Plot: 4/9.
After the death of his wife Georgie, the hero was determined to watch the video recorded automatically and faithfully by a wasp buzzing around Georgie during her lifetime. However, the video playback turned out to be completely random, unsearchable, and uncontrollable; Its resolution became progressively blurrier; And its context consistently focused on the winter, because of the materials used for storage.
So in the end, after hearing the suggestion that “let the dead bury the dead”, the hero stopped watching the incoherent and shoddy recording, and relied instead on his own sudden reminiscence of Georgie.
Core: 6/9. I’m accustomed to writing down thoughts whenever I encounter with something thought-provoking, but seldom did I review them—that’s why I understood the logic of the hero:
The essence of memory was its ability of reprocessing and interpreting the past events—which was tedious and dark in most of the time—so as to alleviate the owner and correct their present behaviour. And therefore a monomania about the unprocessed, raw materials of the past was actually a treason against the present.
All in all, don’t overindulge in the memories of the past.
I thought this work indeed made me gain something positive according to Vonneguts’ standards.
Don’t waste a single moment of that engagement and make sure they walk away from your work with things to think about. Whether that be about morality, history, self-help or love, try to teach them something new so they walk away feeling they gained something positive from your book. Rules For Writing