sudbine u svom delu.

When Vonnegut ditched clear-cut fortunes,

Kada je Vonegat odbacio jasno definisane sudbine,

he also abandoned straightforward chronology.

odbacio je i pravolinijsku hronologiju.

Instead of proceeding tidily from beginning to end, in his stories

Umesto urednog pripovedanja od početka do kraja, u njegovim pričama:

“All moments, past, present and future always have existed, always will exist.”

„Svi trenuci, prošli, sadašnji i budući su oduvek postojali i uvek će da postoje.”

Tralfamadorians, the aliens who crop up in many of his books,

Tralfamadorci, vanzemaljci koji iskrsavaju u mnogim njegovim knjigama,

see all moments at once.

vide sve trenutke odjednom.

They “can see where each star has been and where it is going,

„Mogu da vide gde je svaka zvezda bila i kuda se zaputila,

so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti.”

te su stoga nebesa ispunjena, raštrkanim, svetlećim špagetama.”

But although they can see all of time,

Međutim, iako mogu da vide sveukupno vreme,

they don’t try to change the course of events.

ne pokušavaju da izmene tok događaja.

While the Trafalmadorians may be at peace with their lack of agency,

Iako Tralfamadorci možda jesu pomireni sa nedostatkom sopstvenog uticaja,

Vonnegut’s human characters are still getting used to it.

Vonegatovi ljudski likovi se i dalje navikavaju na to.

In The Sirens of Titan,

U „Sirenama s Titana”,

when they seek the meaning of life in the vastness of the universe,

kada likovi tragaju za smislom života u beskrajnosti univerzuma,

they find nothing but “empty heroics, low comedy, and pointless death.”

pronalaze samo „isprazne epove, farsičnu komediju i besmislenu smrt”.

Then, from their vantage point within a “chrono-synclastic infundibulum,”

Potom, s njihove tačke gledišta unutar „hronosinklastičkog infundibuluma”,

a man and his dog see devastating futures for their earthly counterparts,

čovek i njegov pas vide užasne sudbine svoje zemaljske sabraće koje im predstoje,

but can’t change the course of events.

ali ne mogu da izmene tok događaja.

Though there aren’t easy answers available, they eventually conclude

Iako nema lakih odgovora, oni na kraju zaključuju

that the purpose of life is “to love whoever is around to be loved.”

da je svrha života „voleti bilo koga iz vaše blizine ko može da se voli.”

In Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut’s characters turn to a different source of meaning:

U „Kolevci za macu”, Vonegatovi likovi se okreću drugom izvoru smisla:

Bokonism,

bokonizmu,

a religion based on harmless lies that all its adherents recognize as lies.

religiji koja je zasnovana na bezazlenim lažima

koje svi njegovi sledbenici prepoznaju kao laži.

Though they’re aware of Bokonism’s lies,

Iako su svesni laži bokonizma,

they live their lives by these tenets anyway,

ipak žive svoje živote prema ovim načelima,

and in so doing develop some genuine hope.

a postupajući tako, razvijaju istinsku nadu.

They join together in groups called Karasses, which consist of people we

Okupljaju se u grupama nazvanim Kerase, koje se sastoje od ljudi

koje „pronalazimo slučajno ali [...] ostajemo s njima svojevoljno” -

“find by accident but […] stick with by choice”—

cosmically linked around a shared purpose.

a kosmički su povezani zajedničkom svrhom.

These are not to be confused with Granfalloons,

Njih ne bi trebalo mešati sa Granfalunima,

groups of people who appoint significance to actually meaningless associations,

grupama ljudi koji dodeljuju značenje u suštini besmislenim asocijacijama,

like where you grew up, political parties, and even entire nations.

poput mesta na kom ste odrasli, političkih partija, pa čak i celih nacija.

Though he held a bleak view of the human condition, Vonnegut believed strongly that

Iako je imao mračan pogled na ljudsko stanje,

Vonegat je čvrsto verovao

“we are all here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."

da smo „svi mi ovde kako bismo pomogli jedni drugima

da preguramo ovo, šta god to bilo.”

We might get pooped and demoralized,

Možda se pokenjaju po nama i demorališu nas,

but Vonnegut interspersed his grim assessments

ali Vonegat je prožeo svoje mračne pretpostavke

with more than a few morsels of hope.

sa više dašaka nade.

His fictional alter ego, Kilgore Trout, supplied this parable:

Njegov fiktivni alter ego, Kilgor Traut, ponudio je sledeću parabolu:

two yeast sat “discussing the possible purposes of life

dva kvasca su sedela „raspravljajući o mogućem smislu života

as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement.

dok su jeli šećer i gušili se u sopstvenom izmetu.

Because of their limited intelligence,

Zbog svoje ograničene inteligencije,

they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.”

nikad nisu ni naslutili da proizvode šampanjac.”

In spite of his insistence that we’re all here to fart around,

Uprkos njegovom insistiranju da smo svi mi tu da „zaprdujemo”,

in spite of his deep concerns about the course of human existence,

uprkos njegovoj istinskoj zabrinutosti za tok ljudskog postojanja,

Vonnegut also advanced the possibility, however slim,

Vonegat je takođe ponudio mogućnost, ma koliko slabašnu,

that we might end up making something good.

da možemo na kraju da poslužimo nečem dobrom.

And if that isn’t nice, what is?

A ako to nije lepo, šta jeste?