Perspective.
It's a known concept, however it's not always widely accepted. In his novel Slaughter-House-Five, Kurt Vonnegut showed this by creating a main character, Billy, who invents Tralfamodorians. "Invents" isn't quite the right word, as an invention is usually intentional, whereas the Tralfamodorians sort of just appeared to Billy. The Tralfamodorians see time in a way completely foreign to humans. In their minds, they can go back to any point in time in their life, and feel it as though they are living it again. With such standards, it's obvious that if any hard times are occuring, they will avoid them at all costs, simply by living in their mind and reminding themselves of happy experiences. the only "bad" time in the life of a Tralfamodorian is when it dies, which I can't imagine would be a very fun event to partake in. I also can't imagine being happy all the time. It seems like a pointless way to live. It takes away the essence of existing, not experiencing emotion. It's fake. I think Billy's mission to educate the public about the Tralfamodorian way of life is what he believes is the best interest of the people. However, I believe otherwise. Being happy all the time would essentially take away all other emotions. When a loved one dies, you basically would ignore it. You would only think about the happy memories you had with them. One wouldn't accept, one would ignore. In the human perspective, if my mom died, I would cry. I would be upset. In the Tralfamodorian world, if my mom died, I would think about an ice cream cone I ate when I was five. It wouldn't be because i didn't care, I just wouldn't know how to channel my sadness any other way. So in a way, Tralfamodorians feel sad by ignoring reality by convincing themselves that they're happy. It's how they experience all of their emotions. It makes me wonder if they know what emotion is. Do they know how sad feels? do they know how happy feels? The type of uncontrollable, real happy, not their default happy.
SARAH.
GIRL.
SEVENTEEN.
SENIOR.
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