1) One of the wildly experimental things that Vonnegut does within Galapagos is that he labels each character's name with an asterisk if they are going to die before sunset. This occurs for every character within the novel before their (often untimely) death. Notably for the first death of *Roy Hepburn, who died in Ilium, New York on August 3rd 1986. His death is foreshadowed with that little asterisk, the harbinger of death for his novel characters. Most writers tend to keep this surprise deaths well, a surprise. But not Vonnegut. It shows something special within his style, a greater purpose. But anyway, his unique choice of revealing their death before the moment taught me that not every novel has to be a suspenseful novel full of twists and turns. This novel meanders and spoils itself and yet through that it reveals his purpose. It reflects life in its own sad way. This taught me that not everything in writing needs to be a surprise, sometimes the inevitable happens, because writing should reflect life. As long as it reflects your purpose, your writing can end as it should.
2) Galapagos also does another unique thing, even for Vonnegut's books. This novel is interspersed with quotations, appearing throughout in small sections labeled "Quoth Mandarax." One such quote was "Happy is the nation without a history." Basically each quote logically follows a section that implicitly discusses something tangentially related to this. It's easy to see what I learned from this lesson, I wrote about it in piece three when I included the Lewis Carroll quote. This is mostly about recognizing that ideas can often spark others, and embracing quotes that inspire you and incorporating them into your piece as lessons can actually strengthen your piece rather than harm it. Vonnegut even skillfully meshes them into the novel by attributing them to a computing machine known as Mandarax. By allowing them to exist within the world as well, he allows the characters to play off and interpret them as well, showing all possible angles within the story. A nice way to characterize, and to show a greater purpose. All in Vonnegut style.
3) One of the final major things that Vonnegut does withing this novel is he begins with a purpose, and works backwards from there. His plan was to consider the meaning of evolution upon humans, and what our place in the world was. This is a common theme for him, but in the creation of this book he began specifically with Darwin. Every moment in this book springs from this idea. The Galapagos itself, the cruise and each scene has some relation to, as he's described in the book, the "asexual researcher" himself. By emerging from this one idea, Vonnegut gives himself the ability to consider the issue from more than one angle. Each person views this Darwinian view differently, and gives a new angle upon it. It's a unique way of approaching a single point. By creating a plethora of characters around the central point, he actually reveals the central point through them. A Vonnegut idea that remains central to his writings, and is something I hope to manipulate within my works someday.
2) Galapagos also does another unique thing, even for Vonnegut's books. This novel is interspersed with quotations, appearing throughout in small sections labeled "Quoth Mandarax." One such quote was "Happy is the nation without a history." Basically each quote logically follows a section that implicitly discusses something tangentially related to this. It's easy to see what I learned from this lesson, I wrote about it in piece three when I included the Lewis Carroll quote. This is mostly about recognizing that ideas can often spark others, and embracing quotes that inspire you and incorporating them into your piece as lessons can actually strengthen your piece rather than harm it. Vonnegut even skillfully meshes them into the novel by attributing them to a computing machine known as Mandarax. By allowing them to exist within the world as well, he allows the characters to play off and interpret them as well, showing all possible angles within the story. A nice way to characterize, and to show a greater purpose. All in Vonnegut style.
3) One of the final major things that Vonnegut does withing this novel is he begins with a purpose, and works backwards from there. His plan was to consider the meaning of evolution upon humans, and what our place in the world was. This is a common theme for him, but in the creation of this book he began specifically with Darwin. Every moment in this book springs from this idea. The Galapagos itself, the cruise and each scene has some relation to, as he's described in the book, the "asexual researcher" himself. By emerging from this one idea, Vonnegut gives himself the ability to consider the issue from more than one angle. Each person views this Darwinian view differently, and gives a new angle upon it. It's a unique way of approaching a single point. By creating a plethora of characters around the central point, he actually reveals the central point through them. A Vonnegut idea that remains central to his writings, and is something I hope to manipulate within my works someday.