Tralfamadore is the name of a fictional planet appearing in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut in inconsistently described variations. It is variously depicted as being located outside of the Milky Way galaxy or being fictional within the fiction itself.

Appearances

Analysis

Tralfamadore's inhabitants are described inconsistently across different works. Robert Tally compared this to Vonnegut's habit of (re-)introducing characters that have the same names as characters in previous works, but where the details do not match. Tally concluded that Vonnegut—unlike e.g. J. R. R. Tolkien—was not interested in creating an internally consistent fictional universe across his oeuvre, but content with a broad-strokes approach. A recurring characteristic of the inhabitants of Tralfamadore is their low esteem of humanity. Brian Stableford, considering the examples of Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five, described the different Tralfamadorian races themselves as "tiny-minded smartasses" rendered impotent by their fatalistic worldview. Vonnegut scholar Julia A. Whitehead saw the overall concept of Tralfamadore throughout the author's work as in "many ways [...] his own Eden", an escapist imagined home of happier beings. In her view the presentation of the Tralfamadorians with their deeper insights into "the science of nature [...] was Vonnegut's way of telling readers that humans don't know enough about each other and other life forms."