Mumbo Jumbo by Kurt

Billy Pilgrim is everything one wouldn't suspect as a hero in a war novel. He's is cowardly, suicidal, and weak preferring to let snipers take shots at him than duck under cover. But this apathetic demeanor is all chalked up to his Tralfamadorian perspective on time in which all moments in time happen at the same time repeatedly. Because of this he believes that he already knows the future as he has already experienced every moment repeatedly and knows there is no free will. This gives Billy an excuse and justification to not care about or do anything productive because he knows that all of his actions are predetermined.

But I don't like this interpretation of his actions as I find it too unrealistic. I think this Tralfamadorian perspective is a derivative of his instability from trauma inducing moments from war. This is the more realistic approach to Billy's actions as it doesn't involve aliens and other nonsense. Instead Billy has an unstable grasp of reality, frequently afflicted by powerful flashbacks to different moments in his life. But these flashbacks are aided with the creation of the Tralfamadorians and their ideology in his imagination to help him cope with the trauma. In fact the creation of the Tralfamadorians could've been  as soon as Billy's capture in the war as the Tralfamadorians had also abducted Billy and put him in a zoo. This would mean that Billy's despondency is due to war trauma and PTSD with the usage of the Tralfamadorians as a coping mechanism.

The idea of Billy suffering from PTSD also fits in nicely with Kurt Vonnegut's goal of writing an anti-war novel as it shows the wild imagination and suffering from one of its participants as they re-experience past traumas through a warped reality caused by the war.

Other Atonism

The main driving force behind the book is Papa Labas trying to find the Text for Jes Grew and at the end it is revealed that Abdul Hamid had gathered all the parts up and completed the text. But in a twist, it is revealed that  Abdul Hamid, with his Islamist traditional values, had burned the text for being too lewd and doomed Jes Grew. The fact that he did this has changed my perception as to who the Atonists are because by burning the text, Abdul seems like an Atonist himself.

I used think that the Atonists were only white people that hated black culture so much that they wanted to erase and repress all traces of it. This was the most obvious characterization of the Atonists as all the members and organizations featured in the story were European based or white like the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights, Biff Musclewhite, etc. Also, because of Atonism's oppressive nature, it was very easy to draw historical parallels with European colonialism and imperialism. But after Abdul's betrayal to Jes Grew, I realized that Atonism is more than white versus colored, its about freedom of expression and passion versus discipline, control, and stability. JGC's are non-white because of the oppression in the Americas while the Atonists happen to be mainly white because of their institutional power in America.

Atonism's "diversity" can be seen further in its North African roots where it was first started with the Egyptian god Set who celebrated the traits of discipline and strictness while yearning to subjugate and conquer. Obviously Set and his followers weren't white because they were in North Africa. This shows that Atonism isn't synonymous with white people. This however doesn't mean that Abdul is in cahoots with the white Atonist organization as he was killed by Wallflower agents and very much opposed to them. It's just  Abdul is a different kind of Atonist that might be more prevalent in other parts of the world as he believes in many of the tenants of Atonism being an Islamic traditionalist.