The Fringe Division

Slaughter-House Five
Kurt Vonnegut    

     "Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time? 

What does Vonnegut imply?

                     Dresden, Pilgrim's first book on World War II, illustrates the story of  a soldier named Billy, who crashes in a plane and is abducted by Tralfamadores. These E.T's are described as beings who live in four-dimensions, see the future, the past, the present, and most importantly have the power to control time.

        Time is one of Billy's biggest frustrations, it is nothing but an illusion. On the other hand,  as Earthlings we believe that time actually exists. The world for humans revolves around this term of existence. We manage to synchronize our lives with the rest of the world through time, which forms a global network. This system separates human's bodies of the future, the past and the present from the mind. Although unconscious, man has been able to forget time is only a misconception of reality. What is reality? Are we living in the present? Or are we living in different times? How does our destiny change when our "future selves" take wrong or right decisions. How aren't we able to recognize ourselves in different moments if we are the same person?

        When Pilgrim states, he has become "unstuck" in time, he is claiming he is no longer unaware of his actuality in different times. A dimension can defined as an alter-world, where the same person lives a separate moment.  However, do the actions in a distinct dimension affect this dimension? Nevertheless, how are we definite that this is the present? Is it possible, that at this moment we are living the past of oneself? If so, our future has already been chosen for us, where predestination is our only option. Everything  is planned, we have no control over our future, now that our future self has already lived our life. So who are we?

       What is our purpose in life if we have already lived it? Are we here to correct our own mistakes? Will we pay for our karma, while our future self lives without any consequence? Or, are we the future beings, who create our own path, while our past selves deal with our sins?

      What if we practiced different lives in each dimension? Would we have no connection with ourselves whatsoever? The American T.V series, "Fringe," where Dr. Walter Bishop, Harvard University scientist,  was able to create a machine, which eliminated the "fringe division" of the parallel universe. Meaning, he combined the dimensions, where there was no longer a separation of time. Throughout the series, viewers are able to comprehend how this discovery preformed a domino affect. The future, past, and present went into chaos, and what was known as the present changed drastically.
Time might be an illusion, however what would we become without it. We can consider it a method of organization. To divide and have one life. One future. One present. One past. 

"And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep." (pg. 23)